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I had a 20x25 liner in my shed for a few years (bought before the big pond), and I am finally putting it to use! Since I am a cheap SOB, it had required a lot of shoveling. Just a rough cut with a backhoe to begin with.

I am going to stock it with small species, just to keep the bugs down, but let the frogs and newts thrive!

You have wild newts there. Those would be cool. I see a lizard about once a year here in Kansas. How deep is your pond going to be.

Roughly about 5'. I was trying to get enough depth and volume to allow critters to live through the winter. The old pond that was there was far too small, and the rubber liner stopped O2 from keeping critters alive. I wound up with dead frogs for the past few years in the spring.

I finished making a large home-brew airstone powered under-gravel filter yesterday, so I lost about 6" of depth due to the gravel needed to cover it over. I think that this will go a long ways to lower muck accumulation by pulling O2 down through the substrate.

I was working on it yesterday, and a medium-sized beautiful corn snake came along and sunned itself on the hot liner and watched me work. I haven't seen one in a few years, but it was like he ways saying, "Hurry up, this is my lunch spot!"

You got any updates for us.

I do, though it is slow. I will post a few pics tonight.

Of note: I purchased some calico goldfish and a couple of "fatties", the double-finned fish. Same night all the fancy goldfish were gone, and the bottom was littered with cherry pitts.

I know what/who did it, but I want to see if anyone can guess what made my expensive goldfish disappear the first night?

Will be getting cheaper ones next time.

Hi neighbor. Cherry pits, huh? Maybe Raccoon? I saw a fisher on my property last week. they'll clear out any domesticated group of animals. I've lost 1/2 my ducks this month. I bet they would find a shiny goldfish to be quite the snack.

I have heard the the cherry trees and it's parts are poisonous to fish.

I bet plain old raccoons got the goldfish. Depending on how deep they were willing to work in. My father in law had a little waterfall and catch basin and we put goldfish surplus from my pond in there. As long as the waterfall action was running the coons didn't tend to try to go in the water to get the fish. But when he put the waterfall on a timer to go off at midnight to save some money, the coons cleaned up very quickly. It must be that they can't find the goldfish when the surface of the water is slighty agitated?

We caught it on game camera, one big fat raccoon cleaning up on goldfish. The other idea besides running a bubbler or agitator is to add a ledge of stone that goes out over the water that the fish can get under and the coons cannot. Or make a fenced in area with small openings that only the goldfish can retreat into. They are more likely to go in the fenced area if it also is shaded.

Yes, definitely a raccoon. They are cherry pit conveyor belts. Full cherries go in one end, pits and whatever come out the other wherever they go. A lot like mice, but on a larger scale.

I think the fish were piping after their introduction making them easy prey. It sucks as they were $10 a piece, and it is totally my fault as I was in a hurry and had no real refuge for them yet in the pond. I am currently making stone "houses" for the fish here an there, and am now planning a PVC cage across the bottom using netting to allow fish through, but to block turtles on the lilies, and raccoons and mink on the fish.

I do have a air stone within a PVC makeshift under-gravel filter I fabricated to keep the muck accumulation to a minimum. Pulls water down through a gravel bed and up through the PVC tube via air lift.

See attachment for current progress.

That looks like a fun project. I'm going to be up with the 12 gauge tonight trying to get my duck predictor under control. Lost two more last night. makes me want to cuss.

Those goldfish can really hide when they want to. The water clarity isn't that great right now (dead lily roots have a lot of tannin apparently) One of the little buggers made an appearance yesterday when I fed the fish and dove back down. No idea how it had hidden from me so well for so long.

I am almost done with "stone planting" and filled it the rest of the way. The rain that finally showed up helped. The problem I have now is the air pump was for an aquarium, and was designed for volume, not pressure. It cannot push air more than 4', and I am at about 4'6" now. The deeper water shut my filter right off. I was shooting for a "free" project apart from the fish, and there goes the $0 budget.

When I mean free; so far I have sourced materials that I have had laying around from dead projects or the prior landscaping materials such as the rocks. That liner certainly wasn't free back 8 years ago, but I wasn't using it, so here I am now.

For us and coons looking from the surface down we can see the gold color as long as there is light penetration. Just what fish see is not certain but not color below a few feet deep unless really clear water. No light no color.

If you have to buy something, maybe get a water pump and do a waterfall instead of an air pump?
I never did catch my duck eater. I have the trail-cam up, but nothing but a rabbit so far.

That's looking pretty nice for zero budget. Hell its looking good even if you spent some money. I have a 22 that I take care of the pest around my BOW.

22's and liners are not a good pairing. Several years ago I was going to pop a raccoon that was obviously sick with distemper that was rooting around in the old, much smaller pond. I almost pulled the trigger until I thought a little harder about where the 22 magnum was going to go after finishing the job.

I waited until a better position.

I just ordered a pond bubbler rated for the outdoors that wont turn the pond into a boiling cauldron of fish and debris. It is hard to nail down the compromise between appearance and effectiveness.

I would love to have a waterfall, but fearful of water loss from evaporation, wind, and splashing. I have to keep this thing topped off with a well, and our well isn't exactly the most productive when drilled on top of a rather large hill. A bubbler is one of the most efficient ways to move water from bottom to top, and is lily friendly. Lilies HATE swift moving water.

I am planning on getting some bags of play sand, even though I could raid an unused play sandbox. I just don't want to introduce several years of organic crud accumulation, and it may piss off the sand bees that have taken up residence. Those things are faster than I can run. The sand needs to be added to increase the under-gravel filter effectiveness. The white pool filter sand would just look obnoxious.

Sounds like you got it! It's going to be a cool space for you. I guess I don't associate East Bloomfield with the ability to discharge a weapon freely... I mowed real good around my duck enclosure and cut the forest back a little to change the scenery and haven't had and sign of the varmint since.

Well, at least south of 5&20, we get worried when the gunshots stop. It has definitely slowed since we first moved out here. Even I am tired of shooting, it was kind of fun, but got old and expensive.

I finished with the "big hand dig" last month, now I am simply grassing up the dirt. It came out very nice, and now there is talk in the household that we have to build a stone patio with fire pit to finish it off.

I have two tiny LMB on there, they are a riot to watch jump after bugs, two tiny BG, and a bunch of dumb goldfish as they are fun to watch. The water clarity is excellent due to that filter, and generally a perfect size for smaller ornamental fish.

The plan is to move one of the bass to the big pond when it is either large enough to eat the goldfish, or large enough not to get eaten itself.

That looks incredible! It makes me want to sit down for a spell...very relaxing.

Very nice, a patio area will be great!

Tonight I was just watching the fish kick about in the pond, when I realized there was one of the bass, out of the water, sitting on a lily pad. I thought it was a tadpole at first, but there he was, just hanging out making googly eye faces at me and gulping. Suddenly he wriggled and jumped back in!

All I can figure is the bass stranded itself going after something. Even his little 2.5" sized self is pretty feisty.

Pondmiestering is an addiction, for sure. I find myself evaluating any BOW I see on tv. Oh, that has a nice green look, but clarity is poor type of thing. Or judging ground cover and what type of plant life in water. I was watching a show filmed in Thailand and I found the water features in background just as interring as the actual show. Strange times my friends.

I'm with you Roundy. I never just look at another pond anymore. Can't help but wonder about water quality, bottom condition, food chain and apex predators, depth/contours/cover, and on and on. It's ALMOST so bad (like quasi obsessive-compulsive thing) that I want to knock on the pond owners door and ask questions. Sad but true...

I find myself doing the same thing! In one case I snuck over to a neighbor's pond to give it a fair assessment. Apart from the geese everywhere, I was really quite jealous of the vitality of the pond. Loaded with life! My large pond by comparison is really quite quiet, though due to this it is perfect for swimming due to this. His soils appear to be quite different than mine, and it is only about a mile away.

I think it is due to the crushed dolomite dust soils and very hard water. In fact I am getting "reef" buildup on the dock and rocks from bacterial colonies that is getting more than an inch thick in places. The fish don't seem to mind, but it certainly seems to have impact on how much nutrient is available in the water for life.

Its really one of the better addictions you can have. I enjoy all pond big and small. Anytime I see a big hill I think man there should be a pond at the bottom with a cabin next to it.