Next new pond

[HTH]

In the short term I need a place to hold the lilies while I make the one behind it a bit deeper, and clean it. When that is done The front pond will be a new home for my koi

The plan is to tuck the new liner under the existing one and use that side as an algae/filter/wall.

I dug the hole with a backhoe Now I need to clean it up. The big problem is all the loose lumps that could get under the used 14x18' EPDM liner.

The next step is to do a bit more shaping by hand and clean away all the lumps.


This pond will not get any fancy edging as I only plan on using it for a year or two.
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[HTH]

A bit or inspiration or maybe just laziness has struck.

Since these lumps are mostly clay it is possible that they may beak down when wet.

I have a 5" and a 1.5" inch lump in a bowl of water soaking. If they break down I am going to flood the naked hole with about a foot of water and let it soften the lumps I miss. If the liner is install with some moisture left in the soil it should prevent any problems with lumps that find their way in from the sides because the moisture should break them down too..

I have pulled the loose dirt away from the near edge of the hole. I need to do some shovel time to define the steps on the right end of the pond. When ponds are more then 18 inches deep I make steps on one end so one can walk in and out of the pond.

Update:
In less then 1/2 an hour both lumps melted into a sandy clay mixture. I will post more pictures this evening. Thinking my name will be mud ball.

 

[capewind]

Update:
In less then 1/2 an hour both lumps melted into a sandy clay mixture. I will post more pictures this evening. Thinking my name will be mud ball.

So the truth comes out ... you just wanted to play in the mud!

 

[HTH]

More pictures

Tonka toys, no dump truck yet.

Next we need to define the low edges better with timbers or blocks. By the time that is done the water should be gone. I have an el-cheapo harbor freight laser level I want to try but you can't see it in the full sun.

 

[j.w]

Yay you are making good progress!

 

[sissy]

good gosh what a pond addict :razz: :razz:

 

[HTH]

Thanks for the kind words.

It is a lot more fun to dig ponds by bribing friends with pizza and beer. But as one gets older people are less interested in lending their back to such a cause. Also I moved to a rural town and most of the people I have made friends with are either very busy or in their 70s. Asking a 70 year old man to stop by and run a shovel for a day or two is one good definition of a bad idea.

For the above reasons this is for the most part a one man project. I was not about to spend much time with a shovel in my had. So it was either get the tonka toys or give up ponding. I think I made the right choice.

If anyone is wondering my wife is not in the best of health, but on the mend, and equally busy with her greenhouse. Each spring she holds a plant give away. Mostly tomato plant and things that need dividing in the yard.

 

[capewind]

More pictures

Tonka toys, no dump truck yet.

LOL... love the little red Tonka toys ... it would take you a bit to fill Hubby's Red Tonka Truck;-)

Next we need to define the low edges better with timbers or blocks. By the time that is done the water should be gone.

Looking good

I have an el-cheapo harbor freight laser level I want to try but you can't see it in the full sun.

Let me know how it works! Hubby needs another (small that will fit under the seat in the rig, not a huge case like the main one that was $2000), and I am being cheap ... although I dont think he will let me live down the last time I went cheap on him ... he needed another drill, so I sent him to HF ... THANK GOD he got the warranty!!! It was just this last week ... the drill caught fire in less than 2 hrs of use. All he was doing was a small tie wall .. the drill was gutless ... just needed to put in timer loks, couldnt "suck the ties up" ... wall was only 40 ties in total ... HF was great tho ... gave him a complete refund, and he bought a bigger drill, with warranty LOL.

 

[HTH]

Capewind

I am quite sure neither the loader or backhoe would reach high enough to put anything into the truck bed.

You don't want the laser level I have as it is not self leveling nor is it strong enough to use outside in the daylight. I am not sure if any of the ones from HF are. We hare a thread about harbor freight tools that don't suck on tractorsbynet.com. I will ask there.

It is 27F this AM with a lot of wind. The wife is pushing me to stay inside but I may put on my carhearts and play with timbers around the pond. I expect this wind will dry it out even with the cooler weather.

 

[capewind]

I am quite sure neither the loader or backhoe would reach high enough to put anything into the truck bed.

nah, no worries, he can blow the airbags, and you can just build a ramp;-)

You don't want the laser level I have as it is not self leveling nor is it strong enough to use outside in the daylight. I am not sure if any of the ones from HF are. We hare a thread about harbor freight tools that don't suck on tractorsbynet.com. I will ask there.

What he has now is a Laser transit, and know he loves it, but was saying something not too long ago that he wanted something small for shooting fast grades, mainly for wall estimates. His work truck has all the bells and whistles considering it's a 10 wheel dump truck, but doesnt exactly have a lot of storage space inside. A bit behind the seats, and locked storage under the seats, but that's about it. Between the seats there's the PTO and shifter, and the floor space at your feet, well, it's akward with just a climbing saw on the floor...

 

[HTH]

More PICS

Because of the way I dug the hole I am using RRT (Rail Road Ties) to form the short ends and backfilling.

RRT1 is in leveled and back filled.

I used the backhoe to dig a crude trench for the tie on the other end. This is an image of the tie being pushed into the hole.

The hole was just a guess and wrong in so many ways. But when I checked to see where it was at I was surprised The first image here is the set and leveled tie. The second the new one just pushed into the hole.

The tube with green water is used to make sure both RRTs are at the same height. I was going to use a laser level but the one I had is too weak to use outdoors.

Once in a while a guy just get lucky. I did not touch RRT2 after I pushed it with the tractor. A bit of dirt under right side of the 2nd RRT and it would be spot on. But both may settle a bit and since this pond is for short term use I may just back fill it as is.

Next? Back fill this RRT and then look at the lower of the two long edges. Here one could just add some dirt or RRTs. The level is flush with RRT1 but several inches lower then RRT2. I will get a pic of that for you and let you know what gets done.

 

[sissy]

old fashioned water level always works .

 

[HTH]

The images I post are links to the public area of my dropbox account. For some reason dropbox is not doing its job. They should soon return.

I have been delayed by weather and/or lack of motivation. Yesterday we had wind today it is not warming up. Just isn't as much fun playing in the dirt and mud when the wind is up or the temperature is down. But I should not complain as friends up north had blizzards and a foot of snow.

RRT1 has a void under it that I am filling with mud and it is too cold on the hands. Cheaper then great stuff but maybe a false economy.

I was done with the toys so I put them back in their shelter.

For a few weeks I have had water sitting in the barrel filter and most of the lifts. The plan is to keep the fish here while we clean and deepen the main pond. Yesterday I turned on the pump and added a bit of nutrient to feed the biobugs. Some of the lifts have settled and they need to come out so I can re-level the ground. Still need to cut a few EPDM gaskets for the bulkheads and check the existing ones for leaks (Sissy was right about silicone seal, at least I think it was she who warned me last year).

Below you can see the lifts and barrel filter. Total capacity thinking 1500 or 2000 gallons. The green house in the background illustrates that clear PVC does not make a good covering. It cooks to brown and then the hail punches holes in it.

The lifts once held a wax used in building concrete highways. Here my wife is doing her best to scrape one out. They never get 100% clean. The wax is a petro product colored white with Titanium dioxide. I had fish in them last summer with no noticeable ill effect. I have been reading that some types of plastics should not be used for fry as it can effect them. So who knows for sure, time will tell.

 

[Dave 54]

Congratulations on a new pond being dug reading through this thread one thing no-ones mentioned but its in plain sight in the bottom of the hole is water levels.If that is natural water and not some you put in the pond by hose then you may have to look at where the water table is and add some drainage from around the pond otherwise if the level raises anymore you might get a little seen phenonimum of the liner lifting up from the bottom of the pondand pushing everuthing upwards when that water table floods .It's just a thought ?Otherwise its looking good to go cant wait to get it finished I'll bet ?For most of my koi keeping years I was indoors with a large specially built Aquarium until Legs injured years ago in a motorcycle accident started to cause the cleaning of the gravel to go from one hour to 4.5 hours, salvation for me comes in a huge 1,000 gallon "imperial" molded heavy duty plastic pond 7 ft wide by 4 deep circular Pond with Bottom drain takes 10 minutes to flush through and the rest of the day slow trickling water back into the pond though a dechlorinator unit total time spent on the pond total say 20 mins tops the rest of the time I can rest and give my danm legs a rest.This year is the final stage of the build, lets say the cosmetic side of things are completed.I'll be watching this Tread with great interest HTHBy the way did you say that at one time you kept koi in the large chemical drum as did we for a week ...Did you find your koi's colours begin to wash out in an attempt to blend in to their surroundings ?Ours did for some strange reason, the solution paint it externally with pond paint..rgrdsDave

 

[HTH]

That is water I added. The ground is dry clay. I flooded the hole to soften the clay so I could more easily work it. The clay lumps melted away. No rocks.so I plan to install the liner with the hole on the damp side to ensure there are no sharp edges. 45 mil EPDM is fairly sturdy

I have had koi in a lot of things but never a chemical drum. I may keep them in the larger of the two lifts show in my previous post. They are about 300 gallons each. Thinking 2 per lift.

My first fish room started out with all under gravel filters and it was like having a 2nd job. In time I got the clue and ditched them and it became manageable.

By most peoples standards this is going to be a butt ugly pond.

My colorado KOI poind had a 4 inch bottom drain and acted as a settling chamber for another pond. The drain was not connected to a pump. I opened it about once a week and flushed the bottom. I was amazed at how something so simple could work so well.

I too have a disability that limits my active hours each day. That is an impediment to progress in many ways. One does what one can with what you have. Not much more to it then that.