Good point esshup and Steve. Instead of one big wetland my plan is to spread out the plants along the banks of the 400’ long stream that takes water from one end of the pond and returns it back to the other end of the pond. Hopefully that is just as effective as one big wetland.
Jpsdad I think you bring up a good point about fertilizing/ feeding. Those are big sources of nutrients. I don’t plan to fertilize but may end up feeding. I’m not sure yet. What I’m hoping to achieve is a pond that can “process” as many nutrients as possible, so that I have the flexibility to feed if I want to down the road.
Good point esshup about the organics. This is why I think a “skimmer” is so important: something to pull all that organic material to one spot where it can be easily removed. This is a big part of the purpose of the stream. Aquascape does something similar, although I’m hoping my solution of using airlift pumps can be quite a bit cheaper and easier to build, operate, and maintain. We will see!
Speaking of, I saw Aaron Matos was referenced in the recent July/Aug issue. It looks like he hasn’t been on the forums for a while though. Does anyone have a way to contact him? I’d love to hear about his learnings and what he thinks of the above design.
