Above ground tropical pond

[WetWilly]

Hi. Long time watcher, first time poster. Not my first rodeo, but this pond is unique and thought you folks could help with suggestions, but as usual there is a high probability I won’t listen as well as I should.

Well, started this project. At this point I need to make shelves up. I’m hung up on a couple things. Liner size in min 21x34. Should I get two and seam? And still working out details of filtering. Also hiding liner at top edge. There will be a cap and rock outcrops after liner lays down.

 

[Jhn]

I would just get one piece, that isn’t that large of a liner to need to seam. What are you keeping in there fish wise? Curious since you called it a tropical pond, I always find out of the box thinking interesting in what is kept in ponds besides goldfish and koi.

 

[j.w]

@WetWilly
I agree if you can get one piece do it. I would always worry about the seam not holding.

 

[WetWilly]

Thanks. I was thinking one piece too. Not looking forward to 300 lbs. oh well.
It will be mostly tropical fish and some cichlids. A few shubunkins too. No koi.

 

[j.w]

Thanks. I was thinking one piece too. Not looking forward to 300 lbs. oh well.
It will be mostly tropical fish and some cichlids. A few shubunkins too. No koi.

So you must live in a state that is warm all year long.

 

[WetWilly]

Yeah. Hawaii. 19 degrees north. So water rarely goes below 70

 

[j.w]

Yeah. Hawaii. 19 degrees north. So water rarely goes below 70

Lucky you!

 

[GBBUDD]

Wish you had come in earlier. For shelves at this point i'd go with cinder block dry stacked INSIDE THE LINER the small fish will love all the openings stuff some roots and twigs in some and you'll have a nursery. All the while you can place ridgid foam on the top of the cinderblocks if you want to have them out from the wall a little and use that as a shelf cover it with fabric again inside the liner. Just keep one thing in mind if you take the suggestion you will never be able to catch any fish in that pond they will have too many places to hide.

Option two is to pour a concrete floor and parge the interior and make it a concrete or a spray on liner pond . or the parge it's self can be the water proofing as far as the top is concerned you then won't have a liner to hide and i would do something like a palm hollowed out and caped the top. Bamboo maybe and steam and bend it. you won't need to go crazy if your doing tropicals for filtering

 

[WetWilly]

Yeah. I went back and forth on concrete , but if I wanted it like that I would of done a lot of things different. I decided liner because we can have some pretty good earthquakes.

Confused on the foam part of your ideas but I’m with you on the rest mostly. I had to dig a hole for a deeper bit and used that to start to backfill a few shelves. I got yards of sand to use anyway. I think I’ll stop going up here and build the rest in pond.

As filtering goes. It changes daily, but right now I’m kinda set on a mix of stuff. A 300 gallonish size wetland so big circle on the fat end of pond. …… I’ll draw a picture.

 

[WetWilly]

I’ve also had ideas about a no niche skimmer to upflow bog as well and make it exit around itself to make little river area that flows out. Waterfall will only come on several times a day and on demand otherwise.

 

[Lisak1]

I looks like you're well on your way to something there! What about rocking the interior of the pond? Create plant shelves that way? You probably don't want to reduce the volume a lot, but a flat-ish thin rock stacked against the wall would give you a shelf of sorts all the way around. Or even just in a few areas if you didn't want to fill the whole pond with rock.

Just a thought.

 

[WetWilly]

Yep, going to rock the inside for sure. One thing I have is rocks. All the wall rock I gathered on my property. Rather pointy, so I’ll use extra underlay and liner to protect the liner.

 

[GBBUDD]

extra underlay and liner to protect the liner.

Do you know you can buy HD liner 8 oz is a good start but for zagged volcanic rock I'd step it up to 12 oz that's some durable stuff

 

[WetWilly]

Thanks for the tip.

 

[WetWilly]

Wish you had come in earlier. For shelves at this point i'd go with cinder block dry stacked INSIDE THE LINER the small fish will love all the openings stuff some roots and twigs in some and you'll have a nursery. All the while you can place ridgid foam on the top of the cinderblocks if you want to have them out from the wall a little and use that as a shelf cover it with fabric again inside the liner. Just keep one thing in mind if you take the suggestion you will never be able to catch any fish in that pond they will have too many places to hide.

Option two is to pour a concrete floor and parge the interior and make it a concrete or a spray on liner pond . or the parge it's self can be the water proofing as far as the top is concerned you then won't have a liner to hide and i would do something like a palm hollowed out and caped the top. Bamboo maybe and steam and bend it. you won't need to go crazy if your doing tropicals for filtering

The first part here. You think I should remove the shelves I started? I did because I had a little to dig and was easier. I could make it flat again on bottom plus little center dent. Maybe easier to lay liner. Less sharp out side corners too.

Thoughts?