Aquascape Ecosystem Pond - A deep dive exploring detailed design aspects.
Вставка
- Опубліковано 17 лип 2022
- So many people email me directly asking for more pond videos, so here you go. I will also address the single most common question I get asked... how much did it cost?
This pond was a lifetime work in progress, thinking of different aspects I wanted, design features, etc, then spending 20 years saving up for it.
Today I will go over all the various design features in this pond, many of which cannot be seen at a surface level.
I started my journey looking at "natural swim pools" from the 1954 Austrian designer Gottfried Kern. I then started leaning towards EU style natural swim pools.
However starting about 5 years ago, I got really excited looking at more directly integrated ecosystem ponds as designed by Ed Beaulieu who has a BS in Zoology with an emphasis in Limnology, and a masters in Marine Biology, specifically fresh water systems.
When I started seeing these integrated designs, I fell in love with the idea, because to me it was as tightly integrated with nature as possible, but while also bypassing many risks of an actual hole-in-the-ground pond (which arguably is the closest connection to nature, but comes with potentially life threatening risks. I talk about these in today's video.
So for anyone who wanted "more cowbell", here you go!!
Thanks for watching, and happy gardening everyone!
______________________
Want to become a member and earn perks? Check out our membership program here: / @canadianpermaculturel...
You can now also find Canadian Permaculture Legacy on Odysee here: odysee.com/@CanadianPermacult...
Odysee will automatically import any videos from here, and is a blockchain streaming service - so once my videos are there, they are there forever. Unhackable. Permissionless.
Want CPL merch? CanadianPermacultureLegacy.co...
Doing shopping on Amazon? If you start your shopping by clicking on my Amazon affiliate link, it costs you nothing (not even a penny) but I receive a small commission of anything you buy. The link here takes you to my website blog on my favorite permaculture books. However, if you click on any link there as your starting point, then go buy ANYTHING, it helps support me.
permaculturelegacy.wixsite.co...
Or help me plant trees directly through Patreon by becoming a Patron: www.patreon.com/user?u=15912954
Moving to the country to start a new life. Young Family trades sodgrass for a horse farm over at Barn Boots and Country Roots:
/ @barnbootsandcountryroots
For great recipes, cooking, storing, canning, and growing tips, check out Gardening in the North:
/ @gardeninginthenorth
Music credits:
Epidemic sound: www.epidemicsound.com/referra...
Closer by Jay Someday | / jaysomeday
Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
creativecommons.org/licenses/...
200,000 dollars for this? Worth every penny. Beautiful on so many levels.
Also when I consider that I'm fairly certain that it raised my property value by more than this amount. This wasn't so much of an expenditure of money, as it was simply locking it up in an investment.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy not saying you ever will sale your home but if you do I but new buyer is buying it cuz pond and I bet you you will get asking price to. I like watching Greg Wittstock, The Pond Guy his crew build real nice ponds to
I've watched hundreds of pond videos, and now I've learned even more with your deep dive into your pond! Loving all the technical details on the water quality, and the frog cameos too!
creating nature is the ultimate luxury
- takashi amano
I kept waiting for snake to be in all those nooks and crannies. A great system and ecosystem.
You could recoup some of that by helping other DIYers design their pool. Love the video and depth of details.
I've always dreamt of having a pond like yours. Thanks for giving us a realistic view of what it entails. Very helpful video. Love your channel!
agree sister, it is my dream also...hope our dream will be appear soon...Aamiiin
One can only dream 😢😂👌👌👌👌Awesome pond.👌👌👌👌
The path/water system towards d skimmer basket is an adventure on its own! So much vegetation! I love it!
Love your pond and a great explanation. Your pond is a credit to you. Great video.
I can't wait to get my pond started! Great video as always.
Your pond is absolutely brilliant! I've been wanting a deep dive video about it like this for a while! Did not disappoint!
Such a beautiful, refreshing spot a pond is.
Stunning beauty & engineering marvel.. thanks for sharing this, so inspiring for renovating 3 ponds on our land
Incredible amount of planning,, job well done..... Need to be teaching this...
Your pond is just beautiful!!! Well thought out, built perfectly, and looks very refreshing! ;) Thanks for sharing your process! I agree it's a wonderful way to improve habits for all kinds of life! 💚
Just WAUW!!!! The best pond video ever. Thank you very much for sharing it with us!!!!
Much love ❤️ 😍
Really impressive. Engineering beauty! I made a 120 gallon paludarium (aquarium+terrarium) that has been running as an almost closed loop for 3 years. Once every few weeks we make it “rain” lol. The guppy population fluctuates and maintains balance - I don’t feed them anything!. Would love to build life size like yours
This is the best and most amazing pond video available!! Wow thank you!
Thanks so much 🙏
Life goals!! And the butterfly is so cute!
Saw the first video and I can’t believe how great it looks after 2 years. Awesome 👏
Thanks, it gets better every year! I can't wait until the trees form an overstory. That will change everything.
This pond must be wonderful to have, especially in this scorching weather. All the wild plants make it even more beautiful and refreshing. Well done, this was clearly a lot of work to create, but what an achievement! Thank you for sharing!🤗
I was in it today right after work. It's so humid outside.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy - let's call it free sauna, shall we? :)
Great video and amazing pond area!
Outstanding, really a fantastic achievement
Spectacular project but the best part is how well you have organized the filming, providing us with so many great information! Congrats and many thanks from France !
Glad you enjoyed it!
Gorgeous...I'd never leave that yard.
This looks so wonderful. Thank you for sharing all of these tips and tricks. I do have to say watch out for those trees of heaven. They grow a ton and so easily, but are rather noxious.
They are staghorn sumac. I totally agree about tree of heaven though, it's a terrible tree and should be removed on sight. If any of these were tree of heaven, I would remove instantly. However, it's very clear in the fall that these are staghorn sumac, with their red berries. They are commonly mistaken for eachother though.
So beautiful. Love your little river as well.
Thank you 😊
Beautiful pond.
Thank you sir ,I appreciate all you have achieved there
You have created a paradise. Wish I could live there.
Nice pond!
Love the frog at 14:46 ❤.
I soooo appreciate your honesty about the cost. This is really spectacular and worth every penny. Life changing, soul soothing. I get irked when you tubers post something and lie about cost or act like - hey, you can build this yourself, because it’s not realistic. Congratulations on having the pond of your dreams. Well deserved. Oh, and I’m a doctor so thank you for mentioning anaerobes! Avoiding amoebas, ect so important.
❤️
love it! this is the kind of backyard i want in the future
Wow. Mate your pond video is the best I've seen yet. I'm on a 90000Lbild right now at my own home.
Thanks
Benn
Awesome! Good luck 👍
Great job with the planting around the pond..looks very natural..
Thank you :)
Your system is spectacular. Amazing design.
Thank you so much 😀
Fantastic presentation on the way these Aquascape wetland ponds work! I watched you initial video many times on the pond. Super impressed and you are partly to blame for mine here in Comox BC!!
Thanks for sharing and taking the time to talk about all this. It was fun to listen to.
Awesome 😆
That pond by the office if super lit! I remember the turtle who came to visit one day 😀
Nice. Many people place one or more layers of used (preferably all natural, like sisal) carpeting on top of the EPDM liner to protect it from punctures.
It’s out of my budget but money well spent. It’s a beautiful addition to the property. It looks like it’s been there forever. My only concern was when you mentioned snakes.
Amazing pond. Thanks for the video.
Thanks Ray 😊
Another fantastic relaxing experience. I love what you have set up, I love that you also love your creation... and I am fascinated to see it evolve. Thank you for letting us all see the beauty. m
Спасибо Вам за буйство зелени и красок,очень красивый и животворящий водный объект!👍С удивлением заметила, что монарда и лилейник цветут одновременно, у нас,в Подмосковье, монарда цветёт ближе к осени.
What a informative video thanks
Paradise on earth, what a great video. Stress Free environment. Really great work! Kind regards from Denmark.
0:40
Unbothered. Moisturized. Happy. In My Lane. Focused. Flourishing.
So sayeth the Pond Sage.
Wow........that’s wonderful. ❤❤❤
Thank you 😊
I had a 1000 gallon pond with native plants about 16 years ago i can't wait to get back into it on a large scale. I used to have salt and freshwater aquariums. Cyanabacteria can be nightmare. Next pond will for sure have the best liner and underlayment possible. That pond looks like it's supposed to be there and i think you got your moneys worth.
That’s beautiful bro
Absolutely phenomenal creation of this beautiful natural pond and values to match. Thank you! Love the solar pumps. Limestone has piezoelectric properties with the water running over it. You might look into whether your set up produces enough to harness energy and store it in batteries as another type of potential yield. Or just meditate at the top and see if you feel energized. My favorite part is all the flowers and plants-- just stunning. Makes me happy to see.
Are you sure it's piezoelectric? isn't that when the material is physically strained? Like quartz crystals. I will definitely look into this.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy limestone composition varies. look into it and see whether yours has suitable qualities. it may, or it may not. if it contains enough quartz to clay ratio and maybe some other silico-aluminates, this may for example enhance the limestone’s natural ability to convert atmospheric vibrational/acoustic energy (water flowing) into electrical current within the crystals, inducing an electromagnetic field around the rocks. just an idea worth researching since this method has been applied by various cultures across time. your other ideas for systemic monetization are good as well. have fun.
Wonderful.. Eden garden
this is incredible
Absolutely beautiful, I hope to have something like this one day.
NICE! Thank you
If you look closely when you moved from the pond to the filtering area leading to your filter, there was a large fish moving quickly when you were grabbing some Algae.
Just, wow!
gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous
Spectacular result.
My impression was that the bog filter seems too slow.
The pump to it needs to be x6 the size of the bog. So a 10000 litre bog needs 60000 litres per hour.
Dude Awesome pond and waterfall, that’s my dream but money is an issue. When you were cleaning out the algae I saw a frog swing away under the branches like you said acting like a filter. Then as you walked more down stream and you were cleaning the algae there’s literally a frog staring at you 🤣🐸. Awesome video, thank you for the wisdoms 🙂
They are everywhere! Frogs are a good indicator of a healthy ecosystem.
Beautiful, and well earned.
All that Yarrow is asking to be tinctured! And or dried for tea. It's full of medicinal properties, for one, it can be packed in a deep wound to stop heavy bleeding, kills gram positive bacteria on contact, anti septic properties, chewed to relieve mouth issues, etc.
Indeed, I need to make a point to go harvest some! I keep getting it when I need it, but I should go dry a bunch.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy I just had dental work done, having a molar pulled, that was quite irritated and painful for a solid week afterwards. They gave me a weeks antibiotic rx over the phone.... I decided to first try making bundles of plantain leaf, and yarrow bundles, to hold in the extraction spot, alternating between them. Worked perfectly 👌 I would say the yarrow even offers some pain relief in addition to its other known properties, but, I'd have to check those claims on an 'official's level, I'm fairly new to medicinal herbs yet. :)
Cool!
your prob getting so much of that algae from the nutrients seeping from your garden soil but it looked awesome that stream for the filter
That pond is incredible. Did you know you were going to do this when you bought the property? It seems like all the elements of keeping it healthy are fortuitous … artesian well nearby, having a hill for a waterfall and drainage flow etc.
Yes, I've wanted this for 2 decades. The biggest hurdle was getting Trish on board, which is understandable as it's SO much money.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy That’s great that you found the perfect lot. It would really need to be a forever home for that type of expenditure.
I’d love to see a video on your solar setup too. Pros and cons. I’ve been thinking about diving in, but it’s a lot of up front costs.
Wonderful job, it looks amazing.
You can introduce river shrimps to help with the algae, keep in in mind though that they'll eat insect eggs and larvae too.
For food, you can grow sturgeon in there instead of tilapia, much cleaner and 100-times tastier, they'll do fine in that temperature if you choose the right species. The only problem is that sturgeon is of those species that will come and eat from your hand, got lots of character, thus it makes it painful to eat them at the end as they behave like pets.
Yeah, I don't want them eating dragonfly larvae. For now I'm doing Koi, because they are $$$$ and will help me repay the pond faster.
I'm sure the fish appreciated that when you jumped in!
They don't mind they are quick. They nibble my toes.
AMAZING
I would luv to have something like this
This is the best example I’ve seen of a pond that I have envisioned. What do you do with your pumps in the winter when everything freezes? Do you pull out the pumps and blow the water out of the lines?
I drain the lines of water but leave the pumps there. They are inside a pump well housing that helps protect them, and they are designed to withstand the winter/humidity.
Don't be afraid about anaerobic zones beacuse in lakes oxidation is proceed by plants and waves. Anaerobic bacteries reduce nitrates and nitrites to free N. Excess of nitrates can cause water bloom, so it's good to have anoxic zones.
I'm too afraid of giardia
Beautiful eco system pond!
Question about maintenance- I see some Aquascape owners doing a yearly deep clean. Complaining that anaerobic muck collects under the rocks so they drain all the water and powerwash the rocks before replacing everything. Do you have to do this on your pond?
Hi from Italy.. thanks for sharing and for being so informative, it's a stunning system. Are there books you would advise for diy-ers?
Not books, but I like Ed the Pond professor youtube channel
You did a great job explaining this, you should come to Pondemonium in 2024! Also the next time your reservoir is low, and the algae builds up like you had it in this video, it would be super satisfying to watch the water go straight back into the Reservoir after clearing out the algae… unless you put a bib liner in that area? Maybe that’s just because I’m a pond guy as well. The other thing, too, is that if you think about the cost of a pool that is made to look natural costs about $2 million generally.
Thanks! That's great feedback, especially coming from a pond guy. I appreciate it!
I'm hoping Greg wants to come up to Canada and see it. The past few years have made travel to Canada really difficult for him I think.
You’re welcome! I’m sure he’d like to see and showcase it. Maybe Pierre Polievre (?) will loosen the restrictions if he wins? Kinda curious what you think about the whole PM situation. Although don’t get demonetized and all that…
Yeah, I try not to get too specific in politics because people are really silly. Some people would be : "hey that's not the guy I like, Unsubscribe". Which is just so ridiculous. Suffice it to say, as someone who wants corporations to pay fair wages and taxes, and also wants political reform, and an expansion of future and green tech, there's no candidate that ever matches what I want. It's a choice between mouthpieces who all have big corporate puppeteers controlling them.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy agreed, some have forgotten how to “agree to disagree” I’m in a similar boat where no candidate really is a perfect candidate for me. On another note, I have a lot of seed for food crops, but I have rats. Any ideas on how to keep them out? They can jump high so raised beds are only to mitigate my silty clay. How long can commercially packed seed last? How would I effectively store seed from my own plants in the future? I have some fruit trees- hey, reminds me, there’s a peach called ‘Contender’ which is allegedly hardy to zone 4, are you familiar?
I have 2 contender peaches. No fruit from them yet though.
As for the rats, add pikes of rocks and maybe try to provide habitat for snakes? That or lid covers over the beds to keep them out. You could make them with 1/4 inch hardware cloth.
Love your pond , will u be my consultant when i build one
Anybody noticed butterfly behind glass door 😊lovely eco friendly house
I try to let them all outside when I see them. We had some monarchs inside earlier and I went out and personally place them on milkweed near the pond.
This is awesome absolutely beautiful, what is the size of the wetlands filter (bog) in proportion of the pond
Smaller than I'd like. I think if I could change one thing, I'd make the wetlands roughly 1/5th of the size of the pond in terms of surface area. Right now it's more like 1/10th, and I think it should be bigger. We were slightly space constrained and to expand it would have required digging out a fairly large portion of my swale and food forest at significant cost (and loss of plants), but I think looking back I should have done that.
This pond is awesome! It doesn’t look manmade. I like all the algae and plants. Are there any fish that have made their way in, or do the Koi eat them?
It would be cool to see which nocturnal animal visit.
No fish visitors yet, just the koi. I should set up a trail cam, that would be really cool. /edit wow I just looked them up, they are expensive!
Utterly amazing. It seems complicated with many separate systems. I've been planning a deep pond like this, but, smaller with a wetland bog filter and bottom drain. From what Ive read that would be sufficient, but now I'm wondering if it is. Do I need more pumps and systems like you have or would the bog filter do the job?
Most of it isn't really systems, just thoughtful design. Adding shelves and layers is easy to do. I would definitely recommend.
Waterfalls aren't really needed, as long as you have SOME form of aeration. That's probably the single most important thing though, even more than the bog filter.
wow incredibly beautiful, any links to making a 'simple' pond into a more complex ecosystem without that much 'financial' input ???
I have only made mine, but if you look up Atlantis Water Gardens, sometimes they do smaller installs. I really liked his channel when I was looking into aquascape ponds.
Your pond is truely spectacular and we love watching the longer videos! Did the cost of the entire pond build include the gazebo/office space you have set up or was that a seperate cost?
They were separate/additional.
I would turn on the pressure washer on that algae and get a couple of inline UV units.
Is there soil covering the liner? to plant the aquatic plants - or did you use baskets?
Never put soil in a pond.
We live in Ontario. How deep is the pond should be in order for the fish to survive the harsh winter season?
3-4 feet should be okay. More towards 4 if you are further north... Ontario is a vastly diffeent province dependong on where you are. We went 6, but mostly for diving/swimming.
Are the walls of the underground reservoir reinforced with rocks, same as the rest of the pond? Also, are the pumps pulling water from the very bottom via a bulkhead fitting and pipes/tubes? I'm getting ready to build a similar, but smaller pond in the next year and really curious how that piece is put together.
There is a diffuser called a "centipede" down there. Basically a long pipe with holes in it, 1 foot diameter. No rocks in the underground reservoir, just pond liner and those blocks that look like milk crates. The walls are just pond liner on top of an underlayment fabric to protect the liner.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Thanks for the info! Follow up question, is the pit for the reservoir tiered like the pond at all, or just a clean cut six foot hole in the ground?
just a box
Great job with pond and presentation. One question, the spring, is there a reason you just didn’t divert that and have water flowing through pond and then you wouldn’t need pumps and filters. Would be like a creek pool?
Yes it's much too cold, and it also has an extremely high iron content. My original design was to run it into a reed bed then into a small holding pond, (to warm and filter it) and have that overflow into the main pond.
When I went to the conservation authority they said that even though the artesian well overflow is man-made, they wouldn't allow a modification to it.... even though the modification would clean and filter the water before returning it to the same creek downstream. Bizarre. Sometimes conservation authorities seem to have things backwards.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy thanks for the answer, very interesting and good to know that you considered every option.
and yes the agencies sometimes don’t seem to make a lot of practical sense.
Where I live there is an endangered possum and bird, due to swamps being drained, the only way to save them is to create swamps, but the water agencies won’t create swamp habitat as it could result in flooding and less water in their rivers which they meter for irrigation.
Rainy days? 🤣 If we count sunny days, it's under 50 right now, starting in January. It's going to rain/shower today. This spring was so cool and wet all the crops are 2-3 weeks behind. If you want to, look at the forest fire ratings, zero extreme, a few high, but mostly green, meaning zero fire .
Wet coast, literally.
Hi..Was the well natural or was the well originally drilled 50nyears ago?
The artesian well was dug about 35 years ago I think.
I would love to do something similar on our property and this is very inspiring, thank you. My first burning question is about the liner, you say it is one of the most critical pieces. However, obviously ponds come together in nature without liners, so it has to be possible to do one without. Would you think it would just be cost and time-prohibitive to import the right material to get it to seal without a liner?
My other thought that makes me to want to go without a liner is that, from an ecosystem perspective, I do want some of the water to leech out into the surrounding ground, that's part of the point.
My big fear with a liner is that it will inevitably tear at some point (especially if my livestock manage to get into it), and will need to be replaced, which sounds even more expensive and disruptive than the initial installation.
I listened again and noticed that you did address this question to some extent late in the video. I would still be curious of any additional thoughts you may have
It depends on pond location. In nature, ponds happen where geological (including subsoil morphologies) allow for them. That may or may not be where you want your pond. For me and my pond, it would just instantly drain, or would erode away a bank then cut a channel and I could have a pond failure. Those things happen all the time in nature, but near homes, you could be liable for millions of dollars in damage.
Helping the ecosystem is worth every penny. Hey do you the the price of rocks per Ton? Would be nice a video about pricing.
100% impossible to answer. The price is almost entirely transportation cost, so it matters how far they are traveling.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Agreed!!
Don't feel bad about putting money into the right thing. This is important info for folks that make our regulations. In california, ponds should be a rule. If soil moisture climbs to a particular level, I feel like we have something if not vernally.
i dunno about prices in canada but here that price would be called a scam here for something similar in size/quality would cost 15 maybe 20
❤❤❤
Think about establishing a pulse tank. This will encourage spawning. Seasonality is important. Speaking to the choir but lining it out. Thanks much. Don't be so terrified of anaeroboa.
thank you, the information is very useful for me... congrats on the success of the channel, brother Aamiin !!
Didn't anyone else see the frog in the algae in the stream!?
I just had an idea that you could use a cat litter scoop on a dole to harvest the algae without having to bend down all the time.
Yeah, we have an actual pool net that we usually use.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy doesn't the algae get stuck in the net? At least the one I used did. Now that I think about it. That net came with a cheap above ground pool so it's probably not a good example of how well pool nets work.
No it comes out really well. It's actually super slippery, almost like cooked spaghetti.
I’m on a sloped shady lot. I was going to get a small pond liner, connect it up to the down spout on the high end and create an overflow on the low end, with a path of river rocks down the slope. I was going to put mosquito fish in the pond. Do I need a pump?
I would, but you don't NEED it. You can aerate the water in many ways, depending on the size of the pond. zthere are windmill powered fountains for larger ponds, or "water wigglers" for smaller ponds. I've just found that a pump is the most energy efficient way to keep the water oxygenated, moving, and thus mosquito free, and the perfect environment for dragonflies.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy thanks for the advice! The pond would be pretty modest (8’x3’). I hadn’t heard of water wrigglers, but they look perfect for my shady spot. Do you think I would still need mosquito fish ?
Probably not, but it would still be good to get a couple, so that you create a nitrogen cycle. Don't forget to add aquatic plants to shade the water to prevent algae and use the fish nitrogen (and add O2 into water).
What a fantastically well thought out and beautiful pond. Absolutely stunning. Question….did you design and build it yourself or didyou have help designing and building from a pond design/build company? Gorgeous.
I've always had the idea and layout in my mind, but for the actual digging and heavy machinery/pond liner/pond pumps/rock transportation and moving, it was all done by a 3rd company (Genoscape).
Thank you!
Full of health and oxigen ) just i have a question about the oxigeneted and rich pond water; is it possible to water the food forest with the water from the pond with healthy bacterial richness? It will support the greens with high Nitrogen also. Or are there any risks to use this water?
oh absolutely, and we do. It's possibly the biggest forgotten "income stream". That water is so nutrient rich, and microbiology rich. I also run it over my biochar compost piles to innoculate and charge it up. Plus then water the tomatoes and squash annuals, and also do foliar sprays right before fruit set on peaches and such. It's amazing fertility.
If my office view looked like that then there would be a 10 foot gator waiting for me to jump in the great things about south Louisiana swamps 😁
haha no gators here thankfully