You can use 1 portland to 1 sand up to 1 portland to 3 sand. Think of mortar or stucco consistency.

Goldenpond, I think you may be right. Those look very much like fingerling bass. If so, that's great. You do know tilapia will end up taking over? They are destroying bass and bluegill, etc, in our streams. They are fine in an enclosed system like you have, but I fear you will soon have only tilapia living there. And your dreaded walking catfish, of course. Ugh is right on those! On the plus side, tilapia ARE pretty, and very tasty, if you can keep from making pets of them. ;o) But bass! I'd love to have a pond with bass in it! Lellie, I absolutely LOVE your flying fish! So cute! Ill, it doesn't matter so much what type of birdbath you have, as long as it will hold about 2" of water. A garbage can lid on the ground will even work. But it needs to be placed in an area where birds feel safe. Not too close and not too far from cover. Too close, and they can be ambushed and won't use it. Too far, and they feel too exposed. It is a trial and error thing. There are many really pretty ones out there in all price ranges. Target carries some very nice inexpensive ones. Or you can stack up a couple of terra cotta pots and top with a terra cotta saucer. Goldenpond, it isn't often that a bird actually drowns in a birdbath. BUT...they are afraid of deep water and won't use one that is filled too high. You can still use your antique ones, but do one of two things. Only fill them partway up, or fill the bottom with some flatish rocks before adding water, so that the birds only have about 2" to deal with. That is usually all they require. But whatever you do, however you do it, everybody get busy and put out some birdbaths! You never know what you will see using them, and during very dry weather, they are really critical to our feathered friends. Marcia

I swear that I am the worlds largest collector of bird baths. It's embarrassing how many I have. But hey! Some people collect lawn gnomes. Everyone here is right - any shallow dish can be a bird bath. Some of mine are serving platters, others are terra-cotta pot bottoms. I'm big on dishes of water set about the garden. The two most important features in a bath IMO are shallow and a textured bottom. A bath with a slick, glazed surface birds won't get in. They'll drink from the sides but not get in it. Some people use pebbles or rocks to compensate for this but that's harder to clean. My latest must-haves are small cast stone baths. You can see some here Small Cast Stone Cement Bird Baths. I have about four of them now, set beside shrubs about my garden and am crazy about them. Taller styles are here: Tall Cast Stone Cement Bird Baths but it's the little guys I love. I have had no problems with anything knocking them down. Their biggest drawback is you can't use them in winter, but the reinforced cement makes them stronger than regular cement. The bottoms are rough, birds love them, and you just scrub them out with a brush and some plain dish soap, use the hose. People ask me about them all the time and where I got them, that sort of thing. They come in lots of color choices which is nice!

Thank you for your generous words. I am sorry to take so long in getting back to the forum. Although this may look somewhat complicated, it is anything but. I simply bought the plastic bird bath approx $7.00. It is screwed together in two pieces. Simply remove the screws and you will have the top bowl and the bottom pedestal. I noticed that there is a hole in the bottom of the pedestal and there is a plug for it. I guess you could remove this if you wanted to put a pipe through and make it into a fountain. Anyway I just left the plug in so the cement would not leak out the bottom. I had some scrap iron, (a piece of re-bar) which I wrapped with some chicken wire. This was just for extra strength. I don't really think it needed it but I am no expert so I did it anyway. I then mixed the cement: I used 1 part portland cement to three parts sand since I wanted a nice smooth finish. I started to fill the pedestal about 1/4 of the way, then tapped it to make sure all the little air pockets were filled. I then proceeded to put the metal bar wrapped in chicken wire into the pedestal and added and another 1/4 of cement, tapping it down as before. I added another two 1/4 until it was full. The top was a lot easier. I simply filled the bowl with the cement mixture about 1/2" and placed some chicken wite on top of that. I then put in another 1/2' or so and tapped it down. I pushed the plate into the center of the bowl. While the cement was still wet I pushed the other pieces into place. I let both pieces dry for about 5 days, but it didn't need that long. To open the pedestal I just used a rotary tool and cut along the seams.It worked very well. The top I just turned over and flipped out. The top has a nice smooth flat bottom. The plastic mold had a piece of plastic that acted as a ring that sat over-top of the pedestal. I made a similar concrete rim using two round flat bottom dishes of different sizes. (Envision something that looks like a deep dish pie pan). I poured the cement into the larger one about half full. I then set the smaller one inside that and weighted it down with a heavy stone. I let this cure for a few days and then cemented it to the centre of the bottom of the top. (Does that make sense??) Anyway your bird-bath ends up in two pieces which makes it nice for moving around. For finishing I used a rotary tool with a sanding attachment to smooth edges that may be rough from the pieces of broken glass. Please be sure to do this as I found that as soon as someone looks at it they want to run their fingers across the pieces of glass (Go figure). Anyway, I hope these directions are fairly clear, if they aren't give me a shout on the email. Remember this is just one of my first projects so if anyone sees something that I've done wrong please let me know. I am a big girl. I can take it. :-( Tips: The moulds are definitely re-usable. You will be left with two halfs of the pedestal but that is not really a problem. Just pour the two halfs and cement together. I have made a few by now and I actually did it both ways. I bought another mould since it was so cheap and I also did it using the two halfs. Both worked well. Sand the pedestal and or bowl as soon as you get them out of the mould. It is really easy then. I used a sanding spounge. Worked excellent. Please look under "garden accoutrements" to see a final picture of it painted and set up in our garden. "My three first's in their final setting" I painted mine white to bring out the white in the plate. Thank you for your time. Good Luck!!!