Pond is small....and full sun (well compared the rest of the yard).

I guess that was bad placement on my part. I will add some more lily pads from the pet store and see if that helps. Thanks again!

Trent, I am about to finish my water feature. It is 2 biofalls filters set about 5 ft. high as the starting point. They have 3 large drops into a top bog which will flow into a 35 foot creek down to the bottom pond. I fabricated a pump housing to contain my two pumps (each one feeds it's own biofalls filter via 2 inch pc pipe and each pump is rated at 5100 gph at 0 head.) I'll post pics tomorrow of where I am with it currently and then again when I am done. It should be pretty epic.

The bumps behind a toad's eyes are poison glands . Most animals learn after their first experience .

I have got to see this!

Sorry for not posting pics yet, I am in the process of moving into a new office and have not been able to take any pics yet. I'll try to get some before dark today. I still have to acquire some more stone to complete it, but it is coming along pretty good. I also misquoted the length of the creek. I stated it was 35 feet long, but in actuality the creek itself is more like 20...still going to be a pretty impressive setup in my opinion (and I am a bit biased because I have done 100% of the work myself with hand tools only and changed the design about 7 times throughout the course of the build.)

Sweet, can't wait to see this.

It has undergone a few changes/fixes and I am trying to do all of this with a recently torn rotator cuff and a trashed elbow (oddly enough about a week after shoulder injury I go out and shoot an 84 in a match play tournament, taking out my opponent who shot a 74...hahaha)...so needless to say the pictures are delayed. I am going to try to get a lot done this weekend, maybe I'll be able to post pics of its current state (if I am satisfied enough with it to show yet) next week. It'll get done eventually as it has almost brought my marriage to an end...she's not too thrilled about the current size of the project compared to what was originally pitched to her.

That's a freakin' koi pond ? Dang ! You could raise sharks in there .

Koi? Not this guy...only native fish will go in my water...and those electric eel/crocodile hybrids if I can find that guy's number. LOL

Crawfish? Bream?

I can't wait to start my new one. How big of a pump did you use? Special kind?

I'll try some bluegill for sure, and where there's bluegill, there has to be a bass or two...
I have 2 pumps which are each rated at 5100 GPH at 0 head. They are housed in a custom made filter box which has thick filter media all the way around the inside. Each pump is connected to its own biofalls which has 2 additional layers of filter media, so the water is being double filtered and all that media will hold a lot of the beneficial bacteria.
I don't know if any native fish will survive a winter or really hot summer because the pond is only about waist deep.

Bream are found in the discharge at Power Plant lakes, over 100 degrees. They should be fine.

How much did you spend on pumps and such?

Did you use a liner for the pond area?

They should be fine . You might want to put some structure in the deeper parts so they can hide from summer sun . I kept a rainbow trout alive for several years .

Yeah, I just finished it (for the most part) on Friday. I am going to add some vegetation and probably a few other fun additions to it before a fish ever sees it. BBT - I lined the entire thing with Firestone PondGard 45 mil EPDM pond liner and used every bit of a 20' x 50' roll. Best price you'll find is from a place up here about 45 minutes from my house in Shawnee, OK and is called Pond Pro Shop. Click on the name to check out their website. They have a lot of stuff. I gave $600 for the 20'x50' roll. As far as the pumps go, I picked these two up at Lowes. They are compact, have a good flow rate (5100 GPH at 0 head) with decent numbers when you start calculating the total head, come with a 5 year warranty, and only draw 210 watts each. I got them for like $259 each I think. If you decide to do a large feature build, definitely go with the flexible PVC instead of traditional rigid pipe. That is my biggest regret. The flexible is a lot pricier, but totally worth it in the grand scheme of things.

BBT - If you have an android or Skype, holler at me this evening and I'll walk and talk you through what all I did...right and wrong, while showing you via video feed. You should still have my number.