"Robin" wrote in message
news:G8mMc.174112$XM6.135587@attbi_s53...

Sorry to horn in on your thread Brendan, but I have a new
pond as well, and have similar questions.



Thanks for all of the replies and advice. I can see already
that this is going to be one of those addictive hobbies. I
have a liner that I didn't use in construction so I'm
already contemplating ways to go bigger, LOL.

I'm liking the veggie filter ideas I have seen, so I've
decided to move my waterfall form up a foot or so and make a
filter out of it. I will coil up my excess hose in the
bottom, because I do think that cools my water a few
degrees. I was thinking about clamping the end of the hose
and putting some medium sized holes in the length of it to
make it "percolate" up through the filter. The water goes
through a mechanical filter first, so plugging up shouldn't
be a big problem if I make the holes a littler larger?
I'll put a wire mesh over the hose coil and bend it up on
one end to cover the spillway. I'll put a layer of gravel
over that and my plants on top of that. I'll run the
spillway down over some rocks into the pond. Does this
sound like a working design?

Thanks for the PH warning, what are the best ways to
increase and level the PH. Also we have alot of summer rain
here. 16 inches in June. How does this affect the water
and ph levels?

I've had my shubunkin almost a week (2 of them about 4
inches) I haven't fed them. There were a bunch of tadpoles
in the pond when I put the fish in, and they have eaten
them. I live less than a mile from a bay and have seen alot
of wildlife migrate to my pond, even small brown crabs. I'm
sure with all of the toads I see and hear around the pond,
eggs are being laid on a regular basis. I have also seen
them eating off of the plants. Will my fish be able to get
enough to eat from the life in the pond, or do I need to use
fish food as well?

Robin
http://community.webshots.com/user/robinandtami