{"id":8716,"date":"2015-03-09T12:04:10","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T02:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/project.theownerbuildernetwork.co\/?p=8716"},"modified":"2025-11-03T10:39:34","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T00:39:34","slug":"our-natural-swimming-pond-build-the-last-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/2015\/03\/09\/our-natural-swimming-pond-build-the-last-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Natural Swimming Pond Build: The Last Post!"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve followed this blog from the beginning, you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking that I perhaps never got to finish our pond because of the brain eating amoeba.\u00a0 Alas, nearly as surprising, we added a fourth girl to our lives which sent us from busy to bedlam.\u00a0 (And if you haven\u2019t read from the beginning, now\u2019s probably the time to head there<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Our blood, sweat, tears and arguments have resulted in a swimming pond that we love and our girls use about nine months of the year (more if they are brave enough).<\/p>\n

The $$$$$<\/h4>\n

All in, we spent about $10K from start to finish.\u00a0 This should have been considerably less, except for the (w)hole disaster!<\/p>\n

Because our budget was non-existent, we reused, recycled and bought second hand whenever we could.\u00a0 Gumtree, Trading Post, and our local Facebook Buy\/Swap\/Sell were scoured for hours.\u00a0 Our pool, pool fence and pavers were all sourced this way and saved us an enormous amount of money.<\/p>\n

Things we had to buy new were price checked.\u00a0 Prices can vary considerably between one landscape supplier and the next and delivery charges are just as volatile.\u00a0 Be organised and get as many of your supplies as you can delivered in one load.\u00a0 Most trucks have dividers in them so you can have a split load on one truck.<\/p>\n

The Plants<\/h4>\n

Source your water plants locally.\u00a0 They are already adapted to your climate and will do the best job at filtering your water.\u00a0 Our reeds die back in the dead of winter which while not impacting on filtration, changes the look of our landscaping dramatically.\u00a0 We go from 6 foot high jungle at the height of summer to some very dead looking leaves.\u00a0 We have under planted with several different types of low growing pond plants that various friends have given to us.\u00a0 We have also planted a few cana lilies and water irises that flower sporadically throughout the year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Our
Our reed bed at the end of winter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Wildlife<\/h4>\n

Remember the great snake debate that dictated so much of this project?\u00a0 There has been one and it conveniently arrived the day after Christmas while we had a yard full of guests.\u00a0 No it didn\u2019t have a swim and was removed the same day.\u00a0 There has also been one snake skin found in the reed bed that ended up as \u201cshow and tell\u201d at school.<\/p>\n

We also had a resident turtle for a while, that obviously liked the pond so much that it returned after we relocated it to the dam.<\/p>\n

Our local finches and honey eaters often come to the reed bed for a drink and the kookaburras and kingfishers spend some of each day sitting on the pool fence.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve had tadpoles and frogs in the pond and waterskimmers.<\/p>\n

One of our free range chickens spent the night in the filter box (don\u2019t ask us how she got in there) but lived to fight another day.<\/p>\n

Remember that we live rurally so I cannot guarantee the same results in suburbia!<\/p>\n

The Water Quality<\/h4>\n

So, this was always going to be the deal breaker and I\u2019m very happy to report that it is crystal clear all the way to the bottom.\u00a0 You\u2019ll have to trust me on this one.\u00a0 Despite multiple attempts at getting a photo to prove the point, I can only ever get a reflection of the sky.<\/p>\n

The Worst Idea<\/h4>\n

While the pond was only half full and without a water feature or water movement, I was concerned that we would end up breeding mosquitoes and suggested that we buy a couple of goldfish to eat any developing larvae.\u00a0 BIG mistake.<\/p>\n

Hubby decided that he liked them so much, that when the pond was fully operational they got do stay.<\/p>\n

Couple of goldfish, 30,000 litres of water.\u00a0 What could go wrong?<\/p>\n

Well, for a start, the couple of goldfish grew in number and included koi.\u00a0 Every time I turned around, hubby and the girls had been back to the pet shop and returned with a few more.\u00a0 If one was found floating, it had to be replaced.\u00a0 The kookaburras and kingfishers were accused of eating them, so more were bought.<\/p>\n

I said \u201cDon\u2019t feed the fish\u201d!\u00a0 Fish food was purchased and our swimming pond (now a fish pond) had fish food added to it.<\/p>\n

Now what do gold fish and koi do a lot of?\u00a0 Poop!!!!!<\/p>\n

Nice warm water, add some fish food, lots of fish poop and before too long you have the black lagoon (and yet again, a very cranky wife).<\/p>\n

So, after yet more marital discord, because I want these pooing machines gone and he wants them to stay, I research products that won\u2019t kill fish, but will clean the water up.\u00a0 If you ever end up in this very unlikely and unfortunate position, I can highly recommend Pond Care AlgaeFix and EcoFix.<\/p>\n

Eventually however, I put my foot down and give an ultimatum that it\u2019s me or the fish.\u00a0 Apparently, I\u2019m slightly more useful than a goldfish, so I got to stay.<\/p>\n

The girls are given a week to catch the goldfish for rehoming.\u00a0 This proves more difficult than I anticipated, and after a week they\u2019ve managed to catch two.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re going away and I want the fish out and the water clean before we leave and I\u2019m all out of Algaefix and Ecofix.\u00a0 Back to Google for a solution that won\u2019t kill the reed bed (the fish have had their chance) but will clean the water.\u00a0 Are you paying attention, because this bit is important!\u00a0 Cheap household bleach.\u00a0 No lemon flavour, domestic goddess variety \u2013 the cheaper the better.<\/p>\n

12 litres into 30,000 litres does a brilliant job.\u00a0 As a happy side result, the fish very quickly came to the surface.\u00a0 39 of those poo creating things got collected.\u00a0 They now live here.<\/p>\n

\"Just
Just add fish!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Maintenance<\/h4>\n

Aside from the fish disaster, the pond is really very low maintenance.\u00a0 We have a pool scoop to remove the leaves that fall in.\u00a0 We have also added a standard swimming pool pump that we use to occasionally vacuum the bottom of the pool.\u00a0 This is a personal preference and completely unnecessary, but should be considered if you want a totally debris free bottom.<\/p>\n

We do have to add water (probably more than in a standard pool) because of evaporation through both heat and wind.<\/p>\n

Aside from that, I give the reeds a serious haircut when they die back in winter.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

I really hope you\u2019ve enjoyed the highs and lows of our swimming pond.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got a backyard cabin now underway that\u2019s about as equally fraught with issues.\u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve followed this blog from the beginning, you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking that I perhaps never got to finish our pond because of the brain eating amoeba.\u00a0 Alas, nearly as surprising, we added a fourth girl to our lives which sent us from busy to bedlam.\u00a0 (And if you haven\u2019t read from the beginning, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"After years of updates, see our completed natural swimming pond! From brain-eating amoeba fears to baby #4, here's the stunning final reveal.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sma_last_campaign_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[467],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-natural-swimming-pond"],"modified_by":"DW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theownerbuildernetwork.co\/project\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}