New pond underway...

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After leaving behind a 250 gal pond at my wife's house, we knew that we wanted a pond at the new house. We saved our pennies and are now underway...

The back yard is long and narrow because of the shape of our typical city lots and has a left to right slope. My wife is an avid gardener and found the space to be a bit amorphous, so we decided a pond would be the perfect feature to help "break-up" the space.
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Our house is modern style architecture, so I wanted to do something linear and partially above ground for seating (and to keep the dogs from swimming). It will be 6'x16'x3' concrete block about half underground and half above.
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So here are the bones. Because it sits all by itself in the yard, I am in for some real challenges when it comes to the mechanical elements. Life is an adventure!

I really enjoy watching the progress of others projects and look forward to posting mine as it moves along. It's great to share what worked and what didn't for the benefit of the next builder and to get some friendly advice before I drive the car into the ditch!

JP
 

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addy1

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Looking good there and welcome to the forum!

All here will help you as you go along, if you need any that is.
 
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Sweet!

You ought to post a thread in the Photography forum - I think that's were people keep ongoing pics of their ponds in progress.
 
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The final grading is done and I used granite curb stones left over from cutting our driveway apron as steps. The credit for that goes to my wife's friend Susan.
View attachment 4132
Dug a trench and laid underground wire from my shop panel for outlets.
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I built a "filter house" out of concrete block to conceal plumbing, filter, wiring etc.
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This is the filter house with the 1/2 buried filter, gravel base, and stucco covered lid.
View attachment 4135
The lid did not turn out as I envisioned. It is portland and sand on a wood frame with lathe. This part may not stay for long. It didn't finish very well and weighs a ton! I imagine I will be removing it on a regular basis to flush the filter and pulling off a 60lb chunk of concrete might get old! Oh well, live and learn.

I have a couple of questions for the pond veterans:

The bottom of the pond is flat concrete. I read in another post that sloping the pond from one end to the other in this condition is important to move the waste along. I intend to have the submersible pump on one end with the return/fountain on the other. Will this be enough circulation or should I work to create a slope at the bottom? I don't mind doing some regular cleaning and only plan to have three koi in the pond, but now is the time to do it if necessary!

I went with a pressure filter because of my space/elevation constraint. I know the skippy is the way to go, but I intend to keep a large plant population and a low fish load. I over-sized the filter (thanks to some good advice from this forum) to a Laguna Pressure-flo 3200 but wish the biological chamber was larger. What are your thoughts about making a bio filter at the end of the line? Where the water returns into the pond (underwater) build a box full of bio material that the water passes through before it is released.

Thanks for the good-will and support!

P.S. Moderators feel free to move this thread to "garden pond photography" if more appropriate.
 

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addy1

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Sloping always helps, a lot of plants and low fish load helps also. Adding a bio filter will help in the overall cleaning of your water. If you have the room you may just want to do that. If you want to keep it flat you could brush the stuff towards the pump.

You are doing a lot of thinking in your plans, that helps with the end project. Keep it up!
 
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Thank you Addy. I just wasn't sure if having a bio-filter underwater was crazy. It will keep the look of things nice and clean.

By the way, I have enjoyed watching the progress of your project and am amazed at your energy and creativity.
 

addy1

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Bruddaman said:
Thank you Addy. I just wasn't sure if having a bio-filter underwater was crazy. It will keep the look of things nice and clean.

By the way, I have enjoyed watching the progress of your project and am amazed at your energy and creativity.

Thanks appreciate that, it has been sort of on a stand still, still have rocks to haul, but my hands hurt to darn bad....... So started putting in plants and bulbs to get them a head start for next spring, different hand use than hauling rocks.

The veggie garden will die soon, I will be able to pull the plants and drive the tractor to the top of the hill and move some of the boulders that way. I don't want hubby to move them, darn slope is hard to walk without carrying heavy boulders and I sure don't want him to hurt himself.

Next need to put down around 20 yards of mulch before the "real" cold hits..........never stops lol
 
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Hello all!

I haven't updated in a while so I figured I'd post a couple of pics and let y'all know I am up and running! It's been quite a while since I have had a working pond (not just a swampy hole in the ground) and am having a great time with the new fish and plant life.

Thanks for all who post on this forum and share their wealth of knowledge.
 

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