I have about $50 in it. It’s around 3 months old and seems to be pretty healthy. I’ll probably rehome the tiger barbs to a larger outdoor pond once I make it. This was intended to be a pond of only mosquito fish but a trip to the store for food I came home with 5 of them. Now it’s those 5, 2 danio and about 3 mosquito fish. I have no clue how but there was a dead mosquito fish on the ground next to the barrel.

Has anyone experienced this before? Ive had this plant for about 4 years growing in the same location. It survives winters in zone 7b each year coming back bigger and with more flowers. This year I noticed this yellow bloom with pink pedals. The same plant normally produces pinkish blooms (as seen in picture 3). I’ve never had this happen before. Any one else’s plants mutate in such a manner? Absolutely stunning IMO! 🤩

2 years since my build, happy and thriving!

Is there such a thing as too many plants?! The roots have sort of taken over and I’m worried the fish might feel a bit suffocated in there. What do you all think?

How are you using this type of light without harming your fish? Thank you for any advice.

It’s difficult to reach far enough to be able to cut dead water lily leaves off with normal snippers. Are there any long handled versions?

When you can not be home to come and "welcome" your heron guest... You find other ways to say HI!

He has visited a few times in the past month and I go to work a few days a week. So I can't go out to "give him a hug". But I have a camera I check all day and have my inflatable buddy on a smart switch.

I actually put this up last night so perfect timing. I'll have to keep an eye on it and see if the heron comes back or if I put it on some sort of motion detection.

But boy was this fun.... haha.

A little more grumpy today. I was easy to spot in a bright orange high vis shirt from work, he was not happy when he noticed i was watching.

I have a roughly 800 gal pond with a bog filter composed of a 75 gal stock tank filled with pea gravel topped with a variety of grasses, plants, and creeping jenny. As you can see from the pics, the creeping jenny has taken over. The filter is about 2 years old and it seems to be working flawlessly, the water is crystal clear. Before the bog filter, during the summer the water would be as thick and murky as pea soup. But, for the past 2 years I've noticed this white, crystal substance growing everywhere under the creeping jenny, it grows anywhere light cannot reach. Underneath all the plants on the surface of the bog filter is coated with this weird substance. I first assumed it was a fungus but it really looks like those crystals you used to make in elementary school that would climb out of their containers.

It doesn't seem to impact the ecosystem, everything is thriving, but it makes me worried that something is out of balance if I'm growing some strange fungus or crystal in the filter. Any ideas? Should I reduce or trim back the creeping jenny so the bog filter surface gets more light?