User avatar
PunkRotten
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1989
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:48 pm
Location: Monterey, CA.

Need plant suggestion for my little pond

Hi,


So I set up a 55 gallon rubbermaid. Added some potting soil and pea gravel. There is a few fish in the pond. One is a a flagfish and there is 7 Pygmy Sunfish in there. I also have some pond snails. Anyway, I had an Iris plant in a pot but don't like it anymore. What would be a good replacement plant? I want something that grows half underwater and half out of water. I have some anacharis, parrots feather, and some water hyacinths in the pond.


Here is a pic


[img]https://i52.tinypic.com/j7tbu0.jpg[/img]

User avatar
Kisal
Mod Emeritus
Posts: 7646
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:04 am
Location: Oregon

I have some Horsetail Rush (Equisetum hyemale), in my backyard pond. There is another plant in that pond (both it and the rush are in pots covered by a couple inches of water) that has pretty maroon foliage and produces red flowers, but I can't think of the name of it right now. :roll:

User avatar
PunkRotten
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1989
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:48 pm
Location: Monterey, CA.

I was thinking of something I can actually plant to the floor. I put some sword plants in there. But I am gonna have to take them out since they won't survive the winter here.


EDIT: I failed to mention the depth is about 18 inches, but with the soil/gravel and the water line, it comes to maybe like 12-13 inches

User avatar
Kisal
Mod Emeritus
Posts: 7646
Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:04 am
Location: Oregon

How deep is the layer of soil? The reason my plants are in pots is that there is no soil in my ponds. They're just small decorative ponds with bubblers; one pond is about 9 x 12 feet, and the other is about 10 x 15 feet. If the soil layer in your pond is deep enough for the plant's roots, a pot wouldn't be needed.

I put a few feeder goldfish in each of my ponds in late spring, just to provide some color and activity. They wouldn't survive the winter in the ponds, because the water isn't deep enough, but the raccoons and wandering domestic cats usually get all the fish well before winter sets in, anyway. That's why I don't buy expensive fish for the ponds. :lol:

User avatar
PunkRotten
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1989
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:48 pm
Location: Monterey, CA.

Hi,

There is soil at about 3 inches or so.

Flowers
Senior Member
Posts: 116
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2015 2:30 pm
Location: Fort Collins, CO, USA Zone 5b, sometimes 6

Woah so glad I found this! I had no idea you could make a miniature little pond in a bucket. I would love to have a pond, but I don't have the space or resources to build one into the ground. Do you have any suggestions for making my own little bucket pond? What kinds of plants/fish could I put in? I'm interested in water lillies and lotuses, but I understand that I have to work with a small space and what's available in my area. How would I keep pests out and perhaps even overwinter it in zone 4/5?
Thanks a bunch if you can answer any of these questions :)

User avatar
PunkRotten
Greener Thumb
Posts: 1989
Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 8:48 pm
Location: Monterey, CA.

I would find out what fish are native to your area so they can survive the weather. I would limit to just small fish. What you can do, is get a small tank to bring them in and hold them over winter in case the water freezes solid. Also, use native plants or you can try to buy some online that have similar tolerances to your climate.

What I did was I got a rubbermaid that was 55 gallons and put potting soil all over the bottom so I can have plants planted to the ground. But I poured pea gravel over all of it to keep it weighted down too. I had no filtration so I chose fish that come from swampy, stagnant, low oxygen waters. I put rooted plants in addition to floating plants. Try to aim for 60% plants in your rubbermaid.

I never had trouble with predators. I would get bees that drank the water, some dragonflies, damselflies and that is about it.

Having so many plants kept the algae down too. I had it in a real sunny spot. I also did mini water changes occasionally. I had a siphon and would pump out half of the water and refill the rest with the hose. I used a water conditioner called Prime.

During the summer since the rubbermaid was shallow the water would get in the lower 90s at the surface and upper 80s down at the bottom. The fish would stay at the bottom mostly but what I did was I got a small garden umbrella and positioned it to shade the pond for like half the day. This helped a lot. Choose your location wisely where there isn't too much sun.

I fed my fish mostly small live foods. The small snails that came with the plants were eaten. In addition to this I cultured some daphnia and scuds. The scuds eventually maintained a population inside the pond because I had a nice balance and did not overstock my pond with fish. Occasionally I would supplement with frozen fish food and sometimes flakes, but not all fish ate the flakes.



Return to “Water Gardening”