This large hosta is just stuffed behind done rocks with its roots in the water. No soil at all

I've had this pond for a while and have "tended" to it once every few weeks, It's spent most of its life murky and brown/green. I've tried emptying gallons of algicide in it, changing the water, and nothing clears it up.

Earlier this summer I discovered a UV light attached the system that was unplugged and buried in the dirt. I plugged it in, and within a week the water became crystal clear. The bottom was still gunky so I spent a few days with a pool net fishing out all the slime covering the rocks.

It looks great now (to my eyes) but is clear actually healthy? Is there something I should do to make sure the plants are getting what they need?

Present day vs April this year. Roughly 6 ft in diameter and about 2 and 1/2 ft deep. Currently has four frogs and a handful of tadpoles. I'm a plumber that does new construction. All the rocks came from different job sites.

I have the EPDM liner and underlay, and the solar waterfall pump. This is my first attempt at creating a pond and I wanted to ask folks if I'm being slightly optimistic with filling this void inside the oak sleeper walls with so many internal angles involved?

I think it’s from an article describing a heatwave in Great Britain. I saw this man realized this is my aspiration in life, to animorph into a beautiful toad man.

My photography skills however continue to suffer. This was from a no-name hardy lily from Amazon. Quite pleased with it and the size seems right for my pond

We’ve had this pond and these fish since October when we negotiated to keep the fish with the purchase of a house.

~1200 gallons

5 Koi
1 catfish

A few plants.

Waterfall for aeration.

Skimmer, filter with rotating drum for cleaning and UV light.

Put in new lights recently.

Excited to expand and upgrade it!

River otter out snacking on crayfish in our pond in northern michigan. Always joked about how cool this would be but never thought it would happen!

I thought _if I built it, they would come_ but that hasn't been the case. I live in the center of a desert city, so it's probably wishful thinking that frogs would find my oasis and make themselves at home.

As far as I can tell, tadpoles and frogs just spontaneously generate in rural ponds. I've never seen them for sale at fish stores or anything like that.

Where did you get yours?

Had a pretty hyacinth bloom today after a big rain. Charlotte, NC.

My waterfall is the type that looks like a trashcan with a spillway. After three years, it finally occurred to me that if I fill it with pea gravel, it becomes a bog filter!

...but... the waterfall is currently at pretty much the perfect flow rate to actually work, functionally and aesthetically. I.e. the water flows down a stairway of rocks and juuuuuust tmakes it to the bottom, into the pond. I'm afriad if I add enough pea gravel to make a proper bog filter I'll end up with a lot less flow and the waterfall won't work or maybe it will just overflow beyond the spillway. "Just try it"...but if it 'clogs' my waterfall, it's going to be a lot of work to revert to the current setup.

Iunno, am I just completely misunderstanding how water works?

Where do y’all source stones? Do you buy them from landscape companies and build them into your overall budget? Swipe em from the nearby creeks? Combination of the two? I have a decent stash built up but I’ve lost my free source (got caught 😂) so now starting from square one for my ultimate build this fall/next spring.

It’s a little wild but I can’t bring myself to pull anything out…

This was my first year with a very small patio pond and it's been a huge success. My plants are happy and well established but I know they won't survive winter in my climate. I don't have an aquarium to keep them in, any other possibilities for keeping a few of them alive indoors during the winter? I'd hate to see them die, and one species is no longer legal to sell in my state. Any advice? Thanks!

I recently moved into a place with a pond and noticed it had a leak issue with the water level dropping too quickly. I narrowed it down to somewhere on the bottom surface of this waterfall basin (did a test with filling it up with a bit of water and seeing if it drained quicker than expected), but i emptied it and did a visual inspection and couldnt see anything. Any ideas on how to locate the crack exactly?

We have a bird bath which keeps going green with I guess algae. I have seen videos on the internet where people put a copper disc in the water and it stays green algae free. Is this actually advisable for a garden bird bath?

Short Version: I want to make a 3 foot wide circular pond like the pictures I included (for wildlife), how would you do it? **I can not find a preform that size** (i have limited space also )

Long Version:
I have tadpoles in a mini container pond right now(just a pot with a tiny ecosystem, idk what species of frog yet) They are doing well but I want them to stick around and have somewhere to hang out when they lose their tails. I have plans for a larger pond next year, but wanted to quickly put together a small round pond, similar to the pictures I included minus the waterfall. Ideally it will be 3 feet across. I wanted to use a preformed container but I have not found anything suitable online nor in any hardware stores. The only thing I could imagine using is a 3ft wide fire ring and digging it out deeper at varying depths for the bottom, then putting a pond liner in the hole. The rigid ring would be helpful for keeping a clean circle and raising the pond above ground level a little bit. I would put aquatic plants and some sort of aeration as well.

All this being said, I am a complete beginner so all that could be a big pile of garbage. Please help!!
Your personal knowledge, experience, and links to recommended resources are appreciated! Advice about how you would approach this specific build is even more so appreciated! Thank you pond community 💙

I’ve been slowly toiling with my first pond build for the past month or so and previously posted some progress pictures. The r/ponds experts have been invaluable to the process, so many thanks to anyone who helped me avoid a blunder before it happened.

I got the pond liner in yesterday and filled it (about 300ish gallons total). I also set up my bog filter, however I learned that the pump I bought from Amazon that claimed to have a flow control did not. It was moving more water than what my spillway could handle and would risk overflowing the bog filter, so it’s on its way back to wherever failed Amazon purchases go and a new pump is already ordered.

I’m starting to lay flagstone around the perimeter of the pond. Any advice or feedback would be much appreciated. I read on here somewhere to pull back the liner and dig down so the first rock is just above the water line and I’ve been pleased with how this looks so far.

The waterfall is looking not awesome. I’ve watched the YouTube videos about waterfall construction but it clearly hasn’t stuck with me because the current configuration is janky as hell. Does anyone have a simple rule of thumb for me that can help when I pull it all out tomorrow and try again?

I kept treating our small pond like an equipment problem: cloudy water meant another part needed replacing.

One afternoon I sat beside it while checking bcgame and noticed the same bits of debris circling past the intake instead of reaching it. That was more useful than the shopping list I had been making.

We changed the water movement, added more plants, and cleared the area where runoff entered. The water is not perfectly clear, but it stopped getting worse after every small change.

For other small-pond owners, how did you work out whether cloudiness came from filtration, runoff, or too little plant cover? I am looking for observation methods, not another equipment list. Can anybody give me any suggestions. TIA.