Hi Everyone! My name is Bethany, and my husband and I are in our early thirties, living in Charlotte NC, raising our six (yes six!) children, and beginning a few homesteading adventures. We dug a small garden pond in our garden area about 4 months ago, and so far it is doing great... we are hoping to set up a functional ecosystem and get started the RIGHT way (for our goals anyway).
Here are our conditions: pond is roughly 15,000 gallons, 3 feet deep, full sun, high water table- holds water very well, receives rain runoff and has a drain for overflow, and once in a while we top it off with our well water via hose
Issues so far- thousands of tadpoles (no fish yet to eat them). water is brownish but there is about 8-10 inches of clarity at surface, starting to see some brown algae and had a bunch of tadpoles die after a big rain... low oxygen??
What we want to accomplish- we would like to try our hand at farming tilapia, raise a couple ducks on the pond, have a few waterplants that provide oxygen and food for ducks and fish, but don't take over the small pond. Also hoping to use the pond water to also fertilize our garden.
Mainly we are hoping that with the right support and information, we can avoid big problems commonly associated with ponds.
Any direction or advice is appreciated. Thanks!!!
Last edited by waterwoman; 06/05/13 09:35 PM.
