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Building my first pond! Any words of wisdom?

Sobased

Sobased

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Hello fellow hobbyists, I’m currently in the process of building an above ground pond with the dimensions of 8x4x2. I’ve done some research online and it I’ve seen people use a combination of aquarium heaters with some type of perforated pvc sleeve for protection from breaking, do you feel this is a safe/efficient method? And do you have any other ideas on ways to keep the pond heated?
 
I've had a couple of ponds. Above and below ground. But never heated them. Just a lot of water flow and a big air stone. Then all of the fun in surround, plants, and fish.

For our in ground pond we went 4' deep to avoid a freeze in our area. For the above ground, it was under the porch and close to the house and never got cold enough to freeze on top.

To maintain consistent temp, you might need to insulate the bottom and sides. Also, any wind will quickly cool the pond....we used a ton more water in the ATO during windy days over sunny days.

No direct answers to your question...
 
It will be an above ground pond, and yeah I am planning on lining the bottom and sides with insulation. I’m in the East Bay area so I will be encountering a fair share of wind, I hope it doesn’t cause any unforeseen issues.
 
OVER SIZE YOUR FILTRATION! I just built a 10x10x2 in ground koi pond and I regret going with the base skimmer and waterfall. I also only went with a 20W air pump when I should have gotten a 50W Japanese unit.
 
Even if you don't have fish, Raccoons will attempt to find them amongst your plants :(

Heating is a huge waste of money. I was once the director of aquaculture on a large aquaponics farm. We had to pump a TON of juice to keep the tanks warms, far more then a normal aquarium. The surface area alone will dump a ton of heat into the air.

2' isn't deep enough IMO. 3' should be min, especially if you have raccoons.

As said above, Herons and Egrets are also an issue.
 
Our pond journey:
4' deep, bridge, 2 large fish hides.
Then a heron came. You have to get rid of them ASAP, they are territorial. We put in an overhanging trellis of kiwi vines. Worked great, no more herons. Also, the pond hadore shade so we had less algae.
Then racoons...
We tried the water scarecrow....didn't work.
We tried an electric fence.....1-wire low to the ground. That worked and it was on a timer for night only. A little unsightly...but we kept koi for a couple of years with that setup. I got up one morning and found all of our koi, each with one or two bites...all on the side of the pond. The transformer had died on the e-fence....I don't know when.

That was over 4-5 years. Then we moved.
 
popper said:
My neighbor has two 8-10' deep koi ponds. Heron and racoon are snatchers. He installed a metal fence ceiling on top and other obstacles around the pond for protection prevention.
Click to expand...

I’m planning to place a mosquito net, then a fishing net above that, and some sort of wire above that as layers of protection from bugs/insects getting in as well as raccoons
 
I would not advise heating it, granted PG&E execs will thank you greatly for adding to their yearly portfolio, but you should not even be thinking about making any sort of tropical (temperature) pond outdoors in this climate.

You could build a greenhouse around it, but IMO that would probably detract from the pond as a whole (e.g. it won't look too pretty), but then you have to worry about other issues in the other direction (e.g. too hot).
 
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