size and gallonage would be helpfull too :)

My pond is 750 Gal, with a bottom drain gravity feeding a 150 Gal. settling pond, which overflows into a small chamber where my 2000 GPH pump sits, which pumps up to a 1/2 whiskey barrel skippy filter/waterfall, which contains nylon scrubbies and lava rock. The settling chamber and barrel also have water hyacinth in season, assisting in filtration. NO other filter medium is used. My monthly maintenance consists only of pruning yellow lily leaves, culling the WH, and cutting back the submerged vegetation, wich grows like crazy. Water is crystal clear all year aside from 2 weeks in spring. I top off the water when it gets a few inches low due to evaporation, and a few times a year I open the bottom drain of the settling pond to remove sludge, which I use to water my flowers. I have 16 comets, which had some babies this year. I feed the fish a couple times a day while its warm out, just what they'll eat in a few minutes. Very low maintenance, able to just sit and enjoy.

Okay I'll chime in. Pond is 2500 gals, retrofit bd into 350 gal sc with 3 different grades of matala mats. Savio compact skimmer. Plumbing is wyed to Sequel 4800 GPH pump then to two waterfall filters-one is only 35 gals the other 50 full of springflo. I use koiclay weekly starting at the end of May which is about the earliest I can start up my pond. In the spring I do weekly water changes from the sc-which I refill and add Prime to dechlorinate and dechloramine town water supply. After a month I do about a 200 gal water change every 2 to 3 weeks. Pond is home to 25 shubunkins, wakins and sarassa comets, 6 hardy water lilies, parrot feather, yellow flag iris, pickeral rush, hornwort and bog bean. Very little algae problems as lots of plants and the koiclay. All plants overwinter in pond except parrot feather. Weekly maintainance is minimal winter shut down is a pain as all pipework must be drained but I leave the pond full to freeze over. Ice at least 18" thick from November to mid April. Fish removed from the pond every fall to 300 gal tank in garage and moved back out in the spring. Never lost a fish in the moves although I do believe their growth is not as much as lucky ponders in warm climates. Patti

I really don't like water hyacinths all that well, but I believe they are the key to clear water, so I nurture them all summer long. I pay good money for them in the spring, fertilize them all summer, and I thin them as they try to take over the pond. All in the name of clear water.

Patti,

So you do not place a heater in your pond over the winter and your water lilies survive the winter? I always use a stock tank heater to keep the pond open and keep my fish in the pond. This has worked for me for 13 years. However, this year I built a greenhouse and am digging a pond in the greenhouse to help with the heating (solar heat source). I intended to bring all my fish into this pond for the winter...no sense in heating two ponds in the winter. However, a nursery owner here indicated that my water lilies would not survive the winter if I did not heat my pond. What do you think?

my pond is 9000 gallons with 2 bottom drains and two sets of filters. Each filter consists of a mechanical filter and a bio-filter. I clean the mechanical filters once a week...takes maybe 5 minutes. Other than leaves getting in the pond in the fall, that is the extent of my pond maintenance. The water is crystal clear, chemically healthy and full of beautiful big healthy koi.

Next year I'll start building my new, bigger pond...probably around 15,000 gallons.

First Lillies in ND. Hardy Lillies should be fine as long as they don't freeze. Meaning the tops of the pots need to be below the Ice level. What that means for you, I don't know.

Maintenance: I do this for a living, and what I would suggest is a Book, The Pond Doctor, by Helen Nash. It has a nice season by season breakdown with some extra stuff.

At it's most basic My maintenance program is, Spring Clean out/re-pot, Summer fertilize prune lillies etc and clean filters, Fall Net the pond cut back lillies, winter De-icer.

Greg

Back yard pond: During the season I rinse out both filters once per month or so, 1/4 partial water change once per month, feed fish 3 times per week, remove spent foilage as needed, and top off water when needed. I run a 2,400 gph pump, with two filters and one skimmer 24/7 year round. The pond is an 8' x 10' rectangle with an average depth of 20" to 22".

I have 25 fish, the biggest about 10" and the smallest 2". I run a UV in the summer sometimes but not this past year.

Plants: 3 hardy waterlily, 1 large tub each of the following: thalia, blue pickeral weed, yellow iris, variegated sweet flag and gratiola virginiana. Planting themselves at will are ancharis and floating heart. I toss in WH sometimes.

Photo of the water at it's clearest times:

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Photo in summer when plants in and out of the pond are growing like mad:

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Small pond out front , 3' x 2' - 24" deep - one 90 gph pump/filter combo with center fountain, one red waterlily and one container of umbrella palm. I completely empty and clean this small pond once per year in spring. This pond has no fish but does get frogs and snails, and one time I saw a garter snake swimming in it looking for frogs. I pull the filter out and rinse out several times in summer and top off water when needed. The water is always clear.

Beautiful pond cometose! Ladylotus my pond is 4 ft deep where the lilies overwinter. Last year I had put one in the sc which is about 42" deep no airstone just let it freeze. The ice took longer to melt in the sc but the water lily was fine so I guess there wasn't ice right to the bottom even though our frost line here is between 4 to 6 ft down. I don't think it actually freezes that deep anymore though with our milder winters than say 10 years ago. Last year in the pond I did have an air bubbler going and the deep end unthawed two weeks before the shallow so the bubbler must have kept the water from freezing as deep there. No heater. I did lose the three fish I left in the pond so this year I just decided to overwinter all in the garage--cheaper than running a heater for the pond and I know my fish survive in their winter home. The difference I found in overwintering lilies in the pond is that they took longer to get growing in the spring even when I raised them up on cement blocks. In previous years when I had a cold room I would jump start the lilies in the basement with grow lights. In the pond I have to wait until the ice is gone so slower start.

300ga stock tank pond, 3/4 buried in the ground (5'x5'x28"). ~1000gph submerged pump goes to a 60ga DIY skippy-type filter with scrubbies, rocks, and lots of plants on top. Water flows out and down a small stream back to the pond. Six 6-8" goldfish/comet/shebunkins and 1/2 a dozen babies.

Spring: Raise the potted plants from the bottom, re-pot and fertilize. Drain ~1/2 the water and clean out any debris on the bottom. Put the plants back in and start up the pump. Fill the skippy and put plants back in it. Buy new oxygenator plants. If the water turns green add prefilter of quilt batting or window screen to pump. Clean once a week for a couple weeks until the plants get growing and the water clears, then remove.

Summer: Prune plants and remove yellowing pads as necessary. Remove string algae from the stream once in awhile. Watch so the watercress doesn't plug up the skippy outlet :) Feed the fish 2 or 3 times a week.

Fall: Stop feeding fish when water temp Winter: Just before the first snow or hard freezing pull the pump, clean it and store it inside. Drain the skippy and flush it with the hose (this is the only time I 'clean' my skippy). Leave drain plug out for winter. Add air stone and tank heater to pond. This year I'm going to cover 2/3 of the pond with plywood or foam board. Fish stay in it.

I have clear water except for ~ 2 weeks in the spring. I try to keep my fish load low and have lots of plants. I rarely have much string algae, my fish seem to like to graze it down. I have a 2nd pond a bit smaller with a 640gph pump and a 1/2 whiskey barrel skippy that I remove all plants and fish from and let freeze for the winter (it's a liner pond and only 18" deep). Otherwise maintenance is the same.