1st Pond, 2nd Attepmt

[myswtsins]

Thanks snoozer! We may have been a bit too ambitious for our 1st build. :/ That's a lot of rock but probably close to what we'll end up with as well. Do you have photos of your pond(s) somewhere?

A lot of prep work going into this pond build. We are plumbing in a completely new copper free water line directly from the well that will be filtered by two 20" slim line filters, we have high iron, cloudiness and stinkiness in our raw water. Plus we are adding 2 hydrants to that section of the yard so all this is in being ran 3ft down.

Took a few hours to dig this 1st section, 3ft deep. Auto-top off, hydrants and electrical are being ran here. That hole is halfway filled up now too!

Drilled some barrels and a tub (70x40x33) to displace some rocks in the basin for more water volume. Who needs aquablox!? You can see our waterfall retaining walls blocks in the tub picture as well.

The tall barrel is the pump vault and where the auto fill will be installed.

I'm Tired!

 

[sissy]

run metal wire along side your plumbing so you can find it later with a metal detector and to help keep it from freezing use the foam pipe wrap .

 

[snoozer]

You have been busy. Your soil looks to be fairly sandy which helps for digging. We have clay here. When it is dry it is like a rock and when it is wet it sticks to the shovel and your shoes. Are you doing all the digging by hand?

 

[addy1]

Looking darn good! no wonder you are tired!

 

[myswtsins]

Wow, we have some catching up to do! I'll post this in increments.

We got the yard hydrants installed, one here near the pond, one in the garden (near the pond) and the feed line for the auto fill.

Starting to build waterfall hill, burying some concrete and such from previous projects too

Started digging the pit

More progress

Always a supervisor or 3 roaming around

Pit dug and leveled but pitched towards pump pit, the low point where the pump chamber goes is 53" deep

15x20 liner is large!

Underlayment in but not finished

Oh we made more barrels

Liner and barrels in, with stone will hold about 700g

Auto fill was tricky but made it so we can remove the fill valve for maintenance, adjustments or repair easily and have it quite low in the pit.
Inside of chamber with removable part removed.

Removable insert

Then we added rocks to the pit but I didn't get specific pictures of that. More to come in the next post!

 

[myswtsins]

So we decided to take down another tree DURING construction,ekk! Actually wasn't bad at all. Now the hollies and birch should be much happier.

Update on waterfall hill and retaining wall

Started digging the pond, finally! Only a couple inches so we could get a level across it

Rough 1st try...

Our security guard and a wide shot

Another angle, another dog! lol

So after measuring the hole we discovered we had a whole 3ft extra to play with! We made the hole 1ft wider on both long sides. Added some reinforced concrete to edge for strength.

Here u can see the rocks in the pit at their current level, we decided to leave it there in case we wanted to change something...again!

Soil conditions were great, easy digging but we found LOTS of stuff!
A crate of old tools, toys, pony shoes etc.

That metal thing was only sticking into the pond hole a couple inches, had to dig up the beatuiful berm we created, at least was wasn't down 3ft! Same goes for that piece of concrete. We actually found more than this after the picture.

We filled this wagon 3 times with roots but thankfully they were all dead and easy to remove, SO glad we waited years to dig! lol We also found 3 gallons worth of glass!

And last but not least...our native boulders! About 2-3" across

Forgot to get a picture of underlayment, things were moving quickly at that point but liner in and starting to fill while working out wrinkles, which there are many.

And our 3rd dog keeping an eye on things from a good vantage point

Wait no, he's napping...

One more post till we are caught up!

 

[myswtsins]

Bog being water tested

Today we built the support base with soaker hose for air cleaning

Empty space on this side is for the clean out and garden watering pump

In place. Another layer of small holed lattice and .5" plastic mesh will go over this.

And there is a video of the air running HERE. We actually got even more air to run through it after that.

Now you are all caught up! Thanks for watching! Let me know if you have any suggestions or questions please.

 

[Lisak1]

Very cool pictures! Your set up is similar to ours, except our bog is behind the waterfall. Water pumps up through the bog and flows over the falls into the pond. From there it flows into a 1000 gal underground retention - filled with Aquablox! We weren't as creative with that one! Our bog is our only filter - we love it!

 

[myswtsins]

Thank you for your comments! Sounds lovely. I would have liked an upper bog as well but the sunlight/yard setup didn't allow it. I will update soon, we have flowing water!

 

[ZmanArt007]

Looks like this is going to look really great when its done! Pardon my ignorance, but what is the pit full of barrels for? What are the barrels themselves for exactly?

 

[sissy]

It looks like that is the bog

 

[ZmanArt007]

It looks like that is the bog

The bog is that trough thing isn't it? Or is there two bogs? The drawing says "Overflow/Bottom Bog/Basin/Pump vault". If that is another bog, I still don't understand the pond of the barrels.

 

[myswtsins]

Thanks zman! The pit with the barrels is essential my skimmer box but super sized and modified. The pond overflows into that pit and flows down through the rocks, down to the pumps (tall black barrel holds pumps) and is pumped to the falls and the bog. The pit itself is just like a pondless waterfall basin. It acts as a place to hold extra water (including the in transit water when the pumps are turned off, the barrels are drilled so water can go in while displacing the gravel), a filter, aerator and equipment storage (pumps, auto fill valve). I also only have to rake out the skimmed crap once in awhile, while never having to worry that my skimmer box might get clogged.

The pit also has a small pool on top before the water goes into the rocks. This saves any fish that may make their way over the skimmer falls also a place for more plants. The frogs LOVE this area, I imagine birds will too.

 

[myswtsins]

I'll be added photos very soon, might clear up any confusion.

 

[ZmanArt007]

Alright, I look forward to the pictures. It kind of makes sense no that you explained it. Hey how do you run air through the soaker hose?