Has anyone built a pond in your garden

[emorata]

Curious to find out what type of materials are effective with our very porous rocks....i would love to build a larger pond to have some talapia or edible fish or even shrimp.

would love to hear about any success stories....

noel

[Hotzcatz]

We used a stock tank we found at a yard sale for $20. It's a bit deep so we don't see the goldfish that well. There's also a washtub but that's generally got geese splashing in it so it gets mucky and dumped out on the garden several times a week. I may get a bathtub up there soon so the geese will have a bigger puddle to play with.

Soon there will be the hard plastic kiddie pools available at the summer sales. That would make a nice pond either dug into the ground or just with rocks and bricks built up around the edges.

[StillHope]

I don't think you can do shrimp -requires very cold temperatures.I used to have a neighbor who was selling shrimp to the restaurants.He had large tank.His electric bill was astronomical.

[kani-lehua]

i'm really not sure about this, but there are aquaculture farms on o'ahu. the one most of us is familiar with is oceanic institute of hawai'i. there are others here around kahuku. this is where you will find shrimp vendors serving there delectable plate lunches. fresh from the farm.

malia paha o lohe aku

perhaps they will hear

[Markie]

The pond society meets once a month; notices are generally in the Hilo paper. I'm sure they would be happy to help you if you attend. The vice president, Patrick, builds rock walls and just built himself a huge swimming pool so he would know.

Markie

[emorata]

thanks for the heads up on the society markie...another fun group to join when we get on the island....i'm sure the field trips are alot of fun!

best

noel

[marlin]

I put in a pond that is about fifty by forty five feet. It is shallow at one end and over your head at the other, maybe twelve to fifteen feet deep. I populated it with golfish, sword tails, gobis, guppies and turtle and looking for ducks now. (anybody got some weed eating ducks?) The pond was dug out with a back hoe and EPDM is the liner with a shade cloth over it to protect it from UV til it is full. The breeze stirs up the water enough to keep pushing the hyacinth around. I figure to pump out the algae and onto my garden once in a while or simply dredge with buckets.

marlin

[canhle]

Did some research on the internet and found that The most important plant for pond is Anacharis. This is an underwater plant that uses up the nutrients that would otherwise feed the algae. For ponds and water gardens under 25-sq. ft. use one bunch for every square foot of pond surface area. For ponds 25 to 100 sq. ft. use one bunch for every two square feet of surface area. For ponds 100 to 300 square feet use one bunch for every three-sq. ft. of surface area. Use one bunch for every four square feet for ponds over 400 square feet in size. If you are keeping koi then a smaller upper pool or plant protectors will be needed to keep them from eating the Anacharis.

canhle

[canhle]

Anyone knows a good place to buy liner?

canhle

[idiglava]

Hi Canh,

Two places I know of you can get them from: Waterworks in Hilo -or- Hawaii Catchment in Shipman Business Park.

We got ours from Hawaii Catchment since they have various sizes available.

~joy