No wonder, cause I did nothing to the pond when comes to spring.
Thank you so much.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/05/13/6uqysu7e.jpg

Took a picture of the pond while the sun was setting. It is up and running again and I think just about done cycling. Can't wait for the trees and shrubs to go green again. I've already done a minor overhaul of my front yard pond. Here's a pic.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/05/13/7ysega2a.jpg

And the upper falls that I expanded.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/05/13/jeqejeze.jpg

Btw if a moderator is reading this, can this be moved to the pond forum please. I don't think it existed when I started this thread. Thanks in advance.

Looks great Dez! I have the exact same pagoda !! We're like twins! That front yard pond is rockin' (see what I did there?). I keep thinking about putting a water feature in my front yard but I can't seem to decide on what. I'm thinking maybe a pondless waterfall maybe. Yay for pond season!

can't even tell you were digging in the front yard nice stealth reno! i really want a pond AND a froster now :cry:

?

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...PzFcNVayJ-o2cR

i could fit exactly zero koi in that. nice try though.

Wow very nice Dez. Missed all this during my LOA. A few ?'s for you. When you clean out the pond in the spring how do you refill the water, just the old tap & water or brought in ? I'm on a well so I would have to consider bringing the water in. I'm just getting ready to lay the main pond liner and haven't decided on a bottom drain or not yet. What are you using or doing for water ATO ? And finally with the addition of the back pond how bad has your power bill gone up & what size pumps are you using ? If Kien reads this maybe some input from him, I was going to ask on his thread.

Thanks Kien. Yah, that pagoda is awesome. My wife scored it somewhere last year.

Brett, good eye on that Froster. Haha. Had to have something refreshing whole working on it.

Andestang, my power bill was probably up about $75/month. We're running a 1 horse and a 1/2 horse pump. I wanted to go grand with the waterfalls. It is totally worth it though since we don't go away in the summer. We try to stay and enjoy the yard as much as possible and we eat outside whenever it is nice out. Hope this helps.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/05/14/dudaqa9y.jpg

This is what the stream bed looks like pre-liner. I went from about a 12" wide stream to 2'. This was taken a few days ago.

Andestang, I just use a straight float valve from my tap through an irrigation line underground into the skimmer box for ATO.

As for start up, it's straight old tap water. I put declorinator in and that's about it.

HOLY CRAP Dez!!!

Looks amazing... nice work!

My son has a container pond sitting on the deck with a couple of baby koi living in it just fine :P

I have no idea what my additional power bill is. I don't think it's huge because all I have running at the moment is a pump which sucks water and gunk off the bottom of the pond and pushes it into a giant canister filter with a UV sterilizer built in. I'm more concerned about the extra cost in feeding them! High quality koi food is expensive and koi eat like there's no tomorrow :neutral:

As for a bottom drain, of all the people that I know of that have ponds in our climate, no one has a bottom drain. When you read on the dedicate pond/koi forums they all highly suggest bottom drains and I too thought about installing one. However, in our climate I would personally be worried about a bottom drain freezing, cracking and leaking. If something should go wrong down there or with a bottom drain plumbing you're hosed! (no pun intended). When a bottom drain is suggested for koi ponds it is mainly to suck up koi poop and other debris because koi poop a lot! You can achieve this with a good pump that sucks up from the bottom of your pond. You can also MacGyver your semi-bottom drain. This is what I did. Essentially a giant pipe with a crap load of 2" holes drilled into it to suck up all the gunk off the bottom of the pond.

You can also buy these types of bottom drains that just sit on the bottom of your pond. Or make something similar.

http://www.jackmcneary.com/assets/im...a-Art-5920.jpg

Does your plan have a pond skimmer? I think those are important too and will make your life a lot easier in the long run. There are different types of pond skimmers to choose from.

Amazing landscaping, nice job!

Now my wife wants the same. Thanks a lot buddy.:wink:

this has been a fascinating thread! thanks for sharing it man. Very well done and amazingly close to the original concept drawing.

congrats on successfully making the entire fish-keeping world jealous with your back yard! :)

Thanks for the kind words. We were outside until close to midnight last night enjoying a little bonfire with a couple of friends. We were realizing that it beat buying camping gear, driving hours away to set up a tent to sit by a lake and sleep in the cold. Can you tell we aren't camping people? We are "stay in Alberta in the summer people" and "Go to warm places and Disneyland in the winter" people.

we just went camping and there was a fire ban... so yeah you've got something special there =)

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/05/15/re4yvame.jpg

This guy is by far my favourite fish. He's not flashy or bright, but he's got the best personality. He always rushes for food and will let my pet his head. He is a noisy eater. The kids named him clownie cause he's kinda got clown fish colours.

Ahhhhhh, look at those puppy dog eyes!

awesome man love those trypes of fish that have the character.

whoa clear shot. when's my next personal fragmeet? i need to come over and pretend to be interested in frags and go oogle your backyard silly :biggrin:

Dez you should honestly have your backyard entered into the Edmonton Horticultural Society's annual garden tour, it is stunning.

Brett and I may be in Edmonton the weekend of August 23-25. *hint*hint* *wink*wink* *nudge*nudge*

Dez,
Can you tell me the pond company you were dealing with? PM me if you like. Also, what kind of filter media do you use? I would love to see some pics of your filter system. Do you use a vortex?

Hmmm. Thanks. It will be part of the Waterworks Ponds annual pond tour Aug 10-11. http://www.waterworksponds.ca/events_pondtour.php

That's the company which constructed the actual pond. It's basically a self guided tour where you donate $10 per person and they will provide you with a list of ponds and descriptions. You drive around on your own time and just walk into people's yard during certain hours and enjoy the yard then off to the next pond. This is where we got a couple of our ideas and where we met our backyard designer. We saw his own personal yard and was in awe. Definitely worth doing if you like ponds. All proceeds go to some charity.

You guys are welcome to stop by. I mean Kien, we are fictitious friends on FB, it's about time for a face to face meeting.

Water Works Ponds Ltd. However they got out of doing installs this year. They mainly do pond supplies now. If you read the thread on page 9 you will find info on my filtration system.

Wow, I wish we had something like that in Calgary. Also, those guys make some nice ponds! Love their gallery.

I just read this entire thread. Don't know how I missed it all this time.
Awesome!!!

I sure do like that stream in the front yard.... Is the water connected to your back yard pond, or is it standalone?

The front yard pond is a stand alone pond. We dug it 8 summers ago. Little did we know that it would lead to a giant pond.

Breakfast time for the fishies.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/06/09/atypanyv.jpg

Such nice clear water... <sigh>

The secret is hydrogen peroxide and RapiClear by Crystal clear. 3-40z/1000 gals of 29% H202 once a week or after every heavy rainfall. And use the RapiClear flocculent if your water gets cloudy (providing you have mechanical filtration that you can backwash). The water was clear all summer last year after I started doing this. I had green water during the cycling process last season. This year I cheated the green water cycling stage by dosing H202 every day for about 2 weeks.

I actually starting dosing H202 in my reef about 3 weeks ago and all my algae went away, and so did my cyan0 (which I've had for over 2 years). Certain corals have shown increased polyp extension. It's amazing!

Where do you buy the stuff?? I did find one shop that had it, but they wanted 18 bucks for a bottle (about 1 litre, I think). Is that the going price?

Here's a picture of the full yard with some of the plants in bloom. I've got 3 lilies that are going to bloom soon.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/06/09/7yhe8yme.jpg

Wow,... is all I can say...!!

Prettiest picture of Edmonton I've ever seen :D

London Drugs and Shoppers Drug Mart sell Hydrogen Peroxide. Very inexpensive. Its for cleaning and sterilizing wounds.