Darksaber Pond - My Next Adventure

[milonedp]

This is an automatically generated discussion thread for the pond showcase "Darksaber Pond - My Next Adventure". Please add to the discussion here.

 

[milonedp]

Build Day 1 - After 7 months of planning and years of wanting a pond, we begin...

- We begin! They were running a little late and the timelapse is set to start at 8:00 am so there isn't much there for the first 30 seconds or so but then we start!

 

[GBBUDD]

Yikes that's about the worst soil you could get for building a pond. Great for tall sides to hold on there own but horrid for protecting the liner I hope They use sand on the bottom and extra thick fabric on the sides. This is where i would have customers watching bob villa come out to me in construction saying but that's not how the tv says to do it. I hate him with a passion. Like i always say there's six way to build every project. One person prefers plan a while the next likes plan c the most. will be interesting to watch this build

 

[milonedp]

Yep, that shale vein we have running through our neighborhood is terrible. They'll shave the sides down then it'll be protected with sand backfill before the geo-liner.

 

[GBBUDD]

If the shale is all broken up and you see cavities you may want to consider concrete blanket along the top 3 feet it stops rodents chipmunks and moles that love those pockets between the shale and keeps them away from the liner. i see your spending a good buck as the pond is good size. the cost won't be cheap but it can save a lot of aggravation down the road . Love the time lapse it will make for an interesting build. Who is the builder?

 

[milonedp]

The shale is only broken where it was disturbed. Thanks for the suggestion! Generally, we've never seen chipmunks or moles in the neighborhood but I'll talk to the builders tomorrow about that.

Builder is Pond Country

 

[Lisak1]

Oh that was fun! Just watching those clouds roll by was reason enough to watch those first 30 seconds!

I've never seen anyone dig without marking - is he just freestyling? What did they lay out on the grass at the beginning?

 

[milonedp]

Watching the clouds go is actually pretty cool. If you catch it toward the end you can see the sun setting and the sky glow orange for a couple of seconds...

They used orange spray paint, I have trouble seeing it (partially color blind) and I think it's too far for the camera to pick up well. There will be a stream up the left-hand side and a wetland filter in the back in front of the playset, but they've now covered most of the stream up with dirt.

In the beginning, you see smaller versions of a stacked slate spillway. To get the depth we wanted (4ft) we are going to use those under the weathered limestone to create the deep area. That way we were able to go more vertical and leave more open space for the deep area, i.e. fewer tiers. We laid those out so he could paint the area to be dugout.

 

[Lisak1]

Ah! Gotcha! I was impressed with the confidence he had to just start DIGGING! (Still impressed by the way... just reassured that I am not the only one who didn't see the spray paint!)

I love the stacked slate for pond walls - one of Aquascapes better design ideas! Like you said - you can get lots of vertical space without encroaching on the pond interior.

 

[GBBUDD]

Raising my hand and jumping up and down I saw it !!!!! I saw it !!!!! Going to be a impressive build and im betting with a heck of a price tag

 

[GBBUDD]

Tell the guys to stop and do the chicken every now and then it will be a riot in time lapse. flap the arms slowly

 

[milonedp]

Tell the guys to stop and do the chicken every now and then it will be a riot in time lapse. flap the arms slowly

That'd be a great idea, it'd have to be the slowest ever chicken dance as the camera is at 10 second intervals...

 

[milonedp]

Day 2 - Continuing to build, a little more of the main pond, some grading, and starting to dig out the wetland filter area. Boulders arrive tomorrow.

 

[GBBUDD]

Don't forget the tail wag lol..
Ok need to put in for the clouds too. its just not the same without the sunset and clouds flying by . But it was a very cool start

 

[milonedp]

Don't forget the tail wag lol..
Ok need to put in for the clouds too. its just not the same without the sunset and clouds flying by . But it was a very cool start

Thanks for calling that out, I didn't realize that the camera angle changed, I'll try to fix that for tomorrow's recording.

 

[milonedp]

So while they are working on the build I have some other questions that I'd love input on.

1. Quarantine methods? Who does what? Does that change if you plan to only buy from one breeder?
2. Stocking Levels? What is a good way to estimate how many Koi or other fish we could have, I'm having the filter overbuilt and yet I still want to make sure I'm not on the high end.

 

[Jhn]

Interesting start...

I have Qt’d my koi in the past in a 300 gallon Rubbermaid tub for 4-6 weeks. Pretty much just observed them to make sure the showed no signs of illness then released them into the pond, didn’t treat them unless they showed signs of illness. Recently in the past couple years I bought koi online from a vendor that qt’s all their fish before offering them for sale.

Appropriate Stocking levels are hard to say, as everyone’s set up is different, but will say everyone eventually becomes overstocked, unless you put some type of fish in there to eat the fry. Most say about a 1000 gallons each Koi, but I was never crazy about the cookie cutter stocking level thing. For the above mentioned reason.You can get away with more fish in my opinion, using an appropriately sized bog/wetland filter and heavily planting the pond itself, as well as proper circulation.

My pond for instance is roughly 10,000 gallons, and with out a doubt is overstocked with various species of fish (too many to count) and 7 turtles, but I recently enlarged the bog and the pond is heavily planted, so it stays in balance. (It’s going on 11 years old and hasn’t crashed on me yet)...It also matters what plants you use in the bog and pond ie quick growers whether it be through root spread or runners For nutrient uptake. Personally , I prefer aggressive quick growing plants that can be weeded out (nutrient export)easily without having to rip out massive roots.

 

[GBBUDD]

One thing i did was to separate the bog i did the aquablocks bog and the i also did a smaller pea stone bog so if i ever did have to work on the bog for some reason i had a mature second filter already running.

@Jhn is more experienced in this matter then I. I was naïve in thinking if i bought only from top suppliers there would be no issue s. Well i cant say my troubles came from one or another but timing and circumstance said ah yup new fish. So quarantine is an absolute must the more your preserve the better off you'll be .

Cant stress below enough

MAKE SURE YOU ACURATELY MEASURE HOW MUCH WATER YOU HAVE IN THE POND SO IF YOU DO HAVE TO MEDICATE YOU KNOW EXACTLY HOW MUCH YOU NEED ..

 

[milonedp]

One thing i did was to separate the bog i did the aquablocks bog and the i also did a smaller pea stone bog so if i ever did have to work on the bog for some reason i had a mature second filter already running.

@Jhn is more experienced in this matter then I. I was naïve in thinking if i bought only from top suppliers there would be no issue s. Well i cant say my troubles came from one or another but timing and circumstance said ah yup new fish. So quarantine is an absolute must the more your preserve the better off you'll be .

Cant stress below enough

MAKE SURE YOU ACURATELY MEASURE HOW MUCH WATER YOU HAVE IN THE POND SO IF YOU DO HAVE TO MEDICATE YOU KNOW EXACTLY HOW MUCH YOU NEED ..

Agree completely! I bought some water flow meters from Amazon so that when we fill out up I can get a volume. Do you have a different suggestion or a particular brand you trust more?

 

[cas]

Thanks for posting videos of your pond build. My pond is snow covered right now, so it is extra fun watching. It looks like it is going to be a nice pond!