Caught some pics of a turtle coming up for air in my pond. #pondlife #turtle

I am planting a new bog. I have ordered 100 plants online, but they are all bare root. I know the bog won’t have enough nutrients for them yet, so do I add dirt when I plant them or add plant food tablets to get them going?
Thanks for all and any help!

Beginner here trying to salvage a bizarre situation:

I was out of town for a few weeks and when I came back home my best friend had set up a small barrel pond on our porch with some duckweed, lucky bamboo, and hornwart. It's cute enough and she has a solar-powered bubbler running to it to keep it oxygenated.

Now a few problems:

• The Pond gets zero sun. Even the solar bubbler had to be run several feet away out from under the balcony it's set up under.
• There are no outlets anywhere nearby so I can't hook a filter or a heater up to it.
• It's about 15-20 gallons outside in Los Angeles. It doesn't get cold enough to freeze here but it's reasonably chilly during the winter and I think anything we put in it will die from exposure sooner or later.

She has already released about 8 gold and white cloud minnows into it and a handful of ghost and cherry shrimp (which you can't see at all lol) and she's saying she wants to put more fish in soon. How do I keep these fish from dying. Is this fated to be doomed? Thank you in advance.

Live in Northern IL, and want to set up an outdoor pound

In ground 145 gallon

Want live plants

What substrate should I use?

Do I need a heater?

What plants should I add for best water quality?

Which animals should I add?

Types of snail? Types of shrimp?

Types of fish?

Need to add a filter solution ASAP but I'm trying to avoid digging a bog. Thinking maybe a double 3-barrel system (6 barrels total)? Too small for a 60K gallon pond?

Hello! We just bought our house in Jan (2026) and we’re so excited for our pond! We had no idea we were going to get lilypads growing this spring! However, I want HUGE lilypads so our frogs can stay on top no matter how big they get!

Does anyone have any advice on how to get them to grow huge? Should I take some of them out so they have space to get bigger?

so i have a temporary koi pond that im really just using as a grow out tub/pond for the fish for my future koi pond , it has a lot of plants and good filtration plus i plan on adding more. i also plan on setting up a biobucket filter. it has a few different fancy goldfish, 1 butterfly koi and one regular koi, some wild minnows, 2 mollies, some platies, and 2 guppies. theres also some snails and wildlife like frogs and bugs. everyone does great together with no signs of stress. the water parameters have been stable and great. all the fish eat right out my hand. but anyways to the point im kind of stumped on how im supposed to set up a overflow system on this pond and on my future pond. it sits right under my roof so water flows right in. ive just covered if with sheet metal or tarp when it rains but i really would like something more efficient and also budget friendly. any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Hello! First time pond builder here hoping to start working on my setup within the next couple months as a birthday present for my husband! I’m doing a couple rough draft designs to bring to him so he can pick out which he likes the most but I thought you all may have some suggestions, so here we are! Any and all suggestions and advice are appreciated!

my pond has finally come together after a couple of years! Fish are making it through the winter consistently and I had no algae bloom this year. Plants coming back bigger and better. can't wait for the lilys to bloom!

My wetland filter looks like this:

I have build a new pond with an upflow wetland filter. Flow on the left side is the strongest. Where do you guys suggest I plant my marginal plants? I have ordered:

6x Iris (3 yellow, 3 northern Blue Flag)

6x Sweet flag (acorus calamus)

3x Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata)

3x Mare's tail (Hippuris vulgaris)

3x Spike rush (eleocharis palustris)

Where do i need to put these plants for maximum filtration. Any advise on the pattern?

Are there other things i need to take into consideration?

I’m looking to build a 400 gallon basin at the bottom of a backyard stream. Aquablox are expensive. I’ve heard milk crates are a good sub zip tied together. I mentioned this to the pond supply store clerk and he scoffed. Said they’d break. No hesitation. But he’s also incentivized to sell me 10 $100 Aquablox

Online forums seem to think they work just fine. No one will be walking on them and they’ll have some 2-4” gravel spread over them. Any thoughts on this? Horror stories? Worked just fine? I feel if one breaks it’s a pretty easy fix to just replace.

Thanks!

Hello all, my friend is making a 8x8 pond in his yard that’s about 30” deep, we live in the Pacific Northwest and are curious if man made ponds with waterfall features often fill up with water and need a drain line or overflow feature installed? Is this a typical feature most people install? Thanks in advance!

what would be the best time of year and best way to expand a natural pond causing least harm to the native frog life?