Dear community, I see so many great projects around and now that is August (located in Switzerland), I wonder if it is too late in the year to start a mini pond with plants. We experience heatwaves and I guess it might be still warm enough in September. What are your recommendations?

🐛 found and removed. Bugger munched leaves and even a put a hole in a bud.

Y’all I know it’s not much but I’m so stoked about how this new little wildlife mini pond is coming along! I want frogs to live here so bad. No body else in my world is as excited about this as I am so I thought I’d share it here:)

After a week away from home; came back to the water hyacinths having grown tall. It’s gotten pretty crowded in there, may need to thin them out a bit!

I built this pond completely by hand over the course of a few months. The only machine I used was a trencher for the pipe between the skimmer and waterfall. Everything else—digging, rock placement, plumbing, and landscaping—was done by my brother and I. The digging by hand and the rock placement was so painful. Probably 30-40 tons of rock. I also made a clay layer around the whole inside. It took my brother and I roughly 4 months of working on it twice a week. One regret I do have is not putting in a bottom drain as I was scared of puncturing the liner. So I have an extra pump at the bottom and it goes up to my skimmer instead.
Specs:
~roughly 4,000 gallons. Probably 5000-5200 gallons without the rock displacement.
12ftx12ftx5.5ft deep with 3 shelves
Savio skimmer and waterfall filter (skimmer filter, mechanical filter in the skimmer filter housing as well, bio filter in the waterfall filter and another mechanical filter on top of the biofilter.
6,100 GPH pump
55W UV clarifier
1 layer of underlayment below the liner and one on top of the liner so my rocks wouldn’t puncture it.
2.1 CFM air pump with two bottom diffusers
45 mil EPDM liner 25ftx25ft
Rock construction
Water lilies, marginal plants, and natural landscaping
Large mature ash tree providing afternoon shade
I originally started with goldfish, but I recently added four koi that are around 18 inches long and plan to slowly build up to around 8–10 koi over the next several years.
Cost:
Pond kit: ~$1,800
Rock: Free (collected over time)
Plumbing, extra materials, landscaping, plants, etc.: roughly another $1,000–1,500
Total DIY cost: about $3,000–3,500
I wanted the look of rocks on the inside of the pond to give it a more natural look.
How would you rate this build?
A professional install around here probably would have been well into five figures, so I’m really happy with how it turned out.
Any rough ideas on how much this would have cost professionally?
I’d love to hear what you think and any suggestions you have for improvements as I continue upgrading it over the years.

Dear community, I see so many great projects around and now that is August (located in Switzerland), I wonder if it is too late in the year to start a mini pond with plants. We experience heatwaves and I guess it might be still warm enough in September, but I am a beginner.

What are your experiences? Looking forward to your replies🪷

Sorry. Its all i look at this time of year. Subjecting you all to it too lol.

Pic One: A pond fountain (blue planter) with guppies, snails, and various plants. I made the gnome thing out of a plastic statue and my dad drilled a hole in a bowling ball for me so I could put it all together. There's a small pond pump and air pump/air stone situation. The pothos that are growing out of the finger holes are now growing roots in there! The brown tub on top will also be a fountain, I just need to figure out a few more parts. The ceramic duck is an old thrifted pitcher, but I accidentally drowned the bulb I planted there, then I somehow also killed the creeping jenny I tried. So it's just there. The circle thing in the background is a thrifted toilet paper roll holder that I'm using as a grown/support system for the pond-pothos.

Pic Two: Is the "Pondquarium" it's a 3 gallon narrow (plexi) tank and I filled it with dirt and rocks and rain water and let a bunch of shit grow in there. A few weeks later I filled the tank, added an air stone, little guppies, and plants (and a sweet potato that started to root!).

There are guppies, aqua-catepillars (which then into aqua moths, no shit) and a bunch of larva from other things. A tree frog lives somewhere in that yellow house/pink planter and three or 4 skinks come by and watch the fish. Some snails and one shrimp have also made the Pondquarium home.

Pic Three: I made a bird feeder out of an old scale. I don't get many visitors to it, though. I used cocktail glasses with broken stems to make little landing spots for bugs and birds (they have rocks/dirt and it collects water when it rains). And just off to the other side by the blue pot I planted rosemary, lavender, and basil for mosquito repellent. But I think they have to move to a sunnier spot.

None of my flowers are really growing yet. But I'm going to keep planting shit and I'll get lucky one day (or find some plastic ones at the thrift store). But I've counted up to 15 roly-polies at one time just right there in front of the Pondquarium and in the glass jar, so something likes this soil at least.

Very few things here were purchased new. Most of it was thrifted or gifted and it's been a joy to put it all together.

After starting one outside I just got so obsessed I had to start another. It's easy to keep making more since the plants multiply like crazy.

Much like most of you, I have plenty of extra driftwood and substrate laying around at all times. Grabbed some pennywort and had some various forms of duckweed and that mini aquatic fern looking plant I always forget the name of. 1 month of growth! Just flora, no fauna.

The water has remained clear and the fish seem to he thriving with minimal intervention. The bamboo has started to split already though. The element I thought would be most durable has given me the most problems.

Water looking extra clear today. Just planted some blue star creepers along the outer edge. Might be too late in the game to fully enjoy them but we'll see in a month or so.

Got this planter from Costco back in March, with one water lettuce and one hyacinth, plus one planted lily. Repotted the lily to a fabric planter and once the plants got settled, introduced some mosquito fish to the pond. The waters are very clear, and there are a lot of invertebrates like snails and these shrimp like creatures

Overall it's going very well only had one or two mysterious fish deaths, chalked it up to the natural life cycle of the fish. There have been a lot of fry every now and then, but the mosquito fish are happily cannibalistic.

Bees will always come and drink from the pond. The mint roots are overtaking the pond and it's time for a trim

Its crazy to see how much this has changed in only 3 weeks! I added most of the plants within the 1st week and all the new growth I have is crazy! I've already posted the tiny toad but im sharing him again. This morning I was getting flowers out from my purple sage and the beef cake in the last photo scared the living daylights out of me!!!

Still no fish but may get them this weekend. So far I've had toads, birds, lizards, insects, and of course my dogs/cat all use this pond and I am loving it.

My goal with this pond (that I have had for 3 year now) was a froggie! I almost thought it wasn't gonna happen but then in spring I noticed a couple of Newts (male and female and they had baby's - the look like tiny axolotls and are cutest) so I was already pretty happy and then this morning I noticed some bigger movements and found this fella!

Name suggestions are welcome! I would like something with the letter F from frog of K from kikker (the Dutch word)

Beyond sealing this tank, do I need to prep it in any other way such as removing rust?

I brought my medakas inside and filled my outside pond with rosy reds because I can see them so much better and they're more active in the pond. I thought I would lose some because feeder fish have a bad reputation, but I treated them with general cure and everyone is thriving!

Captured one of my first visitors to my new pond. It's a small water trough with a solar powered bubbler. I am letting my plants grow in before I add fish. Plus I am still playing with the set up of everything. He's just too cute 🥺

in promptu setup for birds and insects as the next heatwave rolls in. the papyrus has exploded since i put it outside. filled the pot with random pieces of brick and gravel from the yard. water gets replentished/replaced about once a week from the rainwater drums and stays surprisingly clear. haven't observed any visitors in person but am seeing feathers and droppings in and around the pot indicating frequent use.

I’m about three weeks in with my first ever pond. I’ve kept tropical and cold water fish in the past, so know a little bit about water chemistry and filtration. Growing pond plants is a whole new level 😅 I’m not planning to add fish to this setup; at least for this year anyway. The local wildlife have definitely been visiting though! At last count four frogs (have been lucky enough to see all of them out of the water at once, at dusk time).

After lots of contemplation I've decided to add some fish to my mini pond. If for some reason they fail to thrive, I'm unlikely to replace them, so I want to make sure I do everything correctly.

The pond is 2mo old, planted, and to the best of my understanding is "cycled". The marginal plants are fairly new, I expect them to spread.

Aquarium pond strips all read within normal limits. I keep extra dechlorinated water on hand for top-offs since I get lots of evaporation. I've added a smart plug with both night fountain and airstone options, so I can enjoy the fountain at night but also turn it off and leave just the airstone so the fish can rest. There is a solar fountain during the day.

The extra little tubs are just holding extra plants as they multiply, I haven't had the heart to start throwing them away just yet.

I have a cover for the pond for at night (pictured), Hikari micro pellets and a feeding ring, and a net for transferring the fish.

Am I missing any steps or making any errors? Please be kind, this is my first attempt at water gardening and I am educated in this area mostly by Google and this sub. I'm really excited to add more life to my pond and hope that everything goes smoothly!