Expanding pond with fish in it -- Need help ASAP

[kmarcel]

I wrote a post a few weeks ago how I was going to expand my pond while leaving the fish in it. The plan was to dig a new pond next to current one. There would be an approximate 2' area where the two ponds would be merged. That 2' area would be where the fish would swim from pond to pond over the seamed liners - an 8-10 inch drop, enough for them to go back and forth. I know a few other people on this forum have done this.

Here is my problem. I started digging out the area under the liner where the two liners will be seamed. I have dug down about 8 inches, but I don't have enough slack in my current liner to lower it enough for the fish to swim back and forth. I have moved the rocks on either side away enough so I know that isn' t the problem.

Did anyone else run into this problem? I have ordered a seaming kit from ponds123.com that include the seaming primer, 25' of 3 inch double sided tape, scrubbing pads for cleaning, and 25' of the 6 inch cover tape. The company has told me this is very successful as far as seaming the liners, but I didn't foresee this problem. Of course it's Friday night and company is closed for the weekend and I was planning to do this this weekend before it rains again next week.

Any help of suggestions anyone can offer would really be appreciated.

 

[Waterbug]

Not sure I understand, why not 2 seams? A chunk of liner, seam one end to the old pond and seam the other end to the new. I assume this channel is not super wide? Seems like 3 or 4' would be plenty for fish to move across, but you have enough supplies for a 12' wide channel.

 

[adavisus]

Why seam, when a curved section of water filled tube could join the two ponds anyway, with an up and over pipe...

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[kmarcel]

Waterbug, yes the channel is only about 2 feet. Do you mean just cut out the exisitng liner that's over the 2 ft channel, since it won't drop down enough and put in another piece of liner there and seam at either end, one end to the new liner andother to the exisitng? That is an idea. I was trying to avoid having so many seam as to not have to worry about leaks. But if this product as it good as it's suppose to be then it seems that I should be okay.

Andy, I'm not sure I understand what you mean. The fish would swim thru some type of pipe? I know this is somewhat 2 ponds, but my hope is that when it's done it has the look of one larger pond and that you can't tell there is this 2 foot connection that is not as deep as the entire pond. Your lillies are beautiful.

 

[zman640]

Adavisus,

could you elaborate on the curved tube method of joining 2 liner ponds.

 

[dieselplower]

I don't understand the tube either. I know you can put a fish tank in a pond upside down and pull it up out of the pond and the water will stay in the fish tank until the tank is completely out of the water, but I don't think this would work with a tube above 2 ponds.

 

[adavisus]

If ever you look at a gazing ball, it is a bowl of water, lifted above the water level of a pond

With a bit of ingenuity a 'U' shaped section of pipe could be used to join two ponds with matching water levels...

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[dieselplower]

Why won't u just explain how to do it?

 

[Waterbug]

Waterbug, yes the channel is only about 2 feet. Do you mean just cut out the exisitng liner that's over the 2 ft channel, since it won't drop down enough and put in another piece of liner there and seam at either end, one end to the new liner andother to the exisitng? That is an idea. I was trying to avoid having so many seam as to not have to worry about leaks. But if this product as it good as it's suppose to be then it seems that I should be okay.

I don't really have any concept of what the layout is, not diagram was provided. But basically 2 ponds a mile apart can be joined by taking a 1 mile x 2' piece of liner and making a 2' seam to one pond and another 2' seam to the other pond.

I think I see what you mean by "2' area". I thought the ponds where 2' apart.

Worrying about 1 vs 2 seams isn't really logically. If you've studied how to do the seams, take care, watch the details you should be able to do 100 seams without a problem. If you don't do all those things you'll likely not be able to do a single water tight seam. Leaks are a random type thing, like 2 seams are twice as likely to leak as one.

However, if you're worried about seams you don't need any. Just make the new pond higher or lower and over lap the liners. Even if an extra stream liner is needed between the two, it can be overlapped. You only need a 1" difference. Fish could only move one way, down stream however.

 

[JohnHuff]

They are also called bridges. You can see this guy join his fish tanks with them.

You can buy 6inch diameter transparent pipes and just connect your fish ponds. No breaking the current pond!

Adavisus,

could you elaborate on the curved tube method of joining 2 liner ponds.

 

[Dave 54]

Wow John pretty neat sadly we solkd off our last Aquarium or we coud have done that ourselves.

rgrds

Dave

 

[kmarcel]

Thanks for all the response. I ended up having to cut the exisitng liner across the bridge area (section to be seamed one liner with the other) in 2 places. I then took a large piece of extra liner and covered that, then used the double-sided tape, cover tape, epoxy and did it a couple times.

Unfortunately because I had to make those cuts, I ended up seaming down into my exisitng pond a little. Therefore, having to drop the water level more than I wanted to. It's not too low that should (hopefully won't happen) a leak occur the fish will still be safe. But that process took so long that I didn't get a chance to seam the 2 liners together yesterday. Didn't dare do it today because it's suppose to rain the next 2 days and I wanted enough time for it to cure.

I do have 2 bubblers, a mini pump and filter running in the pond. I also put a leaf catcher on top to protect the fish from birds since the water's low. My koi are not that large, the 2 largest are about 10-12". Earlier I saw one of the koi jump up about a foot into the air about 3 times. Does this mean my fish are stressed? Do you think they'll be okay for a few days? I can't seam the 2 liners together probably until Wed because of the rain accoridng to the forecast and then it will need a couple more days before I can fill the pond.