My pond attempt

Having past the point of "one day when i grow up" - i finally got around to muck about with my own thoughts for a pond - below being the WIP result.
The tub thing at the top (first pic) is where i indulge in my plant hobby using fish water from the pond - it also has a thick substrate layer - the pond itself has 2 water lilliies and waterblommetjies that are coming out now. Giant and normal valis as well and java moss.
Fish wise - would have sold my soul to get local species, but not legal. So now i have:
Metallic Barbs,
Rosy Barbs (some crazy colour variations)
White cloud minnows
Pepper Cories (which started getting rowdy now with the storm we had last night)
Banded panchax
Not your usual pond customers - but i find the smaller fish way more interessting.
About 16 hours worth of labour to get it done and has been running since Dec.
Keen to see how the fish deal with winter - my only concern is the panchax, but if they survive and breed - we good.

 

Entirely forgot to add - i've also glass shrimp in there and about to start adding regular additions of daphnia magna.

 

I love it!

 

Looks amazing! I'm in love.
How did you do the actual pond part? dug out a hole and lined with plastic or is the process a bit more complex? Is it not an issue so close to the wall?

 

Well the overall depth is 68 cm - the parts between the pond wall and the outside is separated by concrete slabs i inserted at a 45 degree angle. Also, all those walls are boundary walls - so no issue.
Anyway its a dug out with geo liner (tough as nails). Lined the entire inside with the rock you see there along with a sand / gravel substrate.
I'd do it very differently next time though - my plan revised on the go several times, so its not perfect - but good enough and functions. Was originally meant as a bathe for my egyptian goose. Now its a pond with random fish and plants..and a goose bath. Lol. ANd no, he doesnt eat them.

 

and here's the vip - and the barbs and minnows feed where ever he disturbs the substrate.

 

Thought i'd do a final post and update on this experiment.
The clown killis couldn't hack our Cape Town winters. However, the Peppered Cories, Rosy barbs, minnows and gold barbs all bred insanely. I'm particularly happy about this - means here in CT you can keep those species outdoors as a good alternative to the boring goldfish and koi.

 

Looks great, didn’t know corys could survive in a pond!

Where do you get the daphnia from? Would like to add to my tanks diet as well.

 

None of them survived lol. But a pond in CT attracts mosquitoes, so the problem fixed itself.
There was a guy around here which sold Daphnia, but i ended up going to a dam at night with a flash light and made a colony from that. But they do not really survive long enough in a pond with fish to reproduce.
Cherry shrimp in there as well, but they are becoming a problem - eating cory eggs