Oops, double picture. On my phone so I can't edit. Sorry.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/03/22/qegutyve.jpg

Purdy..

hard to believe there's fish living in there but you dug that 4 feet deep in spots right? can't wait to see what you do with it this year.

My gawd I love all your guys back yards/ponds. Just amazing.

I just read through this, were looking at maybe doing something to the yard. We have a hill in the corner I wouldn't mind doing a waterfall from down to a pond. This starts the wheels turning, was at a lfs tonight and had some massive koi so friendly too came out of the water to check us out. Cool stuff where did you find most of the info on the design and build of the pond plumbing and equipment ?

Like everyone else has said well done, it's great to see such high end work.

Only went 24". Any deeper then you'd need a swimming pool permit here in Edmonton.

Wes, I learned a lot from building my front pond 8 yrs ago. The. I went based on the experience of water works pond Edmonton because their display pond has been running for years and it's always spotless and they winter their fish outside too so I knew they had long term success in our climate.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/07/yryjamur.jpg
Finally all the ice melted today.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/07/yvevuzej.jpg
Some of the fishies swimming.

Just read through this whole post this is so epic, i need to do this, Good Job i know its probably more upkeep than you let onto looks good

Dez I was reading in another thread about your use of peroxide in your pond, what do you use that for?

Greg, I use the hydrogen peroxide to shock the pond every year before start up. I did that on March 17th this year. It brings up all the gunk from the bottom of the pond and gets rid of the algae from the season before. Then during the pond season I dose it daily at first during the cycling stage and then once a week during the rest of the pond season. It keeps it algae free even in the full sun and makes for a clear pond all season. This is a picture from this evening.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/19/ra6u4uba.jpg

Very nice! Looks great.

Gorgeous! As usual :-)

Some of my pond plants are already a foot out of the water from being frozen all winter.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/21/sy3a4ymu.jpg

Here you can see flower buds already coming up from my yellow pond lily.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/21/ytanaryz.jpg

Like Kien has stated, the marsh marigold is always the first to bloom. Nice to see colour in the yard already.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/21/y4u5uham.jpg

More lilies coming up. This is exactly 24" below the water surface - the deepest part of the pond.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/21/y9urysyb.jpg

This is Clownie. The kids names him Clownie when we first got him years ago cause he's got memo colours. He has the most personality out of all the fish. Always one of the first at the food. Here, he's going out of the water just to try to get that one last piece of fish food in the corner.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/21/jyqubabu.jpg

Very Nice
 

Wow! beautiful yard and pond, you probably mentioned this somewhere in your posts, just wondering if the fish come indoors in the winter?

They stay outside all winter. Most people that I've talked to that have tried wintering indoors and outdoors prefer leaving the fish outside. Keeping large fish indoors requires tons of water changes just to keep the water quality high. With wintering them indoors, you have to feed them which soils the water.

When I first started I used to winter my koi inside too. Did that for a couple of seasons until I couldn't take it anymore! You need a very large container, lots of water changes, etc. It was a royal pain in the butt. After doing more research and discovering that people overwintered their koi outside I went that approach as well and haven't looked back. Any ya, it always surprises people whenever I tell them that the fish stay outside all winter. Genetically koi are a cold water fish. They will hibernate just like any other lake fish.

How do you keep the pond from freezing solid during the long Edmonton winters? I lived in the Cold Lake area for many years and the lake ice would be several feet thick! Seems to me your 24" depth could easily freeze all the way down during a cold snap? Even though the koi hibernate as Kien mentions, don't they still need O2, especially considering the size of some of those bad boys?

Do what I do....disconnect the waterfall pump and point the outlet straight up. 4280gph shooting to the top keeps a nice sized hole open.

Ya I guess that was my concern with the fish in a pond 24" deep, that they could be caught in the ice, or do you run your pump all winter with a heat source?

I don't have a pond yet, it's on the to do list and it's interesting to see what other folks have done/are doing. I was going to go deeper when I dig it, but now I'm wondering if the City of Vernon has similar rules with depth, pool permits etc. Sigh, nothing's ever very straight forward in a city, rules, codes, higher taxes..... Tempted to move out into the boonies somewhere, where I can do pretty much what I want, but it's nice to be able to walk to the Village Market 2 blocks away for groceries too....

You need to keep the water surface agitated, for several reasons:

1. Provides oxygen
2. Helps keep a hole in the ice so that gas can escape
3. Helps keep the pond from freezing solid.

You can achieve this several ways. Either with a pump as MMAX suggested or do what Dez does and just run an air stone all winter.

When I had my in ground pond (I have an above ground pond now) I would still bring my fish inside. Although I recognize the hassle, it was worth it, as if my heater / airstone / whatever stopped working for a couple of days in the middle of winter, everyone of my fish would be done for. It just wasn't worth the risk as I see technology fail all the time.

I have a lighted extension chord that my airstones/heaters are plugged into so that I can look outside and know that there is power to them. Also I plug each heater onto 2 different circuits just in case. And it's quite obvious if the 2 airstones are going cause you can see bubbles. That's regime.

did any of those babies you had a while back grow up?

Brett. I brought them in from the cold, then I wanted to acclimate them slowly to the warm inside water for the winter, I did a 4 hr acclimation for them in a bucket, but I wasn't even thinking about oxygen. So I lost all but 6 I think during the acclimation to the warm water. Silly me. So out of the 6 that survived acclimation, all 6 of them got eaten by the bigger koi (I tried bringing in 4 bigger koi indoors to see how that would go). But one survived the big pond outside that I didn't even know about until after winter was over. So I still have that one and it's about 5" now.

Wow this just blew me away. Hands down the nicest pond I have ever seen. I want a pond now!!! Is it hard to do/maintain?

Sooo cute!!!!!! Love the name :biggrin:

"He always rushes for food and will let my pet his head." That feeling must be wonderful, makes it all worth it.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/06/01/hazuze2u.jpg

A few lily pads have reached the water surface already.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/06/01/azaqapuq.jpg

OUTSTANDING.....:D

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/06/18/utujevam.jpg
First lily bloom of the season and many more buds coming from this one.

Cool! Yellow is one colour I do not have.

Kien i could get you any colour you want for lilies at my cottage we have like 30 different colors

OMG, hook a brutha up yo!!

OMG, hook two bruthas up yo!!

Kien, I dug this yellow one out of a lake near Caroline, Alberta while canoeing.

Lol Ill try how do i transport them from manitoba? we have red purple blue light blue tonnes of colours

OH EMM GEE BLUE lillies ?!?!

lol how do i transport them?

You're a reefer, don't you have 5g pales laying around ?