Whoohooo!!!! Congratulations! I look forward to seeing photos when you're finished. Does this beat a pool any day, or what?

Glad to hear you're excited. :)

Andrea (former pool owner converted to pond)

PS Zinniachick is also one of us!

Ah, mentors! I'm saved! Thanks, Andrea--I knew Zinniachick made the switch and was sooo hoping there were more of us on this forum (which is the best I've found!). Hopefully, my work-in-progress will be finished before I am and I won't be too embarassed to post pictures! Thanks again for the welcome!

**hmm. I feel left out.**

Hey, we had an above ground pool, and after it died of old age, we put in our pond in the sand circle where the above-ground pool used to be - does that count?

All right, all right. I guess not.

:) Mary

What about the kiddie pool pond?
Darn.

Sorry, Mary, didn't mean to leave ANYONE out! Especially since most of my pond education came from people who haven't converted their pools :) I started out with a kiddie pool I bought for my dog who decided it wasn't big enough to stretch out in so I turned it into a pond; then I went to a bigger preform then added a whiskey barrel pond and a small peat/sand bog and finally, finally just did what I wanted to do to start with--turn the pool into a pond! My grandson didn't use it anymore and I never did and I just kept it up every year for my dog to swim in. Since he's not particular about how clear the water is I figured a pond would be better for him than a chlorinated pool, too, so here we are!

Linda

which sequence pump are you using and what type of bio media filter? What type of mechanical filtration are you using?

With just a couple goldfish in 11K gallons, filtration will not be an issue. but if you decide to put a bunch of koi in there, with that much water they will get BIG and require significant filtration.

Started out with NO filtration, just shut off the pool pump until my Sequence 1000 Pump 5000SEQ22 arrived and my son emptied the sand out of the Hayward pool filter and filled it with pea gravel (we disagreed here, but since he's helping me I gave in with the proviso that he'd help change to more bouyant media if this caused me grief) and the waterfall has,at least for now, the white filter pad that came with it, followed by bird-netting, bio-balls, 1" pvc tubes, and cut-up floor scrubber pad all in net bags, followed by poly batt on top. In other words, everything I could find to filter crud and grow/retain beneficial bacteria. Don't care for the cost/care of koi (just love looking at everyone else's!), but will probably add some sort of fish later on if the 2 goldfish I have don't overpopulate the space. I'm more inclined to provide a nice area for the frogs, toads, salamanders, etc. that were prone to drowning in it when it was a swimming pool! They're lovin' it now that the chlorine's gone:) Oh, I forgot to mention that I also have a Pondmaster LP100 air pump oxygenating the heck out of it, too (talk about overkill--but it shouldn't freeze over in the winter with that going). My little ponds are both stillponds, so any help/advice you, and others on the forum, can give will be much appreciated. I've learned a lot here, but a lot is never enough--I love learning:) I'm adding plants every week to combat the algae since the pond is in full sun for about half the day. Thanks for any/all input,

Linda

I saw a very unique pool conversion this past November. My wife and I went up to visit with members of the Gainesville Koi, Goldfish, and Water Garden Club at a cookout at the club president's house. He had a screened in deck on the back of his house. In the center of the deck was what use to be a 24' above ground pool. They had took the liner out and put steps down into it on two sides. They built two small ponds and had tropical looking plants planted around them. It looked great.

Happy ponding,
Scott

Very clever! I really like the idea of a screened-in pond & right in the deck where it can be enjoyed inside or out is awesome...no bugs biting

Scott, you don't by any chance have pics of that screened in ex-pool pond? DH and I have been tossing around ideas for our future retirement home (it will have gold faucets etc) (all right, all right, maybe we won't get all the little details that we're tossing, into the eventual design) (*no budget considerations at this point*) - and we would like a pond (or, one of the ponds) somehow enclosed so we can enjoy it for most of all of the year. A (glass?) roof over an enclosed inner courtyard was one of the ideas... (*re-read the budget remark here*)

:) Mary

O, the humidity.

If you live in a wintry place, consider moisture dispersal in your plans for an enclosed pond. I think a pondy screen porch on the east side of the house, protected from west winds, might be sweet. You could make a cement-block wall, with stone facing, (or a wall of windows) on the north side to divert that cold northern wind. East and south sides screened.

hahahaha...sweat running down your face...makeup like Gene Simmons...cup of coffee in hand. LOL

Mary, we had forgot the digital camera that day but if we ever get a chance to visit there again, you can bet your bottom dollar that the camera will be there and flashing.

Happy ponding,
Scott

Thanks, Scott! Zinnie, we currently have a hot tub in a room of laaaaarge windows. In the dead of winter I often leave the cover off for an hour or so to humidify the house. If we had some kind of enclosure, a hot tub would be part of it, and windows of the house could open into this enclosed area, and the humidity would benefit us.
Just think how much the house plants would like it!

Stone-faced concrete blocks do sound excellent. It could be used as solar energy storage maybe as well? If the sun warms it up during the day.

Some day (when we are getting a few years closer to retirement) I'll start a thread for ideas. That would be such fun.

:) Mary

Andrea, *immigrant culture gap showing* who is Gene Simmons?

Now! Back to Linda's thread!!!

Mary - you are so wonderful!! :) It's a good think you don't know who Gene Simmons is. LOL He was the front-man for a band called KISS in the 80s. One of their big marketing schticks was their outrageous makeup - when I think if sweaty, running makeup - I think of them. LOL

Where is Rhodyman? Linda, you should talk to him. He did the same kind of conversion you have done . May have lots of good info for you!

Thanks, pat c, I would love to talk to Rhodyman and anyone else with advise re conversion. As I stated earlier, this is my first pond with filtration and it's frustrating that it's murky when both my stillponds are crystal clear. Also, would appreciate any info on how often/long to backwash filter. The pool was easier, but the pond's a whole lot more fun! I'm starting to hear the "told you so's" already from family..please help me show them it can be done without a zillion dollars! Thanks all!

Linda

Linda - repost this. Rhodyman is back and can help you. He did the same thing.

A couple years ago we converted an old spring fed, unfiltered, swimming pool into a lily pond. It had stone walls, so we just had to dress up the top of the walls which had deteriorated. We didn't want the deep end anymore so we filled it in with clay. The pond is now 18,000 gallon (17'x 47'x 2-4Â). We put plastic nursery benches around the outside to use as shelves since pond plants are our main obsession. We added golden shiner minnows to keep insects down and provide the fish that are fun to watch. The largest are now around 7 or 8 inches long. We added trapdoor snails and had loads of frogs find the pond. We keep the outside edge lined with marginal plants on the benches and have lilies and lotus in the pond. We also added anachoris and hornwort as oxygenators. We also used a Pondmaster air pump. Ours is the 40 watt 1.7 cfm one. I use two diffusion heads that look like shower heads.

The first problem we experienced was string algae. We now have a plan in place where we still get a spring bloom, but it clears up and the pond is clean all summer. Here is our plan:

1) we have lots of plants to use the nutrients out of the water. It just takes them a while to get going in the spring.

2) floated a bale of barley straw near the spring pipe. This helps prevent algae blooms in the spring before the marginal plants get going.

3) apply one dose of algaecide (AlgaeFix) in early April to get a start in clearing the spring algae growth.

4) add bacteria (Microbe-Lift Spring/Summer) in early April to help eliminate the dead algae and other organic matter.

No filter, no UV, no water pump, no Koi, no problem.

{{gwi:214725}}
{{gwi:214727}}
{{gwi:214729}}

Now that's what I'm talkin' about! Natural and uncomplicated...nice! I'm trying to be patient, but the stuff growing on the sides of my pond is a reddish-brown not a fuzzy green. Is this dead algae? Should I do anything about it? I was thinking about shiners for mine, too, but didn't know anyone who had them to ask about them. I had 10 barley straw bales in mine, but since I got them late, the water was already green and I'm not sure if they were helping, so I took them out after reading that they might be causing the water to look brown. Should I put them back? Filters are a pain; I have to dump a cupful of tadpoles out of the leaf-basket darn near every day. If my son hadn't bought me a large waterfall I think I woud have just stuck with no filter/waterpump,too. Now I have to pay more than I want to for rocks to hide the waterfall as well as cover the pool edge. Had hoped to spread the cost (and labor) over time, but that "big, black tub" is downright ugly--needs to be disguised sooner rather than later!
Thanks for the input and the pictorial inspiration!
Linda

Barley straw only prevents algae, it won't kill it. That is the reason I use the algaecide (AlgaeFix) when the water gets warm enough for the barley straw to have an effect. I use one big barley straw bale. I never had a problem with brown water. In fact, when I took the old bale out, the straw still looked the same. It had not decomposed or anything. I replace it with a new bale this spring. I am posting a link to the site that supplies my barley straw. It is much cheaper than the little pond supply store bales.

Here is a link that might be useful: Barley Straw Pond Treatment

I saw your post on your conversion  congratulations. After 4 months how is it progressing? I currently have a pond that is set up with a pool pump and sand filter. I noticed you changed your pump to a sequence pump and put pea gravel in your filter. How is the filtering system working? Are you able to backflush the filter? Do you have to back flush often? In one of your postings you wanted to use a different media than pea gravel. What was the media you wanted to use?

Thanks in Advance

Tim Onofryton

Hi, Tim, and Thank You!
After four months, I'm still thrilled with the conversion! I've enjoyed it more than I ever did as a swimming pool! The sequence pump is costing me a fraction to run 24/7 of what the Hayward cost to run a few hours a day. When first set up, I found I had to backflush a couple times a day to keep it functioning, major bummer! After accidentally draining about 10k gallons overnight earlier this month :(, I covered the bottom drain with an inverted milkcrate full of bird netting, cleaned out the muck and rearranged the plants, setting up pots in the deep end on top of fiberglass pillars weighted down with cinderblocks. Voila! I have only backflushed about three times since then! I have had millions of tadpoles, treefrogs, green and leopard frogs, at least four bullfrogs that I haven't caught to relocate yet, goldfish and minnows (that are all multiplying), tons of plankton, dragonflies; and my plants grow like the dickens! Life is good! :) As to the filter media, I had wanted to use something more bouyant in the filter, but wound up leaving the pea gravel in it and adding a mat and nylon scrubbies to the biofalls instead. All seems to be doing well as is except for the pea soup look and the fact that it looks like an abandoned pool at the moment! LOL Due to cost restraints, I'll have to wait until next spring to get started on rocking-over the edges and falls and doing more landscaping around the concrete areas. Afterward, when there's something pretty enough to show, I hope to post some before & after pics--right now, I'm probably the only one (besides family who have no choice!) who finds it appealing!
How is your pond doing with the sand filter? I got scared off by all I'd read about clogging. Do you have fish? Is your water staying clear? I think mine could use more filtering, or more bacteria (it's in full sun most of the day) or just more patience! LOL
Nice chatting at you!
Linda

I am new to this forum and would like to hear from anyone who has converted an original vinyl-liner pool into a backyard pond. I am ready to tackle this project if the mortgage holder agrees to it (I've heard that the removal of a pool can trouble such humorless people!). I live in Sarasota FL, about 65 miles south of Tampa. My pool is in full sun all day, at 27.33 degrees north latitude, so I need to plan for intense heat much of the year. It's 16 x 32, around 22,000 gallons (pre-pond). Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer tips.

Hi, Tod, and welcome! Don't know if I would be any help as mine is fiberglass-lined, but I'm sure someone on here can advise you. One thing I can say is "Go for it!". It's cheaper and much more gratifying than removing the pool.
Keep us posted if you decide to convert.

Linda

Hi Linda and Tod -- I say go for it. We love the pond way more than the pool. We're out there every evening all spring, summer and fall, watching fish, listening to the waterfalls. Pools are dead, ponds are alive.

Andrea and I started at about the same place, but she did hers the right way, with jackhammering out some concrete, hauling in dirt and boulders, landscaping, etc. Hers is pretty darn awesome. Mine, well, it's the Appalachian version. We dropped a pond liner into the pool, threw in some fish, voila, pond. We have no plants. But you know, we love it. I can't figure out how to post a link to my whole photo album, so if you want to see photos of the liner going in before/after, email me and I'll send them.

Sorry so rushed. I'm not online much these days.

-- Zinnia

Hello
Was curious as to how this type of conversion affects your property taxes?? Woukld guess that the evaluation should go down?? Around here a SP adds around 10 k to the assesed evaluation around 250,300 per year. Would assume a
water garden is a lot less valuable?? gary

OK you guys have talked me into it--- I have been thinking about changing the pool for the past two years. (swam in the pool twice this past summer). A few questions for those who ahve completed the task.
1. How long should I wait for the chemicals to be gone before the fish (cheap ones at first) are moved from my other two ponds into the pool?
2. I have a tub about 40 gals for my other two ponds filter (both running from one pump via stream). Total volume is about 1800 gals. My pool (21000 gals) would require a huge tub, any recommendations?
3. Other than changing the filter media (sand to bio cubes) what other equipment changes are needed?
4. What did you that have completed the change do about the color of the sides and bottom? Mine is lite blue and would show dirt/algae very much

thanks, Dennis

Hi, Dennis

My pond "liner" is light blue right now, too, and I can't decide whether to leave it that way and go for a formal look or cover everything with rock and plant tons of greenery in between...
As I said in the beginning of this thread, it was just converted this past spring and I'm lovin' it...just not sure how far I want to go to change it.
Lots of help, guidance, and suggestions on this forum---great people here.
Work in progress:

{{gwi:214732}}

Linda

Hi Linda

Have corresponded with you before via posts. I am still working on my pool conversion. The sides of the pool are white plaster (not so white any more). There is a ring of 6" blue tile about the color of your coping at the normal water line. Now I am wondering whether I should paint the pool black or dark green (or not) before I fill it. What did you do? Were the sides/bottom of your pool white when you started? Whatever it looks good in the pix.
Painting wont be cheap. Right now my solution is to paint about a 1 ft band under the tile to match the tile so I can set the water level 6" below the tile and leave the rest. I am worred that it might not look good to have the algae covering the white plaster. Most ponds have a black liner.
What do you think?

Hi, Texas dad

I didn't do a thing with mine colorwise, that's the original (somewhat faded) blue color. I kinda like it, but my son thinks I should drape epdm over the sides and cover it with rock to make it look more 'natural' so I guess it's just a matter of taste. Mine's all in my tongue :). I figure the whole thing's surrounded by concrete...how natural can it look LOL. I know I'll never paint because the proper paint is sooo expensive and I hate to paint so I'd probably botch the job and it's too durned big to drain and repaint which I imagine would have to be done somewhere along the line. I think your idea to paint a band under the tile could work well as the algae will soon cover the white up to the waterline. Black or green throughout would look great, too, but a whole lot of work and money to do it right. Are you planning to put rock around the whole thing? If you post pictures of what it looks like now, I'm sure everyone will jump in with lots of great ideas and suggestions. There are a lot of gorgeous ponds here and very creative people who've found terrific solutions to enhance their ponds. You're on the right track thinking it through before you start rather than jumping in without a plan and wishing you'd done it differently many, many dollars down the road.

Linda

Hi, Howard!
Here's a little info re posting pictures I found in my clippings:
How to post pics directly into thread without learning the code.
The absolute easiest and fastest way to post pics in a thread where you don't need to figure out the codes (you can learn them later) is to store your photos free at photobucket.com. They post the code under every picture so you would just copy and paste this code into the message. The code to copy starts with

The one thing you should also do is change the pic size so it is not too big. Photobucket gives you an edit button above every pic and your final pic should be around 100k or less. I just hit the REDUCE BY 50% button and that usually does it for me.

To post by typing the HTML code yourself:
...First you must post your pictures in an online album like snapfish.com, webshots.com, etc.

Then you use the code

with the only space being between "img" and "src" and no quotation marks.

To get the URLofpicture go to your album picture and right click on the full size picture. Left click on properties and copy the ENTIRE URL address from that window. Then go to the above code and take out the words URLofpicture and paste in what you copied. You can practise posting at the test forum test forum
A couple of hints:
Make sure you get the entire URL...some can be quite long and snapfish you need to get all 3 lines so pull your cursor past the first two so that you can copy the hidden 3rd line. Snapfish's URL's usually end in the letters si.

Make sure you type the code correctly..a lot of people mix up src and type scr and it will not work!

Hope this helps.

I agree that the cost of paint and labor involved are daunting ergo my pond remains blue. Mine has a whole lot of cinder block and three fiberglass fountains, and a few milkcrates holding up my plants. You get real creative figuring out how to plant in depths ranging from three to six feet.

Linda

Leave the quotation marks in.

The url would be something like:

"http://home.dejazzd.com/shenning/Pond01.jpg";

So the line would be:

without the space between {{gwi:214725}}

Your browser has a position in the View menu called Page Source or Source that lets you look at what other people do when they post pictures. If you use this search for some text that appears just before or just after the picture and you will see the code they used.

Hi Linda and Rhodyman

Thanks for the tips. I think I got the picture thing to work, though I'm not sure it is supposed to be just like a link. I never could get it to insert it right into the message. I didnt see the "img src=" in Photobucket, but editing what was there got me this far (If it works again). I tried several variations in the test forum.

At any rate I decided not to take a chance and am painting the pool the darker color. I found a paint called "dry lock" at Lowes that says it is OK for ponds and it is about $22 per gallon. 100 sqft/gal coverage, and can be tinted. We'll see if it works. It is primarily a basement wall sealer.

I'm open to any suggestions to make it look better. I am in the process of tiling the top 24" of the "island" to make it look like rock instead of block sticking out of the water. The water level is to be in the middle of the light blue band below the tile. ( So our dog is not tempted to drink and maybe fall in,)

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:214724}}

Wow, lucky you! Go with grey, or what ever most closely matches the stone around it. The bottom and sides will soon be covered with algae (brown/black) anyway, so that won't matter. Great idea to build pillars to hold plants!

I love it already, can't wait to see more pix of your progress! Sorry I can't help, no experience here, but keep us posted texas dad!

Oh, Howard...

You got the makin's for one awesome pond goin' on there! Be sure to keep taking pics as you progress...I may have to drain mine and copy some of your ideas :) The island would be perfect for a turtle should one get the notion to move in(as one did to mine)and plants rising out of the water atop the pillars will look great. Terrific job!

Linda

Oh, Howard, please do this for me!!!!! Make some towers be stepping stones, just a couple inches over the water level, for the adventuresome to walk across the water after the pond is full. I so wanted to do that, and could not because my pond had to have a liner and I didn't want to set block on the liner.

Your pond's going to be beautiful. You are really going to enjoy it more than you can imagine. I'm so excited for you!

-- Zinnia

Hi Linda!

Hey, Zinnia!

Great idea! Still wish I had done that myself! Saw it on someone else's conversion and it looks terrific (added a link). Go for it, Howard!

Linda

Here is a link that might be useful: stepping stones

Where is Mary? I've got the pics that she wanted to see of the above ground pool conversion in the screened in deck.

These were taken in November. I couldn't get a wide angle shot due to the confined space but here they are.

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{{gwi:214746}}

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I hope you enjoy them.

Happy ponding,
Scott

Now, that looks like a Florida Native Pond. I like it. Glenda

Folks:
I considered the "stepping stone in the water idea" after Linda (obsessed_nj) shared the link with me. But I decided that I would probably fall in and our dog likely would too. It is pretty though. The steps would have to be pretty big to be safe to walk on.

Scott - Where do you live. That is a fantastic amount of follage around the pond. You must live where it never freezes. Really nice.

Scott!! Is that yours?? Wow, it took me a long time to see the old pool in there. I love it!

I also really love the pond in Linda's "stepping stones" link. Amazing job. I'd probably fall in, if it was mine. LOL

Brenda

Well I finally got my conversion more or less complete. Thought I'd post a pix here for any that were following this thread before: Thanks for all the help!!

{{gwi:214750}}

one more: (a lady gave me this nice plant)
{{gwi:214751}}

Howard, that's wonderful!! You did a great job and your plants look terrific! I had taken my slide down a couple of years before I converted the pool and now I wish I hadn't--could have attached shelves and put potted plants on them cascading down to the water. Congratulations on a beautiful pond! Now you can relax a bit and enjoy the fruit of your labor ;) Thanks for sharing pictures...more, more ; )
Linda

SCOTT! I'm HERE!

Those pics are great, I can get a really good idea of what they did. I'm filing the pictures for future study, and thanks so much for posting them for me!

The summer has been busy, what with youngest daughter's wedding, oldest daughter staying here for weeks with the three little ones, 2nd daughter (the boomerang kid) searching for a job with my computer, a bout with computer viruses... so I've been intermittent on the garden web. I noticed a post from you on another thread though. Brenda, this is not Scott's pond, it is at the house of somebody from a koi club - see much earlier on this thread.

Btw, may I compliment all of you pool converters? Your ponds look fantastic, and have a wonderful formal quality that makes me think of old manors and palaces in Europe!

:) Mary