Newbie from PA

[cheeseyfella]

Hi,

I am new to ponds, I moved to PA from the UK about 2 years ago, and the house my wife and I bought had a small pond in the front garden. After a while i decided to do something with it, so I cleaned it out , found a pup in the bottom of the pond that worked and built a simple waterfall (nothing major at all) this worked well so we bought some cheap fish from Pet smart which I never expected to last, but they did and now we have some big koi in a small pond.

I am looking to build a much bigger pond around the existing one, but this is a huge step into the unknown for me, so finding this forum could be the answer to my problems, I will have a good look through all the valuable resource available and no doubt still have some questions.

But for now I just wanted to say hello, and give a brief introduction.

Thanks
jp

 

[sissy]

welcome and yes koi get very large and need a lot of filtering so you may want to add that to your list and probably a new pump with more gph .Big move huh

 

[cheeseyfella]

thanks for the welcome, I will be going from a figure 8 little pond (6ft x 3ft x 1.5ft) to 12ft x 6ft x 3ft. I have a PSK2 skimmer and matching 3600gph pump now I am looking at UV lights (in line or in the skimmer) i will be building (well attempting to build) my own waterfall with a 24in spillway, and hopefully adding a couple more fish and some plants.

 

[sissy]

In PA you may want to go to 4 feet just in case we all get another bad winter .Mine is over 4 feet but mostly that is to keep fish cool in the heat here .Since i have no mature trees i have to provide shade .Nice shepard there I owned one a long time ago .I have never owned a uv and have never thought to buy one but do know from here the slower water passes through it the better .Never heard of psk2 but sounds expensive .I have cheap harbor freight pumps and one of the new smart pumps from lowes I got on sale .You sure are going to have some water movement with a 3600 gpm pump .Blast the fish to the other side of the pond . :razz: May have to go find them .LOLI am guessing you will be splitting it off to different things or places .Water falls look easy but figuring out how to keep them from leaking not so easy

 

[j.w]

cheeseyfella
We shall be waiting for you to get to work on that much bigger nice pond of yours jp and give you our 2 cents worth along the way

 

[Becky]

Hello and welcome to the forums! :wave:

 

[addy1]

to the group!

 

[cheeseyfella]

In PA you may want to go to 4 feet just in case we all get another bad winter .Mine is over 4 feet but mostly that is to keep fish cool in the heat here .Since i have no mature trees i have to provide shade .Nice shepard there I owned one a long time ago .I have never owned a uv and have never thought to buy one but do know from here the slower water passes through it the better .Never heard of psk2 but sounds expensive .I have cheap harbor freight pumps and one of the new smart pumps from lowes I got on sale .You sure are going to have some water movement with a 3600 gpm pump .Blast the fish to the other side of the pond . :razz: May have to go find them .LOLI am guessing you will be splitting it off to different things or places .Water falls look easy but figuring out how to keep them from leaking not so easy

I would like to go to 4ft, but I have to keep an eye on costs and the liner cost will double if go to 4ft depth, I should be ok weather wise, the pond is close to the house and is cover by a tree, so hopefully i will be OK at 3 ft. As for the waterfall I have bought a large bucket which I will hide in a wooden box, and use perspex to build a spill way out, in my mind it works a treat, however reality but not go as planned

My doggie came from England too, she loves it here, especially if it snows, she saw a bit of snow in England but not enough where she could disappear into it.

 

[cheeseyfella]

thanks for the welcomes

 

[sissy]

have you checked several places for liners or googled pond liners locally .I just got back from the lumber yard and they have rubber roofing in 45 mil thickness 20x50 for 229 dollars and i have a large piece of rubber roofing in my pond for my waterfall .60 mil thick was 439 dollars same size liner .I would check all over and i know some places sell epdm liner even cheaper and i took a pond at a foreclosed home and the liner was epdm and was around 15 years old and in perfect shape ,i actually gave the liner to a couple who wanted to build a pond and so far not a leak .Funny thing is the guy was very organized and had a nice little pump house and kept all his paper work together and he paid for a 30x50 liner 89 dollars 15 years ago and the pump was just as old .So check around your local area you never know you may luck into a bargain .Craigs list is good to look at for your local area .Remember that snow and fish need air so if you plan on going that deep you may want to invest in a pond heater and now is the best time before winter gets here .How big are you going .Oh I was born in Berwick PA

 

[cheeseyfella]

have you checked several places for liners or googled pond liners locally .I just got back from the lumber yard and they have rubber roofing in 45 mil thickness 20x50 for 229 dollars and i have a large piece of rubber roofing in my pond for my waterfall .60 mil thick was 439 dollars same size liner .I would check all over and i know some places sell epdm liner even cheaper and i took a pond at a foreclosed home and the liner was epdm and was around 15 years old and in perfect shape ,i actually gave the liner to a couple who wanted to build a pond and so far not a leak .Funny thing is the guy was very organized and had a nice little pump house and kept all his paper work together and he paid for a 30x50 liner 89 dollars 15 years ago and the pump was just as old .So check around your local area you never know you may luck into a bargain .Craigs list is good to look at for your local area .Remember that snow and fish need air so if you plan on going that deep you may want to invest in a pond heater and now is the best time before winter gets here .How big are you going .Oh I was born in Berwick PA

I am looking hoping for a decent liner to come up, I need a minimum of 13ft by 20ft.I keep looking on EBay CL etc but nothing yet.

I have 2 heaters, inherited one with the house, and I bought a second one as the pond actually froze over this winter, they are the floating kind and worked quite well. I am anticipating a rough winter as the last one was very mild.

 

[j.w]

You can check your local roofing companies and irrigation companies also as that is where I bought both of mine. It's the same EPDM rubber liners as any other kind.

 

[Figgy]

Hi jp, welcome to the forum from me.

 

[don't ask]

welcome
cheeseyfella

 

[cheeseyfella]

You can check your local roofing companies and irrigation companies also as that is where I bought both of mine. It's the same EPDM rubber liners as any other kind.

that is a great idea, i will check and see what comes up. Is EPDM definitely the right way to go or can I consider a PVC liner?

Thanks for all the welcomes, I hope to document the build and try to give back as much knowledge as i borrow