Building a 8'x10'x5' deep pond into basically solid rock 6" under ground

When they dig my yard up in a few hundred years thats what it would look like. :icon_mrgreen:

i gotta tell ya man that enough rock to make a guy re consider if he still wanted to build a pond their. Nice work i probably would have given up and did a above ground pond. i gotta give u props nice work and its looking like it will b a sweet looking pond cant wait to c it done

Ya, I know I realized thru the process that I was obviously a little crazy. Ive been working on it almost every day thru the nights to midnight many nights and thru the rain, which we have been getting a lot of. Its took me about a month to get it to this point. I worked on the rocks on the left side there for a while and couldnt get them to budge so I switched to the right side and hand a break thru and was able to get them all out as show. Now thinking of going back to try to move the ones on the right again, but worry they are just too big, thou if I cant get them out I will have to cement around them somehow to get a smoother edge. I am redooing my basement soon and already have the wood so I will be able to rip the carpet up from there to use to line the pold with.
Do I need underliment along with carpet?
What pump do I need to handle pumping 40' horizontally and 15' vertically to my filter?
I was given a pool pump that I may incorperate as a skimmer as it is pretty high flow but I figure I need a bottom pump primarily that goes to my filter.

OMG!

Impressive yet insane at the same time. For the love of fish.

I like!

Well look at it this way, all that labor getting the rock out saved you about 1000 dollars. You won't need to buy any rock to outline the pond.

Is it just me or does the idea of paying for things like rock and dirt just make you want to scream?

I am so loving the fact that the new place also has a compost bin (FAR away from the house!)... no more buying fleeping topsoil! LOL

Good lord I give you tons of credit. I think I'd have been overwhelmed once I hit that that kinda rock. We were disappointed when we hit clay 5 inches down that was soaked so much that we kept losing our boots when we moved around. I'd say you're fish are gonna love you for sure when it's complete. I'm sending happy energetic thoughts and reminding you to put aleve and advil on your shopping list.

My backyard is pretty much clay type soil, I guess after 1ft down.

After digging 12" post holes with an auger, I literally started thinking about not digging pond in the future on my own. I'm a DIY'fer and the idea of digging clay scaring me. You my friend = Impressive!

i dug in clay.. its hard to say which is worse, the easy to push a shovel thru,but weighs a ton, along with the vaccuum created prying the shovel up, it sticking to the shovel, wet stuff. or the pick axe needing, shovel breaking, inventing new curse words.. hard stuff!!....but if i had to work with that i would of filled itback in and bought some sod!!

The thing with clay is it is backbreaking, but you know it is possible. With these rocks, at times I just didn’t know if I was going to get them out. But doing it like a puzzle I eventually got one then the next and so forth out. To get a big one loose has been more gratifying than once I actually get it out. For the last ones that I cant manage to get out, I talked to a friend that puts up fences and he uses something like a hammer drill to break rocks apart if needed. He is up in Granby so I may go borrow it to get the last rocks on the left side out. I got the last rock out on the right hand side last night. I wanted it out so that I didn’t have 2 separate deepest points as I figured one would eventually accumulate crap. It is getting harder and harder to get these rocks out as I go deeper but Im almost done. Last night I also dug a hole above the pond close to the fence where I can put a 100 gal 52" x 31" x 25" feed bucket for my "skippy" filter. I need to get to tractor supply thou, and they are an hour away, but there is one on the way to Granby so... Im going to get a tetrapond 1200 from Lowes for $115 + some hose and stuff. The firestone 45mil EPDM 20'x25' liner is $288 from liners.com shipped. Going to use concrete to smooth the pond where needed then cover in carpet, so shouldn’t need any underliner. I have some sound deadening foam and vinyl (Vertex barrior pads and Ensolite) that should be safe (made of pvc and vinyl) I could use if needed.



I cant see the pics here at work so not sure they are right...I think this stuff would be good for using on top of the liner as it wont mold or cause problems like carpet would.
Thinking I need an overflow, but maybe it just doesn’t really matter. I have a drain that is for the rear gutter that I can pipe it into but if it overflows and just goes behind the liner and sinks into the ground what does it matter? Ill just make sure the front side is lower where I am building it up with rocks so that will be where it will overflow so not to overflow on the far side toward the hill and fence where the dirt is. I also need an outside electrical socket, but my circuit breaker box is already messed up/ overfilled incorrectly from the previous owners. Another PITA.