My first pond build - in slo-mo

[johnnyi]

Todd,

We did that in a few places as well and it seemed to work.

John

 

[johnnyi]

Hi all,

We've run the pond for about a 3 week trial run and have decided that we need bigger rocks and a skimmer filter with a separate pump, so next weekend we will drain the pond and begin this final phase of major change. Obviously we will make hundreds of minor changes over the life of the pond, but after this next effort we will be able to fill it and start adding plants and fish.

The skimmer I have in mind will just be a hole with liner and a pump on the bottom. We will run the current pump to the top of the streambed and the new pump in the skimmer will feed the skippy-esque filter which, in turn, will feed the top of the streambed. Our current pump is a Laguna Max-Flo 2900 and puts out about 2,400 GPH at the top. The new pump will be a Laguna Max-Flo 1500 that puts out about 1,300 GPH from where it will be. So I should have a much higher flow through the streambed and over the falls.

This should be fun.

John

 

[sissy]

better to do it before you get fish and finding all the flaws and fixing them now is much easier .

 

[johnnyi]

As the title suggests, we've been making progress, albeit slowly. We found that we needed additional large size rocks to line the inside of the bog areas, so we found a guy that we got a load from.



With scale:



We then drained the pond to add the hole that will serve as our skimmer filter. This is in the northwest corner of the pond.




Here I'm cutting the channel back to the pond.



And finally with the liner back in place and the new pipe run from the pump to the upper filter. Notice the anti-siphon valve on the near end of the pipe on the right to prevent the water in the 150 gallon skippy-type filter from running back into the pond. Need to actually plumb it, but you get the idea.



Hopefully this coming weekend we'll get to bringing those rocks from above into the backyard and start setting them in place.

John

 

[addy1]

Nice rocks! and great job you are doing, that is a good idea, the anti siphon

 

[j.w]

Nice! Looking like you are getting there John............good workout for ya,lol!

 

[taherrmann4]

Those are some nice big rocks.

 

[johnnyi]

Todd,

Big as in hernia big!

John

 

[johnnyi]

Well, I did about half the rock placement today and the rest, assuming I recover, tomorrow. The first picture is from the skimmer entrance on the Northwest corner of the pond and the second has panned left toward the Southwest and shows the waterfall area.





You'll note that I have a small placeholder flat rock for the falls. That will get replaced by a much larger version that overhangs the rocks underneath. Hopefully it will look right when finished.

Between the larger rocks and the berm behind them will be dirt covered with an inch of pea gravel which will serve as a passive bog. Obviously, even with judicial use of pond foam there will be lots of water exchange with the pond and bog. We will line the bog area with some weed barrier to kind of hold the dirt in.

It should be fun.

John

 

[johnnyi]

I should mention that I have one of the new generation Laguna submersible pumps that should arrive Monday or Tuesday this week along with a few other odds and ends. The pump is rated at 1,360 GPH and will sit inside the skimmer hole. So I should have a pretty good flow over the falls when I add the new pump to the existing 2,900 GPH Laguna. I've calculated that I should be moving about 3,500 to 3,600 GPH over the falls. The pond should hold about 1,200 to 1,300 gallons including the skimmer hole and skippy-like filter.

John

 

[CountryEscape]

Just read your thread, John. Wow, what an amazing pond you have built. I was really interested in how you were doing your bog with dirt and pea gravel. I'll be adding another pond next to my first pond built last spring, and am interested in how everyone else is doing the edge bogs. I know it will take that much more liner to do an edge bog, but thinking that I'll use KoiGuy's idea of the ledge and then pea gravel (since the pea gravel has worked really well for me in my existing bog) with the pipe running water under it and overflowing into the new pond. I can't wait to see how your stream works and your upper filter bulkhead. I love to read and learn how others have done their ponds. Thanks for sharing all your time and effort.
Now, get back out there and fill that pond back up. Oh, and glad to see you took pics of your wife as well as her taking pictures of you working. We always like to see everyone at work.

 

[j.w]

Will be neat to see the pumps in action. Sounds like you will have Niagara Falls in there w/ those 2 pumps combined!

 

[pondlover]

I also can't wait to see more of your progress. :razz: Looks great so far.

 

[johnnyi]

CE,

I was inspired to do the bogs passively by a local woman who owns a retail pond plant store. She has used this idea successfully in several ponds so I decided to give it a try. Hopefully it will start looking like something nice once we are done with this phase, add water and add plants over the next weeks and months. We'll attempt more progress tomorrow.

Thanks,

John

 

[addy1]

Looking good! love your rocks. Neat about your bog, it will be fun to see as it grows and you report back how it works.