7,000gal Pond Build

[Stouty109]

We started a 7,000gal pond build a while ago for a guy and after a couple days excavating and dirt work his wife decided she wanted a pool. Bummer I now. Well to make a long story short we are back on track and they wana go ahead with the pond build. The pond is going to be 15'x30'x2' their will be 2 bio falls and 1 skimmer, it will be powered by 2 Tsurumi 9PL pumps. So here is some pic of the progress so far. Enjoy

Here is the pond at ground level after we excavated the hill away. i have some pic of before but i cant find em at the moment.
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Here me in the excavator digging the hole

More digging

and digging

Digging and moving dirt. We would scoop it out and dump it in the bobcat and hall it away.

A view of the progress

The two bio falls will be on each side of the pine tree and fall 3-4 ft in to the pond.

23 tons of Granite boulder delivered. The truck could only get back so far. So we had to move em all back to the staging area.

A couple day later the neighbors had their sod put in so we could not use their yard for travel anymore so we now had to unload in the street and hall to the staging area in the back yard. 12 tons of more fun and the roll off to hall dirt away.

that's it for today.

 

[Fishylove]

Wow! Oh what I could do with a backhoe :: sigh :: lol
Looks great! Gonna be beautiful

 

[DrCase]

You sure got the right tools for the job !! Gonna be Nice

 

[Mmathis]

Wow! That's a hole-in-the ground! Are they sure they don't want deeper than 2'?

 

[sissy]

I hope you know to do it more than 2 feet that is shallow and will freeze and sure we all will tell you the same thing .If you are building it for someone else and they are paying they will not be happy with you .Guessing also you plan on putting rocks in the bottom( big mistake ) but that will be another complaint from your clients .

 

[Stouty109]

Thanks for the imput. I am well aware of the pond freezing at only 2' deepbut I also am aware on howclear the customer was about it being no more than 2' deep. Even after I told him the reason. And yes it will be a rock bottom pond with no fishies in it. Not shure what he's goin for. But he made it clear on what he wanted. Its guna b a 7000gal water feature.ill have more pic tomorrow.

 

[Waterbug]

Repeated in this forum many times "every pond is different" but rarely ever believed. This is an Aquascape design which calls for 2' deep even in freezing climates.

Spending more than $1,000 for those Aquascape BioFalls sounds like maybe they plan to add fish later. Aquascape skimmer as well?

 

[addy1]

Well sounds like a neat big fishless pond! Nice looking hole you are digging.

 

[sissy]

And watch in a couple of months they will be calling and complaining saying you didn't explain it clearly .always blame the contractor instead of them selves and watch after that you will find out they put fish in and then they will have a reason to blame you again . Always explain and right it down and have them read what you wrote and initial it or it can become a head ache .Court dates are no fun .I know my son is a contractor and he has always tried to cover all his bases .If the customer demands some thing he puts it in writing and makes them sign it and just tells them it not only protects them but protects him .This way there are no questions this is what you want ,I will do my best to give it to you .cover your bases because it can come back to bite you .I hate it when customers do that ,but it happens more now than ever ,they figure than can recoup some of there money .SAD it happens :sad:

 

[Craig58]

It's a shame to do all that work for "just" a 2' pond. I am 99% sure they will be unhappy in a year. It doesn't look like any bottom drain is going in either. If they do add fish someday that will be a problem. Especially with a rock bottom.

Being in MN that sucker could freeze all the way to the very bottom killing anything and everything it. Only algae might survive it!

I see a new pool in a few years.

Craig

 

[Waterbug]

The Aquascape design requires the pond to be emptied and cleaned yearly. I assume the owner has read and understand this when they found the design. I also assume they were the ones requesting the Aquascape products?

Lot's of Aquascape ponds have been built in MN. I'd bet the most common pond in the 500+ gal category by a long shot.

 

[Craig58]

I don't like Aquascape ponds at all. We have several club members that have them here in PA. They look great the first year and sometimes the second year. Then unless you get in and really clean them every year as Waterbug indicated, they don't look anywhere near as nice. Casual ponders who aren't on top of it and just want a garden feature seem to wind up unhappy in a few years. Or they spend a lot to have people come in an clean it for them.

IMHO

Craig

 

[sissy]

wow really you have to empty that sucker and clean it .How about a pond vac that would not work .I would have went pondless water feature lots of noise then .Why would you want a pond with no fish ,especially that big .geeze .Thinking they blew there money big time and wonder who really wanted it .

 

[sissy]

I was looking back and houses are close together and wonder if it has to be fenced and hoping they don't have an HOA and they got all approvals .

 

[Waterbug]

I personally would probably never install an Aquascape pond for myself. I'm into the hobby part of ponds.

But I understand there are a lot more people in the world who just want a pond as a landscape feature and have little interest in the hobby aspect of doing and learning. Aquascape tells them up front of the install costs and the cost of cleaning and that yearly cleaning is required and makes the entire process very easy for them which is what they want. If they have the means I say it's a perfectly good pond for them. And it's good for wildlife so I'm all for them if the alternative is no pond at all.