Rufassa,

Sorry but there is no thing as a maintenance free water feature. There are low maintenance features that still require occasional cleaning if you have plants. The plants of course need to be trimmed, repotted, ect. The spent leaves and fallen debris from trees, pollen, ect will need to be removed occassionally. Mosquito dunks placed in the pond will prevent mosquitos from breeding successfully. Adding fish to your water feature intensifies the maintenance greatly. They eat, produce waste that needs to be removed, and will reproduce.

Good luck,

Lisa

Eh, no. Absolutely no such thing. I have a 6'X3'X18" pond, no fish, just plants a lily, and snails, and crystal clear water, however, you still have to do some work on it to keep it that way. Even with my set up, I still spend a few hours a day working on it. You really need to be interested in all aspects of a pond to have one.

I think Lynne22 meant to say hours a week rather than a day but the idea remains the same. Please don't put any fish in any pond of yours. You could be charged with cruelty to animals. Without some way to clean the water it will become stagnant, a breeding ground for mosquitoes and an eyesore.
Should you discover some miracle combination for a truly maintenance free pond you will probably be ignored by the ponding community who derive a great deal of the pleasure in ponding from the labor. There is little pleasure in what is so easy. Sandy

Ponding is an adiction. You can put your little six by six pond in, throw in a couple of fish to keep the bugs under control and with a good filter clean it once a month. But next year.... THink twice the size and three times the depth.

My addiction is gardening and this is an extension of that.

So, I am getting that if I were to do this and decided to only put a few water lilies in then I would have the minimal amount of work. So from what I am reading I would have to do something to it once a week or so. What is it that I will need to do? Is it just a matter of scooping out leaves and debris or will I have to drain, clean, etc Â?

Hi
If you grow "hardy" lilies would cut down on the maintenence as there would be the winter break. Tropicals require protection so would have to be removed . Would certainly make it deep enough to handle freezes.
I find most of the work resuting from overgrowth. Most aquatic plants are very aggressive. I only repot once a year but requires thinning several times particularly summer. To me, it's no more work than a regular flower bed and a heck of a lot less than vegetables.
Have you thought of a fountain or pondless waterfall?? These can be very low maintenence . gary

You certainly can do this. You do not need a pump, in fact that would increase your maintenance.

I have three small liner ponds with no fish and no pumps that are full of native treefrogs, dragonflies and all sorts of aquatic critters that I haven't identified. Some look like shrimp, some look like bugs.

The oldest of these ponds is five years old.

I put clay garden soil on top of the liner and planted dwarf hardy waterlilies right into it. I put pea gravel on top but raccoons did grind it into the clay so it isn't there anymore. Raccoons are such a problem that we now have covers that we put on every night which is a pain but that is the only real maintenance other than scooping out some leaves in the fall, scooping some string algae occasionally and pulling off dead pads and flowers from the waterlilies.

We use Mosquito Dunks as they don't harm the tadpoles or other aquatic life or the cats, birds and squirrels that come to drink.

I have found it very difficult to photograph tadpoles and other critters in the water even though it is clear but there are some photos here

Here is a link that might be useful: Front Ponds

You look like you have enjoyed getting your ponds established. I think I recognize the smile :-). I am truly impressed with the drilling through the columns. How long did it take and how did you connect the pump to the cuts? Is there some sort of tubing through the cut? How many gph is the pump? That is quite a bit of turbulance. Are the columns cut or poured? Do you work in a quarry? What do the bases rest on and how large are they? I may come up with just a few more questions if I have the time.
Maybe if I was 15 years younger I would try something similar but everyone thinks I'm crazy anyway. Thanks for posting the photos. It is a great project and you did a great job. Sandy

buyorsell888, I would have loved to spend more time looking at your pond pics, but found it very difficult to focus on the photos, due to the hectic background of the album. I would suggest maybe making it a plain background so people can focus in on the pond pics. Just a thought.

I linked the photos to show the OP the three outer ponds surrounding the column pond, they are all pretty much no maintenance wildlife ponds.

The columns are basalt, they are quarried near here in the Columbia River Gorge. They split off the mountain in columns naturally. I work from home selling gifts and home decor wholesale to stores not at a quarry. ;)

It took my husband several hours (each) to drill them using a rotohammer he brought home from work and this saved us hundreds of dollars. Pre-drilled columns are available all over the place here but very expensive.

He built the bases using standard 12" cinder blocks and 12" slate floor tiles mortared on to cover them. They sit on extra pieces of liner.

There are PVC pipes going up through each base into each column there is a trident shaped piece made of PVC that the hoses connect to so all three columns are run by one pump. There aren't any valves on yet but there are going to be. The pump is a Pondmaster Hy Drive 3200. There is too much splash so we need to dial it down. Smaller pump was returned because it just produced a trickle.

I designed the entire water feature back in 2004 but it took until fall 2008 to get the columns done. The first liner pond was done in 2004.

None of the three planted ponds has ever had pea soup algae but the column pond tried to turn green earlier this year when we cleaned it out completely to paint the pipes black and remove debris from the neighbor's box elder (now cut down). I added black dye from Microbe Lift that I have been using in the greenhouse pond and the green algae stopped.

Buyorsell, the trio of rock columns look terrific!
Great job on all of your ponds, they look beautiful.
"Horton"

Thank you.

I realized I had forgotten the covers last night and when I flipped on the porch light to go out and cover them a baby opossum was drinking from one of them.

We take the covers off during the day so the dragonflies can get to the water to breed. Otherwise, they hover above them all confused....

I have a small pond, 4 x 3, 24" deep with one small waterlily and one acorus. No fish. It is clear most of the time with no filtration. I get an occasional frog and birds drink out of it. I do top it off. It used to have a pump/filter/fountain combo in there, but it broke down. I bought a replacement but it is still sitting in the box after 2 years! The lily covers most of the water surface and I do get algae growing on the sides, but it is not a gooey, icky mess by any means. I don't disturb it for the most part except to remove spent lily pads. Most times I can see to the bottom and see the waterlily roots which have covered the bottom. I used to put in a bubbler in winter but I have not done that for two years either. My frost line is 22" and our winters are getting milder each year. I've seen a few snails in there and also the occasional tadpole.

Thank You for the info texasbubba!