Originally, the pond did not have a pump, filter, skimmer, or a water treatment system of any sort.

We added several potted water plants, floating lettuce and water hyacinths and lots of fish. One of our most extravagant purchases was a striped turtle, who ran away from home after two days.

A small box filter with a pump & fountain was added in 1999. It looked nice, but what a pain! the only way to clean the filter was to get into the pond almost daily and take the thing apart. The fountain was constantly clogged with algae and would stop working.

 

Learning by trial & error - We didn't know ANYONE with a pond to give us tips or helpful information. Everything was learned the hard way. Plants were more or less experimental, some survived, most did not. The fish, too - we didn't want to invest in expensive koi, so we tried goldfish, comets, orandas, and lionheads. The majority of our fish population was donated by neighborhood children: tiny goldfish they won at carnivals.

Later that summer, we added a tetra filter to move the water around and clean it a bit by introducing bacteria. Totally by accident, we had the right mix of fish, plants, sunlight and shade to keep the water amazingly clear.

 

The winter dilemma - what to do with the fish?

Again, trial and error. The owner of a local garden center said that as long as we had 18 inches of water, and kept a hole open in the ice for gasses to escape, the fish would survive. We didn't totally believe that! We set up a 75 gallon aquarium in the house & brought some of the fish inside for the winter. Well ... all of the outside fish did survive, every single one of them! And the inside fish? About half of them died!

The large oranda in the picture to the left survived two winters outside & died in 2000, from overeating, we think.

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koi pond
& water gardens