Just wanted to share with everyone some pictures of my backyard water feature that I built at home. I did 99% of this work myself using nothing more than a pick-axe, a shovel, a tamper, and a wheelbarrow...and all with a torn meniscus and a torn rotator cuff. I changed it up 5 or 6 times before I got it like it is now, filling it all completely in and starting over 3 times. The small river rocks were purchased, but all of the larger stones were pulled from the ground, loaded, unloaded, and set by hand. I think it turned out pretty good...what do you all think?

Looks great!

Good job. Are you building a put put course?

Beautiful but high maintenance.

I hate to be that guy, cause I think it looks great, but...

What happens when it rains? It looks like you are trapping water up against the house.

A putt-putt course? No, where did that come from?

Texas mosquito haven

I have all of my gutter downspouts and a french drain hidden under the rocks between the patio and the creek run into a buried 4" line that dumps into 3 dry wells on the side slope on the other side of the fence. No rain runoff enters the water feature except the rain that actually lands in it. We've had some pretty heavy rains already and no runoff enters it and it has yet to overflow.

I add mosquito dunks to it every month and if you keep the water circulating, the mosquito larvae don't get a chance to mature.

Actually, the maintenance isn't nearly as bad as you'd think...except for the annual cleanout, but I have it set up such that cleaning it isn't too big a deal.

It reminds me of a water feature you'd see at a put put course. No offense meant, looks like really quality work.

None taken...thanks for the compliments! It was my first attempt at anything like this, I learned a lot of lessons throughout the course of the build and would do a few things different if I were to do it again, but overall I am pretty proud of it. It certainly makes my house stand out from the rest of the houses in my area.

We did something very similar in our backyard but the bottom pond was slightly larger with about 3' deep and and few sq ft larger. We put in "feeder" goldfish at first so we didn't waste any $$ on dead koi. They did great and were nearly as big as Koi when we sold the house. We had Bio Balls waterfall which was great but maintenance is definitely an issue. Completely emptied it out every March and washed the rocks while the fish sat in a trashcan all day. A funny story, my son put 3 small 8-10' bass in it that he caught in our local park pond. Watching those guys was crazy. He also put in a few dozen minnows. The bass would literally herd the minnows into the middle of the pond and then they'd take turns slashing through the terrified minnow school. I watched for about 15 minutes before I had enough and he retaught them and put back in the large park pond. It was brutal to watch. They were like a pack of wolves...

Looks great, well done. I have made a few ponds myself, you can keep Gambusia fish to keep the mosquito's in check (i have found I have zero larva or mosquito's). To keep the algae at bay, the water needs to be shaded, lilies, water hyacinth and duck weed provide that naturally. With the natural stuff working you have a perfect eco-system and it takes care of itself.

I know that was a lot of work and it turned out beautiful. also an ultra violet light system will kill the algae without the plants.

I still have to get a couple more tons of stones to finish up the back and sides of the waterfall area, but other than that and putting some vegetation, some bluegill, and a few bass in there I am pretty much done!