Pond in full sun

[Ambull]

Hi everyone. This is my first post here 

I have a simple (I believe), but important question. I have a prefab pond liner that I’ve been itching to install for several years now. I found out just after I bought it that my job would be moving me out of state in a few years, and so I could do nothing until now, because I have finally made the move and have settled into my new home, new state. Anyway, more info than anyone cares to hear, so to get to my question… I realize that it is not recommended to place a pond where there will be direct sunlight all day.  The problem that I have is that I live on a very flat lot, in a new community, with NO trees, and that faces to the east. There is simply no viable spot to install the pond where I can give it some shade from the sun. The state I live in is Delaware, so while it may not be as hot as florida, it still DOES get brutally hot in the summer.

So, do I just completely give up on my long lived dream of finally owning a pond, or is placing it in full sun, not really advisable, but still doable???

[miguynmkoi]

Welcome Ambull!

You can have a pond located just about anywhere, anyhow!  You can add plants around it in the ground or in pots and in the water.  It all depends on what effect you are going for and how big the prefab is.  Are you going to put the prefab in the ground or on top?  You'll find lots of help from many experienced ponders here.  Just keep asking questions and you'll get some great advice. 

[Reedman]

Welcome to the forum Ambull.  I live about 150 miles due west of you in southcentral PA.

My pond is in full sun, but it is 3' deep which keeps the water cooler than it would be in a small pond.  Floating plants would keep the water temp and algae growth down.

[Kittyzee]

Welcome!  I live in Ohio and my pond which is also about 3' deep, is mostly in full sun.  Floaters such as hyacinths and lettuce, and water lillies covering the surface all help to lower the water temperature.  Shade cloth and trees or large grasses placed strategically to hide the pond from the sun's rays will help too.  Nothing is impossible if you want it bad enough!   

[Vickie]

I have 10 ponds. All sizes all gallons. I have prefab I pull out in the summer. I do not burry them. I keep lilies and plants in them all.  The prefab ones are maybe 18 inches deep and maybe 100 gallons. I have kept Gambusi ( mosquito fish) in the with no problems. I have ponds that are 15 inches deep also and have fish in them but they were 1000 gallon and 500 gallon and 600 gallon. All but one pond is in full sun including the above ground prefab ones. Mainly put a water lily in it. You can put maybe one or put some floaters in the ponds. Most water lilies need at least 6 hours of light to bloom well.

[Rad Michelle]

hey welcome! no such thing as too much info we love getting to know you

im in california and not one of my ponds is in anything BUT full streaming baking hot sun for 12+ hours a day in the summer. ive had shallow above ground timber ponds at 14" of water, and preforms half way in the ground with max depth of like 22" all of my ponds have tons of lilies in them, cuz thats where i grow them, so the water does get warm but not too bad... it turns green in the spring, not like pea soup green, just extra alge for a few weeks and nothing that a little maintenance if you dont have a filter, or a simple filter cant handle. i've had koi, goldfish, fan tail guppies, peacock bass, blue gill, bull head cat fish, they all do fine in the warm water here, then again my ponds are geared towards the water lilies... dozens of them .

are you worried about alge blooms or?

[Julles]

Welcome, Ambul!

If you want lilies, and other plants, for that matter, you will need a certain amount of sun each day.

I had full-sun issues, too, and that caused green water.  What I did was to run heavy wires from the wooden fence to the house (my yard is very small, so this was only about 15' max length of wire), and then trained evergreen vines (bauer vine) to grow on it.  The leaves shade the pond enough to reduce heat and algae, but I keep them pruned enough to allow sun to hit my lilies and bog plants.

And that same year, I invested in a pressurized bio filter, and that also helped take care of the algae, by correcting water conditions.

BTW, you can go to your profile and fix it so we can see under your user name where you live, and the gardening zone.  That helps us know you better, and also to answer questions that may be related to climate.

Glad to have you!

[Ambull]

Wow what a tremendous welcome! Thanks!

Well it sounds like a go for my pond then.... FINALLY! I'm excited. The prefab is 18" deep, and is about 7' X 5' in length/width. No clue how many gallons that is - anyone know? Can anyone advise me how many Koi would be okay in a pond that size? My guess is not many. My intent was to place the pond in the ground, but I must admit that i am already thinking of selling it and upgrading to a larger sized pond already. I'll be putting patio blocks around the pond, so there will be a lot of work involved that will have to be undone after the fact should i want to upgrade in the future...

[RWinn]

If you are already thinking of going bigger do it. There is nothing worse than setting it up with regrets or tearing it out in a year to re-do it. Make it as big as you want and you dont have to use a pre form there is liner that you can buy. If you are wanting to keep koi try to make as deep as possible mine is 3 1/2 feet deep

[Julles]

Go here http://www.pondcare.com/reference-center/pond-calculator/index.aspx to figure your pond's volume.  Our member Johns also has a calculator on his website.

Yes, the big joke about ponds (just like motorcycles) is that once you have one, you always want a bigger one.  7'x5' is pretty large, but 18" is not very deep, especially since it won't be full to the brim anyway.  You should definately build a bigger one now - or at least deeper, for the sake of your fish and lilies. 

Think about it a lot, look at other ponds in person and on line, and plan exactly what you want to have, and will be willing to pay for and maintain.  Waterfall, stream, filter, bog, protection from predators, etc.  (Sell the pre-form, or keep it for quarantine, raising fry, or lilies.)

Incidentally, if you do go ahead and install the pond you have now, it would be possible to deepen it later, by going UP.  You can use landscape or regular concrete blocks to surround the pond with a wall, and use liner on the inside.  Not as natural looking, and makes it harder to access the pond/fish, but that's how they build many ponds in Austin, Texas, because the whole city sits on a bed of rock. 

[tinkster]

yep definatley go bigger hehehhe... cant go wrong with that decision!  having had both preformed and a larger pond, I think larger is cheaper and easier to take care of as far as algae etc etc and you always end up wanting more room.

tink

[Julles]

Since we have now convinced you to start from scratch  , be sure to include a deep (36" if possible) section for your fish, and a shallower end for your lilies.  A bog would be great, too, for marginal plants.  You can also design a bog filter, and eliminate the need for expensive purchased filters.  TimGod has a how-to in the DIY forum, or you can go to http://nelsonwatergardens.com/ and find their link to bog filter construction.

[Ambull]

What if I were to cut out the bottom of my prefab and dig a deeper hole, then place a liner under the prefab - does that sound doable?

[PondJoy]

I personally wouldn't do that myself.  here are my thoughts and that's all they are...for what it's worth.

1.  My pond is in full sun and I have never had green water.  I have a biofalls and a skimmer and I keep it clean.  Even though yours is preformed, be sure you have really good filtration.  I do not use any chemicals.

2.  HOWEVER, I believe that one important reason for the above is that I cover most of the pond in the summer with plants to create lots of shade.  It takes awhile for your plants to grow, so you may have to live with a little alage for awhile (I always have a couple of string algae blooms in the spring until the plants are bigger)...the algae is natural too don't forget.

3. As for size...we ALL (most of us anyway) want a bigger pond.  No matter how big, it's never big enough so my advice would be to start with what you have and see how you like it.  You will learn a lot and you will enjoy it while you are planning your next one.

4.  One last thing....about volume.  The only true way to know how much your pond holds is to measure it as it goes in.  You can get an inexpensive meter for your hose or you can do the DIY way...which is to get a 5 gallon bucket and time how long it takes to fill it.  Then with the water at the same pressure fill the pond and time it.  If you are consistent with the pressure and your watch you can do it that way.

5.  Whatever you decide, the most important thing is to enjoy it!  Good luck!

[Rad Michelle]

Oooo genius way to calculate pond volume

[Johns]

Ambull,

For someone who wants to grow water lilies, full sun is the prescription.  As a rule, water lilies only bloom in the sun.  As others have noted, the bigger the better.    If you are limited by materials at hand, design your water garden so that you can develop it in stages.  Elevating a pool close to the site for another pool gives you the option later on to join them with a stream, which might look nice with a small bridge.   It is important for many reasons to know the volume of your pool.  Consider investing in a garden hose flowmeter. 
http://www.ablackhorse.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=28648   or a more expensive model   
 http://www.jerman.com/hosemeter.html

[karen J]

I third the flow meter. It was the best investment I made when building my pond. You will know exactly how much water the pond holds.

One little thing is that I did not really measure length, depth, etc when building my pond. I just winged it, yet the funny thing is that when I filled the pond, upper pond, and filtration components using the flow meter it turned out that I used EXACTLY 3,000 gallons of water. I suspect I couldn't have achieved that even if I had measured it twice.

[Ambull]

Noone has any specific comment regarding my idea of cutting the floor of my prefab, and digging deeper into the ground, and then placing a liner around the prefab. The idea here is that it would provide me a firm and attractively shaped pond near the surface with the prefab, but with more depth near the bottom with the liner... this may seem like the silliest idea in the world - i dunno

[Kittyzee]

About your question about putting the liner under your cut-off bottom prefab:  why cut the prefab if you have dug your pond and have put the liner in the hole.  You are going to have to dig your pond to 'fit' it to your prefab.  You can dig a hole and make the liner fit to it.  It just seems like more work to me.  Plus you'll have the prefab to do anything else you might want with it.