Maybe 3rd time's the charm...
New member, resident of SW Washington, going for the third attempt on building a pond that works well and looks nice.
I'm going into this with two assumptions - #1: I'm learning from my past mistakes, and #2: every major mistake that can be made has already been made.
We're using a solar pump. Aquasolar 400. It doesn't put out nearly the volume that's recommended. But I'm not going to add to global warming for a luxury item. So that's a challenge as far as keeping the water clean. We're looking into ways to move more water that won't make me feel guilty. Maybe more solar panels, etc.
First pond was using flexible liner, but it was PVC because that's what was available at the local nursery. I didn't know about EPDM. I tried to make a splice between the main hole in the ground and what we intended to be a bio-filter or bog pond or something. The splice wouldn't hold. I'd already mortared a ton of river rock into place. Got fed up and tore the whole thing out.
Second pond was an 1100 gallon water tank with the top cut off. No leaks! But it was capital U ugly. Using a rigid liner and some unnecessarily complex plumbing I made a bog pond/bio-filter next to the tank. That worked OK for about 8 years, but we had to add bird netting to keep out the herons and kingfishers, and had to shade the pond in the middle of summer to keep the water temps low and algae under control.
Meanwhile I collected books. More importantly the internet became extremely useful for researching this sort of thing. Forums are certainly more helpful than a book, which cannot reply to questions.
A few weeks ago I got up from the PC to fill my coffee cup and spotted a heron with his head and shoulders underneath our bird netting. The fish were acting stupid because one or two of the girls had eggs. I ran out there, sure that the heron had already gotten a beakful or two, but luck was with me. My wife anxiously counted her babies; all present.
That was it. We've ripped out the tank. Set up Patti's tent for homeless fish house in a netted canopy, complete with bubbler and extra shade pulled over the top. Got 45 ml EPDM at ACF West outside of Portland, hope to have the liner in the hole in a day or two. A case of Atlantic Spray foam should be here today, we have enuf river rock in the yard from earlier rock projects. I'm not sure what we'll do about a bio-filter, but the DIY section has certainly been helpful. Leaning towards a Doc Bio design.
Going to build an overhead patio type structure that we can use to shade and keep out the riff-raff.
Gotta get back to work before it gets too hot today. We've been having a heat wave right in the middle of this project. Better than rain I guess
New member, resident of SW Washington, going for the third attempt on building a pond that works well and looks nice.
I'm going into this with two assumptions - #1: I'm learning from my past mistakes, and #2: every major mistake that can be made has already been made.
We're using a solar pump. Aquasolar 400. It doesn't put out nearly the volume that's recommended. But I'm not going to add to global warming for a luxury item. So that's a challenge as far as keeping the water clean. We're looking into ways to move more water that won't make me feel guilty. Maybe more solar panels, etc.
First pond was using flexible liner, but it was PVC because that's what was available at the local nursery. I didn't know about EPDM. I tried to make a splice between the main hole in the ground and what we intended to be a bio-filter or bog pond or something. The splice wouldn't hold. I'd already mortared a ton of river rock into place. Got fed up and tore the whole thing out.
Second pond was an 1100 gallon water tank with the top cut off. No leaks! But it was capital U ugly. Using a rigid liner and some unnecessarily complex plumbing I made a bog pond/bio-filter next to the tank. That worked OK for about 8 years, but we had to add bird netting to keep out the herons and kingfishers, and had to shade the pond in the middle of summer to keep the water temps low and algae under control.
Meanwhile I collected books. More importantly the internet became extremely useful for researching this sort of thing. Forums are certainly more helpful than a book, which cannot reply to questions.
A few weeks ago I got up from the PC to fill my coffee cup and spotted a heron with his head and shoulders underneath our bird netting. The fish were acting stupid because one or two of the girls had eggs. I ran out there, sure that the heron had already gotten a beakful or two, but luck was with me. My wife anxiously counted her babies; all present.
That was it. We've ripped out the tank. Set up Patti's tent for homeless fish house in a netted canopy, complete with bubbler and extra shade pulled over the top. Got 45 ml EPDM at ACF West outside of Portland, hope to have the liner in the hole in a day or two. A case of Atlantic Spray foam should be here today, we have enuf river rock in the yard from earlier rock projects. I'm not sure what we'll do about a bio-filter, but the DIY section has certainly been helpful. Leaning towards a Doc Bio design.
Going to build an overhead patio type structure that we can use to shade and keep out the riff-raff.
Gotta get back to work before it gets too hot today. We've been having a heat wave right in the middle of this project. Better than rain I guess
