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Do You Want To Build a Pond
Here's How
First You got to Dig the hole. We used a garden tiller and shovels, whew...., hard work.
I advise you to get or rent a Bobcat or some type of equipment here!
Notice the ledge, you need a one foot ledge all around the pond for plants.
Put in several ledges at different depths for a variety of plants.
The next steps include the pump, filter, liner and dam.
Put some material down to protect the liner, old carpet works great, or you can buy pond material.
A little bit about the liner. The liner or the rocks will be the most expensive piece for your pond.
Use only one piece, that tape they sell or special adhesives gives out over time or just doesn't work!!. You don't want to do all this over just because you were cheap buying the liner.
Buy Rubber Roofing from a contractor or roofing supply company. It comes in 45 or 60 ml thick rolls that come in 20', 30' or 40' widths. This will save you over 50% of the price of normal pond liners and allow you do buy just one piece. I bought a 30' width piece that is 45 ml thick and 28 feet long. Boy was it heavy.
PVC liners are junk!!!! Stay away from these. They are thin, and can get a hole very easy. They are no different that pool liners, and if you notice we have a pool with liner, and the liner in the pool is thicker than pond PVC.
I made a mistake and bought a PVC liner, oh well, I hope you learn from my mistake.
Howerver, I heard that Rubber Roofing has a organic soybean coating or some coating, that is why I suggest to wash it off, and wait a week before adding fish. I don't think it would hurt them, but I don't take any chances with $5 -200 fish!
Add some water to help smooth out the liner. Slowly add water while you are in the pond smoothing the liner.
More digging!!
For large ponds Build a Dam!
We use it for a bench to set on and hand feed the fish.
We used pressure treated lumber and planted posts 2 foot in the ground, then poured concrete in the holes.
Do you see the barrel, it is at pond level and this is where the pump is located.
A little more about the pump. Buy only pumps that do NOT contain any oil for lubricant. If the seal breaks on the pump the oil is toxic and will kill the fish.
Do not get a pump that is too small, always overbuy. You can always put in a valve and use the extra water pressure, but if your pump is to weak you will have to buy another. Also, pumps are rated at gals/hour, but be careful, they are rated at different rates per how high the water must travel to get to the outlet. My pump has to push the water at least 10'. My pump is the 3900 gal/hour pump from Little Giant. It is submersible which makes it very quiet. Outside or dry pump was an option, but they are very noisy, so if you use one make sure you build a shed to put it in or bury it in the ground in a sound-proof well. Be careful, dry pumps can get hot so allow for ventilation.
The barrel is my skimmer, pump well, and mechanical filter. I placed the pump in a screen mesh sack or crate so little particles would clog the inlets on the pump. I then used new not used floor buffing pads that are circular with hole in them for the filter medium. Just cut a slit in them and slide them over the return pipe and electric wiring.
This works wonderful. All leaves and twigs that end up in the pond will be caught by the skimmer on the top buffer pad. I just lift the lid, a large flat planter tray, and remove the debris.
The next part was the worst part for me. I had to cut a hole in the liner, on purpose, oh well.
Cut a hole in the liner and barrel and use stainless steel strips to hold it all together.
I used strips on both sides and then had to shape them.
I had to fit them perfectly, using a file to remove all sharp edges, drill holes for the bolts.
Use plenty of silicon adhesive, aquarium safe!!!!, to make sure you don't get leaks here.
Note the waterfall head basin, and the aboveground filter.
I later moved the filter to the large pond.
Fill with water.
Note the big planter pot 50 gallons beside the waterfall head basin. This is my organic filter. It is bottom fed by pipe from the pump and water will flow over the top into the pond. I used lava rock as a medium for the bio filter. Bigger chunks at the bottom and medium size in the middle and finally the smallest stuff at the top. Be careful and use gloves, that lava rock ate up my hands! Lava rock isn't the best, but was far less cost than filling it with bio balls from your pet store. Bio balls could get quite expensive. This was the only risk I took on the pond. Will or won't it work. Well after the 2nd season, the water is "clear as a bell" all Summer and even during the algae bloom of the Spring. I placed a valve at the bottom of the planter to easy in draining off the slug if needed.
Now the fun part, decorating. Do you like our pond guardian?
Add Rocks, and plants.
Wait a week for water to stablize and then add fish.
The first pond which is 8' X 10' has only goldfish and water lillies.
Note that I moved the organic filter, the big planter pot, so it would flow into the KOI pond directly. I also camaflauged it with upright landscape timbers.
The second pond is 4' X 4' and third pond is 8' X 10' and they are there for filtration as well, only a few goldfish and lillies.
Finally the real pond.
This is the KOI pond, with 28 koi in it at this time. It is 24' by 24' and is 4-5' deep.
The limestone waterfall is about a 2' drop from the organic filter and 1.5' from the 4th pond into the KOI pond. The 4th pond which is 4' X 4' is mostly hidden by the 2' X 4' limestone bridge that we luckly found by a creek near Madison, IN.
Make sure to have a nice area to relax around your pond.
Note the shade, very important for fish not to overheat!
The water temp in these ponds gets as high as 84 degrees and most of it is in the shade!!!!! We are located in Charlestown, IN, just outside of Louisville, KY.
And finally note the filter from another view, the pot covered by landscape timbers set on end.
This also gives a great view on the dam bench were we love to set and hand feed the KOI.
I purchased my fish at Deer Valley KOI Farm in Dugger, IN
Great prices start at 75 cents for 2-3" and range up to to $7.00 for the largest ones 12" or so.
They have people come as far as Minnesota to get KOI. It is wholesale and very rustic, but great fun.
If you liked this page, come to my Home Page
Email me at randelhall@hotmail.com
in the meantime if you have any questions.
Please come back soon and visit me.
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