Hi thanks for all the responses :) I haven't decided where I should put the pond yet. We have a natural spring under one part of the property that stays wet most of the summer. In drier seasons it will dry out. There are a ton of large hardwood trees out there so lots of leaf litter and roots to deal with so I am not sure that is where it will go. I am thinking it might be better just to get a liner and put it in a more open area. waterbug_guy, I am not sure if I will have plant shelves or not. I appreciate your illustration. That is helpful! I was thinking of mostly planting around the outside and then having some sunken water lilies and some other plants that are out towards the center more away from where the raccoon can get in and knock over the pots. I have a few books on water gardens and saw they had the pots submerged underwater on 'pillars' of concrete block etc. Gary, Your place sounds like ours in relation to critters lol. I haven't seen any herons here but we do get the occasional large egret and both bald and golden eagles. However I suspect that if I build it...they will come (herons) lol. I have quite a few plants that could work in or around water right now. Various colocasias, tropical waterlilies, canna, papyrus, lizard tail. I have found that chocolate mint does excellent grown in a bog and doesn't freeze in the winter or die back during the heat of the summer. I grow a lot of mint for our rabbits that I use their 'bunny berries' for composting and vermicomposting. As far as fish goes. I really love the look of koi but due to the critters and my last koi liking to eat up all my plants, I might go with plain old goldfish. I have heard that the goldfish won't eat up the plants as much. I will just have to find pretty ones LOL :P darla, I had 4 koi that I kept in a large preformed pond. One is still there. It is all black. When we moved here a few yrs ago, I had to put them in a holding pool while I got the other one set up on the screened patio. Overnight, a raccoon ate up all the koi except the black one which I assume maybe he couldn't see. I will probably just keep him where he is and get him a friend. When I get the in ground pond going, I am thinking of using goldfish. Do your koi eat your water plants at all? That is a good idea about the motion sensor. Haha I am surprised that it doesn't bother the cats but then again they are probably smart enough to avoid where it sprays. Does it also help with keeping the large birds away? ~SJN

will the sand affect my pond life? Yes, but probably not a lot. Certain kinds of life, animal and plant, will make the sand home if they make it to your pond. What plant life should I add to feed my fish and welcome in other wildlife like frogs and dragonflies? That really depends on the person. I like to add any plant I can and see how it does. It stays if I like it. That's how I learn. So for me I'd try any plant, and I'd try it different ways...in water, in soil, in sun, in shade, etc., to learn how it grows. Duckweed is a plant fish will eat directly, but after they've eaten it all it's gone. So if you want an on going duckweed food source you have to protect some or easier imo is growing it in a separate shallow pond. But a more important food source is all the life in a pond, mainly insects. They eat the plants and the fish eat the insects. So all plants really feed fish indirectly. Dead, rotting plant material feeds insects the best. But many people don't like that in their pond...so it's really best to decide what kind of pond you want...Wildlife Pond, Water Garden or Koi Pond. That determines how plants are used. You can try one and if you don't like it you can change to another pretty easy or some pond in between. the water looks a little murky. (BONUS QUESTION) Is there any way to clean that up? It's pretty simple to clear up water but only after you know what's causing it to be murky which is the complex part. There are lots of filters and methods to removing different things so the filter has to be matched to the stuff being removed. One pretty universal murky clear is a 24/7 drip water change system. A drip emitter runs 24/7 into the pond and an overflow takes away the extra water. I plan on heading over to a local park nearby and yanking out a couple of cattails and whatever else I find interesting, I highly doubt it's illegal and the poor little stream that leads to the enormous carp pond is choking with all the vegetation. (OH! I know that these plants will probably have other bacteria and algae and critters on or in it, is there any way to clean them without killing them? There are chemical baths you can use, including chlorine and similar oxidizers. They aren't super effective imo. The question is do you want to do that or are all these critters something you want? You see this goes back to deciding what kind of pond you want. A Koi Pond owner with thousands of dollars worth of koi would never allow any plant within 10' of their pond. Their focus is koi and the risk of pathogen form plant would be unacceptable. At the other end of the pond spectrum a Wildlife Pond owner would welcome all those "pathogens". It's a matter of perspective. To these pond keepers "pathogen" is just another name for "life". That's what natural ponds are, life. Stuff killing and eating other stuff. I want to make sure the plants are settled before getting fish, but I heard that a certain string? Algae is a pain to get rid of, does that grow in zone 9?) You don't get rid of algae, you control it. Just like you weed a garden. Algae grows in all zones, from the poles to the equator. There are thousands of species. ...since I live in zone 9 in one of the cities that borders the Rio Grande, Does anyone have any recommendations for the type of plants I might want to scavenge for, how to transport and transplant them from the stream into my pond, and what no-no plants I should try to avoid? Giant Reed, Arundo donax, is a spectacular plant you can probably find. It's an aggressive grower, makes bamboo look like Pussy Willow. I don't believe there is such a thing as a no-no plant. They're plants, you're a human. I have to assume you can win any battle. Ponds are just like any garden. If you tend it you win. If you go away and come back in a year the plants win. (If I find any I kind of want some duckweed... is this a no-no plant? Will keeping the growth at bay turn into an overwhelming hassle for my medium-small sized pond?) Depends on how much hassle you consider keeping a pond is. For me it's a joy. And whether your fish.eat it. I want goldfish!! I hear commits are really friendly, but what other species can I add? Can someone supply a list? Oh, and how many can I add? (I was thinking about 6-8 fish total) Common, Comets, Shubunkin, Wakin. The fancy kinds can look a little out of place. I've had some of these because friends need to get rid of "pets" sometimes. They look a little odd to me when mixed with other kinds. Like when you feed them the others swim over fast and the Fantail seems to struggle to swim 10'. But the fancy ones seemed to do fine but need exact protection from streams, skimmers, etc., as they're not strong swimmers.. The Common, Comets and Shubunkin are also often crossed. Like a Comets and Shubunkin to get a Shubunkin with a long tail. Commons get the biggest, more than 12" and over 3' sometimes although these may be koi crosses. (Even numbers so they can have a buddy system, but not like Nohas ark, they can only be friends!! No babies!!... okay maybe a few so I can add them to future smaller water features around the garden...) You can post a sign explaining breeding rules but goldfish are either not very good readers or not very good rule followers (even worst than teenagers). which leads me to the after thought question... Can different species of goldfish mate? I mean.. they are still goldfish... Yes. When different kinds of goldfish breed the result is considered a goldfish too. Goldfish can also breed with koi. I know that bottom feeders won't eat all the gunk that will eventually fill the bottom, (I can't blame them) But are there any fish that I can add that will eat the bottom pellets? (Like catfish maybe, or something cooler/cuter) Pellets, as in sinking food pellets? Goldfish, koi, catfish, pretty much any fish will eat food on the bottom. There are terms like "bottom feeder" but that's just a general type thing. Like catfish will spend most of their time on the bottom but will eat food on the surface just like a goldfish or koi. And they will come a running when they see you just like goldfish and koi. As for gunk...bacteria lives there, bugs too which eat the bacteria, bigger bugs that eat the smaller bugs and fish root around in there looking for bugs to eat. It's a whole cycle thing. Gunk on the pond bottom is basically soil, or stuff on it's way to becoming soil. Nothing removes it completely, just like nothing removes soil completely. Stuff lives in it, eats some growing in it, breaks it down into better and better soil (from a plant's perspective). Oh, and is Walmart a smart place to buy these babies at? (I'm sure most are familiar with the store...) My only other option is PetCo... Are they a good option? I don't want to buy bad fish... but I would feel terrible if I had to take a fish back because it was sick or it got the others sick... There not really anything like a "good" store to by goldfish. Here's how it wroks. The store orders fish from a grower. The grower has a bunch of ponds with different kinds of fish. The grower puts a bunch of fish into a box and sends it to the store. The store dumps the box of fish into a big tank. An employee gets a net and scoops out a few of the the prettier fish and puts these into separate tanks. Like for instance some Shubunkins would go into a tank labeled "Shubunkin $4.95". And some orange and white Comets will often be labeled "Sarasa $4.95" even though they aren't actually Sarasa. The rest in the big tank are labeled "Feeder Goldfish 20 for $1". When customers buy $4.95 fishes the clerks grab a net and scoop a few more nicer looking fish out of the feeder tank and into the $4.95 tanks. People just assume when they see 10 fish in a nice aquarium at eye level that they must be higher quality and healthier fish than the horrible feeder fish tank. It's just marketing and logistics. You can often find very nice looking Shubunkins and Comets in the feeder tank. It just depends on what they get in. Growers don't care since it's just as easy to grow Commons or Comets or Shubunkins. They'll send whatever they have. The fancy goldfish may be shipped in separate containers. This is not to say all fish are healthy. In my experience 50% of feeder fish died in the first 24 hours. And in most stores they also don't last long either. Yes, you can quarantine them, you can treat them for parasites, etc. Depends on the kind of pond you want to keep. Most ponds I've had I only used feeder goldfish. Set up a quarantine tank and buy $10 worth of meds to treat $1 worth of fish...not me. I just put them into the pond and hope for the best. But that's me. I do want to hand feed my fish. I know the risks of them getting hurt by other animals but I have 3 small dogs that scare away all cats and wild animals, but are really just yapping balls of harmless fur. Pretty much all kinds of fish can be trained to be hand fed. Takes them a few times to get the idea but once they do they're trained. The 3 small dogs...I hate to impugn the K9 reputation for diligence but all that yapping..yeah, that's mostly for your benefit. When you're not around and the Herons are having brunch the dogs are really unlikely to do more than blink at the carnage. The Herons aren't hurting anything...it's not like they're doing something horrible like squeezing a squeaky toy. They're just eating all of your fish. Big woop. Now if the dogs happen to hear you at the front door then sure, they'll be off like a rocket to tear that Heron a new beak, jumping through plate glass windows, busting down doors, whatever it takes to impress you and keep those treats flowing.

LOL, chas. You are correct, the initials do stand for Dept. of Natural Resources. As can be expected there are a lot of those alphabet agencies out there that may or may not be helpful. Which one has helpful info. in your area varies in the extreme. Some are identical to other agencies that have totally different objectives. Then there are private companies that want to sell you something. Mokitty, there is no reason in the world why a holding pond, retention pond, dew pond cannot be ornamental. From what I see in the photos, someone has tried to do that in the past and has recently let it go. Recently being totally subjective. The grasses around the pond can be cut back, the old bridge removed or replaced, wild shrubs and other plants identified and volunteer saplings removed. That should keep you busy for a while. Cutting back the grasses will help control the number of migratory ducks that use the pond.I wouldn't mention the ducks to anyone but the Extention service and would be cautious even there. They might prevent you from doing anything that might change the current function of the pond including cutting the grass. The Environmental Protection Agency is well known for that. Avoid them if possible. Here are some sites that look like they can give you decent info on the purpose of your pond. http://www.gotalgae.com/retention_ponds.htm coastalwaterwatch.com/product2121.htm http://www.co.monmouth.nj.us/documents/61/Stormwater%20Management%20Basins.pdf Call the DNR and the Extension service and specifically ask "Do you have any material related to small retention ponds or dewponds and wildlife habitat?" This is one of those projects that may or may not require lots of planning and/or physical intervention. For now, look for traces of a previous pathway to the pond and improve that. Starting at the bridge may go faster. Observe what the weather does to the water level. Keep track of water levels for as long as you can, months are better than weeks and compare them with rainfall. See what happens to the pond and the surrounding area during and after a heavy/light rain. Locate and clear any over/outflow. Identify grasses and other plants. They may have been chosen for specific purposes such as erosion control, wildlife cover, food source, etc. Tall grasses may prevent debris from overwhelming the pond. Search for electric hookups. Do they even exist? Is there a bad odor like sewage that would indicate dredging for organic matter is needed and the pond is deficient in oxygen. Float something on the surface to see if there is any sort of water movement. You might find that overflow where your float ends up. Check the soil on the outside of the pond and on the inside of the pond to see if it is the same. Are there lots of rocks on the sides of the pond? How deep is the mulm/debris on the bottom? Did the former owners leave any pond equipment behind? Get the water tested or get a testing kit and do it yourself. No strips. They just don't give good readings. There are people out there who can do the hard work of cleaning out the pond for a hefty price. Before you hire them, know enough about what the pond does that it will be you in charge. Ask questions. There are enough posters here to answer most questions or who will send you where you can get the right answers. I hope this has not overwhelmed you.

After getting irritated that your neighbor did not tell you about the dye before hand, you boast that you did not tell him about dye you ordered? Wouldn't want to be the neighbor of either of you! You may want to ask your lawyer how your planned action differs from your neighbor's.