A new pond

This is the new pond that I've been very excited about. It's very "Permaculture". This old bath had been in our backyard since before I moved in. Dave dreamed of using is as an outdoor bath and positioning it so a fire could be lit underneath to heat up the water. That idea sounded great but it so heavy, and Dave hasn't been living at our place for a while so I ended up decided it would be good to have a pond because it has greater benefits with less work. Owen helped me with converting it.
Here's how we did it:

• put clay underneath the plug hole and inside the plug hole to stop it leaking
• put a normal plug in the plug hole, then covered with plastic and put sand on top of the plastic
• we had bought coarse sand from the local landscape suppliers (Males Sand in South Hobart) but washed this so that the dirt/dust in it didn't make the water murky. We then put a layer of sand in the bottom of the bath
  
• rocks were placed towards one end to create different levels, including a shallow levels for birds, lizards and frogs to access the water, and midway levels for plants in pots to sit on.
  
• the bath-pond was then filled up with water using the garden hose, but then left for a few days to allow the chlorine from the mains water to evaporate
• I bought some plants from a couple of different nurseries - mainly Stonemans Nursery in Glenorchy - the first time i had been to it and had a good range of pond plants
  
• The plants included two native water plants: Water ribbon (which i have since seen in the creek at St Peters Pass roadside stop on the Midlands Hwy) and Water Flag. Plus a native bog plant (not full submergible) Tasslerush and 2 non-natives: water cress and Water Milifoil. (i'm not sure if I've got the names of these plants exactly right)
  
• I have since obtained some water chesnuts and plan to get a water lily or two
• I bought five brown goldfish from a pet shop and added them to the pond to eat the mosquito larvae so that the pond don't breed mosquitos.

The Permaculture features of this pond include: (encouraging maximum productivity in a small space with minimum work)

• it using an existing structure in the garden that was otherwise just taking up space
• It will increase biodiversity by providing a source of water for birds, lizards, good bugs, frogs - this aims to encourage predators for the bugs that eat vegies in the vegie patch
• I especially hope the pond will attract frogs - I was hesitant about adding goldfish because the risk they will eat the tadpoles so I added less fish than the pond size could support in the hope that they would have plenty of other food thereby allowing some tadpoles to survive. And, at their current size, the fish are too small to eat tadpoles.
• Food production: Edible plants such as Water Cress, Water Chestnuts and Duck Potatoes can be grown in the pond (a significant motivator for me to make the pond). Although Water Cress is supposed to prefer running water so i'm not sure how it will go (although i'm thinking about diverting water from the rooves of the adjacent sheds to run into the pond to make up for evaporation without having to use the hose - so this would help add some running water.
  
• The fish are fed by mosquito larvae (so don't have to feed the fish) and then there shouldn't be any problem of breeding mosquitoes that could eat me or the neighbouring children.
  

Remaining problems to be resolved:

• The pond is in a sunny location - which causes a dilemma: the sun has contributed to algal overgrowth but some water plants need a certain amount of sun. Now that spring has come I will put in some water lillies to help block out some sun (they grow from tubers planted in spring, but go dormant in winter) to help with this problem. In the mean time I've tried to minimise nutrients by not feeding the fish (as i had been doing this to get them started); taking out plant in pots that had soil in them and adding floating water plants - (Azolla) that blocks out some sun and hopefully uses up some nutrients. I've also floated lids from icecream containers to block out some sun.
• Evaporation is a significant concern - it's only early September and I've been suprised at the evaporation rate - so greater heat in summer presents a challenge. As I said earlier, I'm thinking of diverting water from the rooves of the sheds into the pond to help with this.
  

I'll let you know how the water chesnuts taste! I will hope to locate some Duck Potatoes to add as well.