Adding Fish to the DIY Pond

what's going on everyone Tanner here and I'm back with the second installment of the DIY pond build in case you missed the previous video I'll bring you up to speed I started this build back in October of 2018 the first rendition of the pond didn't work so I had to redo everything this past spring I built the entire thing by myself in by hand and outlined the process in the previous video I'll link a card for that up above at the end of the video and in the video description at this point the pond is mostly done but a few things need fine-tuned some things need added and of course the fish must take up residence before that could happen I had to make some more plant shelves to build these I used several pieces of PVC pipe and side outlet PVC fittings for the corners using these pieces I made boxes which were cemented together with PVC cement the structures were then spray-painted with krylon fusion paint which was set to dry for a few days from there I tied paracord to the corners diagonally to create necks this will allow most of the weight to be distributed on the corners in the cord which will reduce the possibility of bowing on the lengths of PVC pipe after that I covered the top with some pond underlayment which was zip tied to the pipes I also drilled holes in the corner set the structured fill with water and sink to shelves are made based on this design and placed into the pond like before these are anchored to the bottom of the pond using some rocks from there I shut off the pumps and drained the water below the tops of the plant shelves I added some topsoil on top of the shelves to give the plants a good foundation like I said in the previous video they will get most of their nutrition from the water column itself so didn't go overboard with the topsoil then I proceeded to plant the shelves also the planes will see me used have been rinsed off ahead of time to remove excess substrate I won't go over all the plants used but the first ones that I have here are some cow lilies I was able to get these all for $5.00 apiece on clearance since they don't have any blooms once they were in place I capped off the topsoil with gravel which will serve as the main growing medium for the plants next up are a few variegated cattails although these are a pretty tall plant they'll help add interest in diversity to the design once they were situated I planted the remainder of the shelves with an assortment of other plants after that I could add some driftwood that I sourced locally before putting them in the pond they were sprayed down and scrubbed her move excess debris if you happen to have access to a pressure washer it would make this whole process much easier when incorporating the driftwood I wanted to keep it somewhat directional look as you'll see the majority of the wood starts in the back right corner of the pond and branches out from there not only will the driftwood provide cover but it will also make the design look more seamless from platform to platform at this point I could finalize the filtration the first order of business was to add the additional pump I didn't record this part but I'll explain what's going on I have the iwasa aqua max eco premium waterfall filter 3000 in the back left corner of the pond this is attached to one and a half inch hose which feeds into the biological filter box from the top of the lid underneath of the main compartments lid you'll see that the pre-filter also has a lid to keep everything a little cleaner like the iwasa waterfall pump 1650 which is in the skimmer box this also overflows into the spillway and into the pond the addition of this pump really helped beef up the waterfall and greatly increase the amount of flow this pump overturns roughly 2,500 gallons per hour while the skimmer pump overturns roughly 1,600 gallons per hour I can only give rough estimates because the flow rate is dictated by the length and height of the hose and not the rating of the pump itself collectively they overturned somewhere in the ballpark of 4,100 gallons per hour based on that estimate we'll conservatively say that the pond is overturned two and a quarter times per hour that's less than what's typically recommended but as you can see we're having no issues with water quality that's all subjective anyways because there's a lot of factors to consider to conclude on filtration the new pump clears debris from the water column while the skimmer takes care of anything floating on the surface again a huge thanks to awesome for sending me these pumps thus far I'm really pleased with how they're running this pond and as you can see it looks great from there I cut up a few boards to add to the interior of the filter box these were attached just under the top lip with some decking screws so that more boards could be used to conceal the inside of the box some more boards were cut based on the width of the box I said these into position until the top was completely covered you'll notice that there's a bit of a gap on the backside which I covered up with some scrap pieces of wood I could always rip a piece to the appropriate width but I'd rather not waste the material if I don't need to initially I was going to make a hinge door but I decided that I didn't feel like dealing with any of that and it would be easier to open the lid by removing a few pieces of wood instead plus since there are cracks in between the board's there won't be any puddling when it rains oh yeah something else you may be wondering about is the electricity for the time being I've off my electrical running into soccer parks from an extension cord this box is designed to keep everything nice and dry I'll be using this until I can get a proper electrical line run to my backyard at this point the design is far enough along that the goldfish could be added into the pond to get these guys acclimated I'm floating the bags in the water for about five minutes normally you'd want to do this for about 15 minutes but since it's so hot outside I couldn't let them sit for too long after acclimation the fish were dumped into a net and then released into the pond the first two were some standard orange kamek goldfish after that I added two bunkin goldfish next up were for serasa goldfish followed by thang Marsha bumpkin to complete the new arrivals I added three white comet goldfish from there I went on to build a fish cave to do so I made a little platform using some PVC pipes this structure is essentially just the smaller version of what I used to create the plant tables once all the pieces were together I drove four holes in the bottom of the structure so that it would fill up with water and sink the PVC stand was placed down in the bottom of the pond and covered with a large piece of sandstone long-term I'll make several more of these but I didn't have all of the materials when I was filming this plus the case are just back up as the shelves and plants provide great coverage with the pond partially stocked I want added more plants on the outside of the pond even still there's more plants that I want to add but this should be able to get us by for a little while despite how it looks I do have a lot of tall plants in the background such as pampas grass they can grow up to 12 feet tall but they don't look like much right now because of how they are cared for at this store that they came from wait until next season when all these plants have overwintered and become more established while landscaping I also added some mushroom solar lights to help bring everything to life at night I like these so much that I went and got some solar lights for the filter box as well long term add some more items but I'm pleased with just these for you for now lastly we'll add the fish that this pond was built for yes you heard me right I built this pond specifically for a handful of goldfish everything else was an afterthought in fact this is something that I've had planned for quite a while and mentioned nearly three years ago and that it's gonna get to the point where these guys end up being a foot foot long getting getting real big in that then we're gonna get up from there so that that would be sweet and I'll probably get additional things to put in there as well but that's that's long four years we're not gonna do that till I get my own in place give it at least two years unfortunately I lost five fish from that group a few months back during the move due to unforeseen circumstances regardless they are still part of the pond I buried them underneath of the zebra grass so that in death they could bring life to this plant I know that's pretty sad but if you really think about it it's kind of beautiful at the same time [Applause] hopefully you enjoyed the second installment of this series this has quickly become one of my favorite projects even though I think it's far from my best work I think it's because I get to go outside to enjoy it and although the pond is the focus part of the fun is how it meshes with the rest of the surroundings I'm also very relieved to finally have provided an adequate home for my fish it's great to see them dart around and enjoy the space that's ideal for this type of fish not only that but they have some new friends to share this space with they're gonna have to learn to share with me as well I like the pond so much that I couldn't stay out I found myself going in for a dip every now and again just to relax it's a great view accompanied by soothing sounds what more could you ask for there's still so much more to do and discuss but I think I'll save that for the future installments of this series as always a thank you so much for tuning in and I hope you enjoyed this video if you want to see the progress of this project and future pond builds then be sure to subscribe and join the surface squad today on that I'll catch you on the next one surfer squad take care and peace

Channel: SerpaDesign

Views: 1,671,689

Rating: 4.9283452 out of 5

Keywords: diy pond, garden pond, backyard pond, pond, diy, do it yourself, goldfish, goldfish pond, adding fish, custom pon, water feature, water garden

Id: Wh4n7nbLbi8

Length: 12min 17sec (737 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 13 2019