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dorismccomb
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Joined: Thu Nov 25, 2010 3:51 pm
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada

My Swim Pond

Hello

Does anyone else out there have a swim pond? Mine is frozen over for the winter, but was great fun during the hot summer months. Now during the ice cold winter months, I will be getting out the old skates and waiting for my husband to clear the pond of snow!!

My daughter and grandson floating.

[img]https://www.my-gardening-and-landscaping-makeover.com/images/sebandstacie.jpg[/img]

What my larger pond looks like in the fall.

[img]https://www.my-gardening-and-landscaping-makeover.com/images/fallpond4.jpg[/img]

My smaller pond.

[img]https://www.my-gardening-and-landscaping-makeover.com/images/smallerpond.jpg[/img]

Larger pond covered with snow.

[img]https://www.my-gardening-and-landscaping-makeover.com/images/winterpond3.jpg[/img]

We really enjoy of 400ft of gardens...even in the winter!!

pondlady
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Posts: 173
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2009 11:34 am
Location: Glenwood, Utah

YUP! mine looks like that right now to. Except I put a visqueen cover over it to keep out the tons of leaves in the fall. I use the clear kind so light can still get in to the little gold fish, but I do not have the messy spring cleanup. Your pond in summer are awesome! Yard to! :wink:

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I meant to reply when you posted but didn't have the time then.
Your ponds look beautiful! Are they earth-bottomed or liner? Natural bog filtered? Bio-media filtered? UV treated/filtered?

A few years ago, in a wildly unrealistic moment, I considered building an earth-bottomed, bog-filtered swim pond in my backyard, but research showed that the available area was about 1/2 if not 1/3 of what would be optimal. :? :roll: :lol:

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dorismccomb
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Joined: Thu Nov 25, 2010 3:51 pm
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada

Hi Pondlady and Applestar

We actually chopped down over 50 very old Oak trees (some sick/dead) so leaves are not too much of an issue. We created our larger pond slightly higher than the smaller pond and with such a high waterfall, we have quite the current flowing into the stream and smaller pond. Any leaves or debris quickly flow downstream into the smaller pond for an easy net pick up.

At the end of the smaller pond my husband Jim built a filtration system to meet the demand of filtering 16,000 gallons of water. The dock that covers the system is shown in the image that has the chairs and red umbrella.

There is a large inflow where a screen with a fine filter catches all large and smaller particles. From there the water is drawn through two addtional filter media pads and charcoal. We have two pipes that carry the water underground and up to the waterfall. The whole system is powered by a pool pump. I remove the first fine media filter and rinse once a week. The other media filters are rinsed once a month. Our waterfall runs from early April and until the snow flies which is usually around mid November.

Applestar, to answer your question. The pond base, besides all of the underpadding, is a pool liner covered by river rock. All of the stones/river that you see in the images was carried in by wheelbarrow by Jim and myself. I was hard manual labor, but well worth the outcome.

We color the water with a blue tint to keep out the sun's harmful rays.

Doris

Koilady
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Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2011 6:29 pm
Location: London, Ontario Canada

Hey Dora, your ponds are gorgeous. We had a 13 thousand gallon pond with about 60 Koi ranging in size from about 6 inches to over two feet long. We have a park behind us and sometimes kids would throw rocks into the pond so on one hot August day, I decided to get into the pond to retreive these rocks and the larger Koi were quite surprised to see me there but I was so happy to see the larger Koi coming to meet me and swim around me. The smaller ones weren't quite sure about this person being in their space but in time, they came for a visit. I was able to pet and even hold onto some of the larger Koi which was such a joy for me. I used to hand feed some of the food I fed our Koi and I think that's probably why they weren't too afraid to be around me.

Your's Koily, Lorraine

Robbiegmac
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Joined: Wed Apr 16, 2014 10:54 am

I know this is an older post, but do you have any recent photos? Also I can't see the original pics, were they removed? I'm wanting to start a pond in winnipeg

Koilady
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Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Aug 25, 2011 6:29 pm
Location: London, Ontario Canada

Hi Doris. LOL I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who used to swim with their Koi. LOL Our pond was 13,000 gallons and we have a park behind us. The kids used to throw the odd rock into the pond and I felt it was my duty to get in there and retrieve it. LOL LOL
It was so funny the first time I went in. The larger ones looked like they were saying, "Hey, there's Mom, let's go and check her out. LOL The larger ones would come over but the smaller ones would stay to the back, just in case the first ones got eaten. LOL In the end, they would all swim around me and I could actually pick the larger ones up in my arms. I just Love this hobby.

Your's Koily, Lorraine



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