DIY Dream pond build and 3 year update

I built this pond in 2021. This is a quick overview on how it was built with DIY filters and pretty much all by hand. It also shows how the pond looks now and how the landscape has matured in the last 3 years.
Here's a playlist showing more details on each aspect of the build- • Dream pond build
And if you want to see how the lower pond and stream were constructed, again all DIY this playlist will go into the details of that build- • DIY fish pond and stream
For helpful products and articles visit ozponds.com

[@harrysamuppet6804]

This has to be the most natural looking man made pond I’ve ever seen. It is absolutely stunning. You really deserve this in your life as you put so much thought and effort into it. Congratulations. Honestly, it is so beautiful. To think some people just have grass!

[@Ozponds]

It’s brings us a lot of joy 😊

[@taylortisaac]

We moved in last year and just have grass. It’s dreadful. Pond groundbreaking to start soon.

[@Ozponds]

Nice 👍

[@richardportelli1983]

The way the plants take over the landscape really make it all come together. Amazing results in only 3 years.

[@tjp3217]

The "if I did it again, I'd use my mate with the backhoe" for the rocks was a good bit of info. If you haven't already a "Things I'd do differently if I did it again" video I would find interesting.

[@Ozponds]

I think I definitely will in the future. 👍

[@jaggedmountain]

That pond is a happy place.

[@MarvinBowen]

I can't believe it has been three years. I loved watching your progress building this. It truly is a dream pond. I'd love to have one like it, but that is not too likely. I'll keep dreamin'.

[@Ozponds]

Crazy how fast it went!

[@francus7227]

Love it. Kev, I was an ER nurse for years. I heard a doc tell a patient, "If you want to live a long life, do three things..... 1) No cigarettes. 2) No motorcycles. 3) Get an annual physical..... I'm so glad to hear you quit smoking. Now, to tickle the thumbs up 👍 button to feed the algorithm monsters.

[@Ozponds]

I’m glad too!

[@mistyrichardson6041]

Outstanding thanks for the update. So glad the dye went bye bye. ❤

[@Ozponds]

😂 yeah the dye was crazy!

[@R1CO32]

It’s absolutely stunning. Thanks for sharing mate.

[@highspiritsfarm781]

I only hope my pond is at least half as nice as this when it’s all done! Wow it has really matured beautifully! Congratulations!💙💙💙

[@Ozponds]

You’ll do a fantastic job 👍

[@highspiritsfarm781]

@@Ozponds I will have to share some pics when ours is all done!!! Kudos included of course.💙 practical advice, tested methods, money saving ideas and demystifying the process when we all are doing our own thing. Thank you thank you thank you!

[@Ozponds]

Please do 😊👍

[@sweetkoiyo]

Great update Kev. Love recap videos like this. It looks so beautiful today. The bogs are working beautifully.

[@Ozponds]

They’ve done a great job 👍

[@Suburbangeek]

You're actually a great storyteller. I found the video really interesting AND informative! Fabulous.

[@Ozponds]

Normally I put people to sleep. 😴 Thank you for your kind words.

[@furbee57]

I definitely need a mate with a backhoe 😊 Thank you for taking the time to share your work. It’s stunning and more importantly to me, natural looking.

[@Ozponds]

😂 everyone does 👍

[@MandyJane123700]

Wow, that was a lot of work, but it turned out so beautiful! You do such a great job explaining things, that even if I never have a pond like that, I still get ideas for my much smaller container pond, and I understand how it all works better.

[@Ozponds]

It is cool how all the filtration pretty much stays the same regardless of pond size.

[@MandyJane123700]

@@Ozponds I even understand filtration in aquariums better because of the pond.

[@Ozponds]

For sure 👍

[@matthewsmith22]

This is absolutely beautiful! I don't quite have the space for a natural looking pond but if I did I'd definitely aim for this, love it! Finally finished repairs on the bog filter on my modest pond so i can enjoy it again this summer. Not big enough to swim in but my feet usually end up in there with a cold beer in my hand on those warm summer days!

[@Ozponds]

Perfect 👍

[@DanielA-og2hh]

You are a true inspiration. Your ponds are amazing and your videos awesome. Thank you for for putting all the time and effort into sharing this with us.

[@Ozponds]

I’m glad they are useful. 😊👍

[@vego6169]

Absolutely stunning, and the way you describe it Cool, makes us feel even we can do it !!

[@Earthstein]

This presentation was quite enjoyable. It was also much too short. Thank you.

[@Ozponds]

It’s funny. It was probably 4-5 hours of editing and finding the old footage. To me it was much too long.

[@KevinJLorden]

This is an excellent overview, Kev! I love how the plants have grown in - it looks so natural. Looking forward to my pond maturing, but I'm enjoying each step. Thanks for the great advice and inspiration!

[@meLo_orig]

Beautiful! I hope to make something like this, but slightly deeper that doubles as a dipping pond in the near future. Thanks for the inspiration!

[@Ozponds]

Sounds good 👍

[@connieriddle5117]

Excellent!! Beautiful pond. You do great work.

[@Chilled_Mackers]

Superb stuff as always Kev! Such a wonderful space for you and yours to enjoy.

[@Ozponds]

😊👍

[@edbrown7919]

Your video have served as an inspiration it’s amazing

[@codymurphy146]

My Guy! Beautiful build and conceptualization of natural balance. This feature will take care of itself once established. You raised it right. Many claps

[@Crapzzzz]

This video is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing. We are just starting to do a huge makeover of our existing 10 year old pond that we didn’t build. We have been here 3 years. I plan to build a surface skimmer type filter system we also have a Pond One large barrel filter a Claritec 15000UV and a MantaRay 16000 Pond One pump. 😊

[@paulajimenez6625]

Cool. From London. Thank you

[@maco1713]

Thank you for your perfect advices!😊

[@kaf2303]

Just Lovely!😊

[@leareed1097]

Love your video. Thank you for all the information.

[@reyouk3672]

Thank you for your channel it's super amazing and knowledgeable. to learn from you. Now I'm going to build my first pond and thanks to you inspired me to do it thanks again 🙂 and the pond turned out incredible

[@Ozponds]

Good luck! 😊👍

[@reyouk3672]

thank you so much. hopefully, it turned out good

[@ketkarbharat]

Great... thank you for explaining very Well

[@johntraynor8777]

Fantastic, one day I may try to do something similar for me and my animals thank you so much

[@shophshie]

have you ever thought about making a video talking about the native plants you like to use. It would be an interesting and useful watch. Also keep up the good work!

[@Ozponds]

I have 👍

[@hentle262]

sump pumps work great for water flow

[@Ozponds]

I don’t like them. Too energy hungry. Plus often they aren’t made to be ran 24/7 365.

[@Xealuz]

Great video and inspiration to keep working on my pond. Ive got a similar setup as yours, 2 bogs and an intake bay, but ive got a large space to fill and made mine too big. I used your calculations and videos to plan it, i should have thought out better how long it would take though😂. I know it will be worth it in the end, even if it only looks half as good as yours. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge and experience on budget friendly pond builds!

[@ultimatefishkeeping]

Hi Kev. How are you, Sir? It's good to see you. Thankyou very much for sharing more before and after insight also the products that you used for the Filtration etcetera. Like 453 is now up to say thankyou very much for sharing. I hope you have a great Week and take care, Sir. 🤙🏼🙂🤙🏼❤️

[@Ozponds]

Thanks mate. Have a great week also 😊👍

[@ultimatefishkeeping]

@@Ozponds My pleasure, Sir. Thankyou. 🤙🏼🙂🤙🏼❤️

[@Tikoloshe-]

This concept will work perfectly for my turtles

[@cbcdesign001]

Very nice.

[@sbuttrflyy]

Amazing. I love your pond so much!

[@MIKEZG]

I spent 3 years building my 10,000 gallon pond I dug it out by shovel

[@Ozponds]

Well done 👍

[@awayfreedom]

I'm building a pond inspired in yours! Will send you pics from Brazil

[@Ozponds]

Sounds good.

[@vh2q]

I am getting ready to build a 4-6' wide stream fed from a bog filter (500 gal rainwater tank buried) and from a waterfall fed by a private fire hydrant; thence under a bridge to a pond; thence another section of stream; another pond; then a cascade into a concrete sump circa 9 ft diameter by 6' deep which sits in a bigger body of water about 30m diameter, and is equipped with 2 pumps one for the bog filter (24hours) and one for the hydrant (when I want it on eg daytime on weekends); the whole extent being about 60m long. Too bad you are in Oz and not Texas because I think you would enjoy supervising this and I would no doubt benefit from your considerable experience and expertise. I am hoping to replicate a trout stream and will run my return lines 4' deep under the stream in an attempt to cool the water a bit. The pumps will not be submersed as we don't want all that heat ending up in the water, they will be under the flyover that connects the cascade to the sump. A sort of acqueduct. Then finally there will be a line from a well that tees into the hydrant line to replenish the water in the dry season, and give us extra volume in the event of a fire (it happens here in TX). Rainwater from two roofs will top up the volume in the rainy season, and any excess ends up in the large pond which can and does dry out in the summer. And yes, it does freeze here for a week or so in the winter, sometimes we have more than one freeze, so we have to keep that in mind. Finally, fish. Smallmouth bass I think.

[@Ozponds]

Sounds awesome 👍

[@PazLeBon]

nice

[@codymurphy146]

Also, are you the fella with another channel? Incredible moss pole and green house indoor plant growing. Your voice sounds doppelgänger.

[@Ozponds]

Not me. Poor guy.

[@kymbo72]

Lovely work Kev! (as usual). At 10:31 what is the green ground cover in the foreground called? i have that in my ponds and while it looks nice, it is becoming a nuisance in that it sends its roots down to very tightly pack any space between all the rocks. In my stream, that invasive growth eventually causes water to dam up and start going over the edge of the liner. The only way to pull it out is to dismantle the rocks to get all the roots and plant out and then reassemble it all. I am starting to wish I didn't plant directly into the stream - perhaps I should have kept them in pots. Is that what you did?

[@Ozponds]

That’s bacopa monnieri. It’s planted direct in the gravel. I need to keep it thinned out in the streams. I also use this in my bogs.

[@russellbilston1763]

Hi mate, Beautiful work, love watching your videos. Just curious what you do for overflow of the ponds?

[@Ozponds]

This one has an overflow and so does the lower pond. There’s vids on that. The rest just overflow wherever the low point is.

[@russellbilston1763]

@@Ozponds thanks ill check them out

[@KA-wf6rg]

A few questions about sizing your bog filters: What made you go with two filters instead of one larger one? Did you just split the total filter size based on pond volume between the two filters? And if I create an upflow wetland filter like you have, do you still need two pumps, one to push water into the bog and the other to flow over the surface of the bog? I'm thinking about my bog filter(s) sitting above my pond and using gravity to move water back in via small waterfalls. Can gravity do the work for me, instead of the surface pump?

[@Ozponds]

Pond size and use determines filter size. Due to the space I had available and existing trees I needed to create 2. You only need one pump per filter. Gravity returns the water from the filter back to the pond.

[@trevornef6976]

Hey Kev, just found your videos and I have binge watched your dream pond series. I have a question I am hoping you could answer for me. I have a rather large pond (aprox. 82 m x 53 m and anywhere from 4 feet deep to 30 feet deep.)that is filled naturally by us living in a high water table area. It slowly empties in the fall and the water is all but gone in the winter then in spring it fills back up. We have ducks and frogs that live in the pond and i am hoping to have fish in the near future after i get it to where the birds have a harder time cathing them. The question is, do you think having some bog filters in this would help clear up the water? If so i would do multiple of ruffly the same bog size as what you have in your dream pond. I have always hated the alge that acumulates over the summer and i hope that this could work for my pond. Love your videos thanks for putting them out there for us to learn.

[@Ozponds]

It it were me, I’d be more inclined to explore floating wetlands. They will rise and fall with the water level and you could add some solar pumps to help circulate water through them.

[@trevornef6976]

@@Ozponds I'll have to look into that thanks for the idea.

[@francus7227]

Hey Kev, I hope I'm not a bother, but I have another question. What about frogs? Are your ponds ever inundated with tadpoles? Do your ponds find a natural balance from predation and/or available nutrients. Or..... Are you a frog farm? Thanks again for your videos and help.

[@Ozponds]

There’s lots of frogs and I do see tadpoles often but never in plague proportions.

[@francus7227]

@Ozponds Thanks... There must be a "nature's way" of controlling them. One frog can lay thousands. Thanks again.

[@jonisolis9645]

❤🧡💛💚💙💜

[@Pixrex]

Gotta ask .. where do you purchase the large liners from ..

[@Ozponds]

Just online. Prices vary a bit so I shop around. I have affiliate links on my website if you’re interested.

[@frankrzucek6226]

I hear all kind of stories about these box filters. I have 300 surface space and I hear he can only go 12 inches deep with the rock or you can go 3 feet with the rock. I’m not sure how big of a filter I’m gonna need I was thinking of 100 gallonpump it’s 2500 gallons and I’m thinking about turning it down and using a bog filter but not sure how deep or how big but anybody has any suggestions I appreciate it. Thank you.

[@Ozponds]

I think you should do more research and make an independent decision, rather than relying on something one person tells you.

[@frankrzucek6226]

I watch your videos and I enjoy what you do it’s just that I don’t wanna make the wrong move. My pond has been green for about 6or 7 years now and I’m tired of it and I just wanna get it right Any advice would be helpful. Thank you.

[@Ozponds]

@@frankrzucek6226 if you watch my videos you know my answer will be a properly sized bog filter. Bye, bye green water.

[@ahmadalzoubi769]

Have you considered adding some frogs to enrich the environment?

[@Ozponds]

😂 so many frogs in my yard. No need to add any.

[@ahmadalzoubi769]

@@Ozponds 🤣 it's just that I didn't see any in the video

[@Ozponds]

Watch a few of the shorts. They don’t make much noise in the day…but at night it’s a riot.

[@ahmadalzoubi769]

I'll, but it was really an inspiring job

[@txmaxt]

Not to go off topic. You have formulas for bog and intake bays. But I can't find anything on a negative edge. Do you have any ideas for construction?

[@Ozponds]

At least 2x water in motion. The more your reservoir holds the better.

[@txmaxt]

@Ozponds I'm building 8x13 foot pond about 3 feet deep. How do I calculate the reservoir volume?

[@txmaxt]

2x water in motion? Are you referring to the pump gph?

[@Ozponds]

@@txmaxt no the water in motion. Think about when the pump is running. There’s water going over the edge into your reservoir, this means that the level in the pond is higher when the pump is running vs when it’s not. So when the pump stops you want to account for that water. It varies on pump volume and how much water is moving over your spillway, therefore always overestimate.

[@southurnstar]

How do you deal with toads? I'd love to have a rec pond like this one day but we have a MASSIVE problem with toads where I am in Queensland

[@Ozponds]

I’m in Vic. No cane toads down here. There’s a ton of contractors in QLD building Rec ponds. I’d probably reach out to them and see if they have any tips 👍

[@southurnstar]

@@Ozponds lucky. Some nights you have to watch where you step where I am, because there are toads everywhere. Some nights we only see a couple. Other nights we have 20+ hopping around.

[@mandylupton9522]

I'm in SE QLD, and am planning to build a frog bog pond sometime in the future. I've been told to plant lomandra or similar around the pond to deter the toads. They can't get through it apparently.

[@MarekLabrenc]

.

[@Ozponds]

😊👍

[@AaronHahnStudios]

I had a Dream about your pond .. next day I went out & bought a snorkel. 🤿 Can't imagine why?