Looking to build a new pond

[Crunchie]

Thought i'd best just start a new topic in this section.

I have a 13x12' patch of grass at the back of my garden I was going to use for a 10x5' goldie pond. Here is a wee picture of my garden (not to scale). The patch of grass we want to use is the one at the top and the space could be extended via the paving and flower bed if need be.

We're novices but we have done some research on equipment and I'm hoping for more advice from UK based folk to let me know what filters and pumps would be good. We want to use a liner rather than using a preformed pond and can get that easily enough.

Temperatures have been mild this year but here is the average temp information for Scotland.

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/weather/average.htm#Scotland

The garage has electricity and my boyfriend is handy enough with that but we need to double check if the filter can be run from the garage.

My boyfriend started digging the grass up yesterday. He's also going to buy a mesh frame to go over the pond to protect the fish from predators. we can remove this for feeding and for when we're looking at the fish.

Anything I need to think about?

 

[sissy]

sore muscles and a good amount of pain medicine comes to mind and that you have a lot of work ahead .The most important is the depth and how many fish you are going to add and great filter .Soil looks good and healthy and solid so hope the digging is easy .You will need a good amount of electric and outlets with ground fault circuit interupters so the pond does not become a shocking experience.Oh and make sure no animals can get to your fish

 

[addy1]

Bigger is better! Try to get it at least 3 feet deep, mine in maryland is 5 feet deep. It helps keep the fish cool in the summer, warm the winter (well at least not frozen in ice)

Your filter can be run from the garage, just need to add the distance to your head pressure calculations for pump size.
The dug out dirt can be used to create some added texture to the land if you like mounds and hills, even use it to build a waterfall if you want one. I would add some of the dirt, around the edge of the pond, to get the pond edge higher than the land so you do not need to deal with run off into your pond.

 

[Crunchie]

Hi addy we've been lookin at some equipment and have picked out the following filter, pump and UV calrifier...

http://www.discountl...ond_Filter_Pump
http://www.discountl...Box_Pond_Filter
http://www.ebay.co.u...=item33694841b5

I'm not sure if these ones are OK but they say they do for ponds larger than ours which will be 700-750 gallons.

We weren't sure if we could keep the filter as far away from the pond as the garage so we're going to place it near the pond but we're having to think of ways to keep it secure so any ideas would be great. Our neighbours are a bit weird so we're having a higher fence built and will also run the pond for a month or so before we add the fish.

 

[sissy]

Weird neighbors are every where so guess you are not the only ones who have them LOL .Here yard art is a junk car and if you can afford concrete block to put it up on your rich .I'm going to get even I am going to put my metal pigs in a pen in my front yard .I bought 3 at the flea market this past fall .gotta find fake poop

 

[sissy]

they sell something similar at harbor freight here

 

[Crunchie]

Weird neighbors are every where so guess you are not the only ones who have them LOL .Here yard art is a junk car and if you can afford concrete block to put it up on your rich .I'm going to get even I am going to put my metal pigs in a pen in my front yard .I bought 3 at the flea market this past fall .gotta find fake poop

In the summer they made the council get in touch to tell me that the fence seperating our gardens was purely my responsibility. They had broken it by piling junk against it so I refused to pay to have it repaired or replaced. The council eventually admitted it was obvious they had piled heavy objects against the fence so they offered to pay half the repair costs, I said that wasn't good enough and that I wasn't paying anything (I couldn't afford it anyway) so the fence has been broken since the summer. They also accused my boyfriend of shouting homophobic abuse at them which he didn't do and both of them stand and stare out the window at me if ever I'm doing work in the garden.

Recently I've seen the advantage of having a fence that the council and me are jointy responsible for so we went out to remove the badly broken panels the other day. The neighbours came out and shouted abuse at us for "throwing bits of fence into their garden" when all that had happened was a panel had collapsed into their side and we hadn't removed it within 0.234 seconds. Someone from the housing association came out and said she was happy with what we'd done and the police did the same.

So in short they phoned the police because we were breaking up and removing our own fence. :neutral: They're a pair of total weirdos and I think the police are coming to realise this. One day they'll have cried wolf so much the police will tell them to take a run and jump and then I might actually do something naughty. :twisted:

 

[sissy]

geeze there not weird they are lunatics and people like that need a wake up call .Just be careful ,I sure would not trust people like that . Find a giant inflatable alien for your yard and when they call the cops hide it and that will prove they are really nuts ,good way to get even .LOL :helm2:

 

[Crunchie]

geeze there not weird they are lunatics and people like that need a wake up call .Just be careful ,I sure would not trust people like that . Find a giant inflatable alien for your yard and when they call the cops hide it and that will prove they are really nuts ,good way to get even .LOL :helm2:

You can say that again! My boyfriend is going to set up a webcam to overlook the pond and we'll possibly get a wee dummy CCTV. With the new fence they won't actually be able to see the pond from theirs anyway and we're not going to build it until the fence is in place.

 

[j.w]

Good idea on that web cam cuz we all have some of those strange neighbors to deal with. Fences do make for good neighbors..........if they are tall enough!

 

[sissy]

only problem fences are not bullet proof so you gotta hope they are not that nuts .

 

[Crunchie]

only problem fences are not bullet proof so you gotta hope they are not that nuts .

In the UK we don't have that problem quite so much. :surprised:

 

[sissy]

Your lucky then because here they treat guns like they can shoot at anything that moves

 

[fishin4cars]

Think about your drains and over flow! I ran into a similar issue with my swimming pool drain and backflush line, The previous owners ran it into a field and just let it dump in the mans field that lives behind me. After we bought the house he got stuck in his tractor and got mad and buried my drain line, When I went to go backflush the filter it was completely clogged. i went to go unclog it, jumped over on to his property and he was not very nice at first. We talked about it for a bit and came up with a agreeable solution. It cost me 40' of 2" pipe but it worked out for both of us and we have been good neighbors since. With a house of nutcakes that close, I thought it was worth mentioning just to help you avoid another conflict.

 

[HARO]

Some folks have fruitcake at Christmas, and some live beside them year-round! :ugh:
John