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Robyn's 16.5 Gallon Liner Pond Page

Last Updated: 1/22/14

Physical Attributes
Animals
Plants
History
Photos

See my Pond Showcase page on this pond.

Physical Attributes

Built 9/6/97
Demolished 3/8/12.
~16.5 gallons in shade
45-mil EPDM liner, piece left over from big pond
Granite from property
Pond for birds, frogs, insects, and deer

Animals

Whoever shows up used the pond. Mosquito dunks and bits prevented many insects though. I thought I saw some sort of large beetle larvae in there 8/98.

On 8/22/98, I noticed a lot of mosquito larvae since I was out of mosquito dunks. The beetles apparently did not eat them. So, I put in 5 mosquito fish from my tub pond. I never saw them again except for one in early 10/98 that froze come winter. Perhaps the crows or raccoons ate them. Oh well, I had plenty. There were fewer mosquito larvae too. By 1/13/99, this pond had been frozen solid for a few weeks.

On 7/12/99, a lone newly adult spotted salamander (from inside) was put in the pond a day after the pond had a total cleaning. The week before, the pond had been full but with no rain in months and thirsty deer, the pond was empty in under a week.
By fall of 1999, there were no animals in this pond except a few young green frogs.

The animals present in the pond varied day to day. There were mosquitoes, beetles, mosquito fish, young green frogs, and rat-tailed maggots (drone fly larvae) at various times. Deer drank from the pond regularly as did neighborhood dogs and cats. When I cleaned out the pond on 9/2/00, I removed two green frogs who had wandered over as well as a two-inch bronze goldfish; surprise! There must have been eggs on the parrot feather I put in.

For 2001, I poured in some water from a local pond that was full of daphnia and tadpoles. I netted out daphnia every once in a while to feed to my fish elsewhere. The daphnia did really well there. I tossed in food every once in a while but I really did not know what they were eating! I shop vacuumed out the pond and replaced the mucky water on 10/14/01 and saw no daphnia left.

Amazingly, in 2003, I discovered daphnia in the pond! I had shop vacuumed it out at least four times since I put them in and yet here they were; some had survived! In August, 2003, I put water hyacinth in this pond that happened to be full of goldfish eggs! I netted out 17 of them on 10/12/03 which I put into my basement pond until spring.

Plants

All died so I stopped adding them since it was too shady and the deer ate them. On 9/5/98, I dumped in some of my excess salvinia and creeping primrose that I would have just dumped to die anyway. After that, I continued to dump my excess plants in there for the deer to munch. Any surviving plants died over winter when the pond froze solid.

On 7/11/99, a ton of excess primrose creeper, a few anacharis, some parrot's feather, and a small piece of watercress were added to the pond to make the salamander added on 7/12/99 more comfortable.

In 2000, I put in a bunch of parrot feather (with eggs apparently). I put nothing in for 2001 but should have.

I shop vacuumed and refilled the pond on 8/4/02. Then, I added some excess water lettuce and one water hyacinth which the deer will eat.

On 8/10/03, I filled the entire pond with excess water hyacinth and a few water lettuce.

I did not put any plants in this pond in 2004 until 8/29/04 when I put in about a dozen water hyacinth. A whirligig beetle came along for the ride too. The deer ate most of the plants. There were a few baby green frogs back there. On 11/21/04, I vacuumed out and refilled the back pond and found no animals.

History

I cleaned (shop vacuum) out this pond about two times a year. I did so on 4/29/07.

On 3/24/08, I cleaned out the back pond. It was full of 16 gallons of wet, stinky leaves. I used my bare hands to pick up that slop and toss it. Running three hoses and a 100 foot extension cord back there, I was able to rinse, vacuum, and repeat until it was sort of clean. I refilled the pond. The rocks had really collapsed in as had the liner over 11 years. I would redo the pond except it was so far from the house, and I let it "go wild" anyway, only cleaning it a few times a year. There were no plants or animals back there aside from whatever bugs might be there.

I cleaned out the back pond on 4/1/09. Ewwwwwwwwww! Ditto the above.

I cleaned out the little pond on 3/31/10.

I did not clean out the back pond again until 7/14/11! Boy was it dirty! I planned to replace it with a slightly larger pond, perhaps closer to the house last spring but it never happened. I have the liner, just no time and no help.

I demolished this pond on 3/18/12. There was almost no water in it, just a lot of leaves. I pulled out the rocks and liner. I bought a new liner a few years ago and had to decide if and where I might build a replacement for this pond. At that time, there was a drought so digging was out anyway. I dug the new pond on 5/8/12 and used some of that dirt to fill in the hole where the old pond used to be.