Now retired and finally working on my fish pond.

[Joe T]

This is great, retired and working on my long dream of building a fish pond with cascade and all. Well, I jumped right in, dug a hole 42 inches deep, built a concrete block wall half above ground goind around the rectangular shape of 8' wide and just about 17' long. This was quite a doing as there are two cocunut palm trees on each side of my new pond and taking out the roots was no fun.
Well I am now trying to figure out the pump and filter stuff and maybe a skimmer. This is a fish pond and I want to have natural plants. I get about 6 hrs of direct sunlight a day. I plan to use one of those Ep=+= linners and I have to use something below that to protect it from roots and here is south Florida there is a lot of coral rock.
Well I am having a great time figuring this out and hofully dont make to many mistakes.
I am taking my time and enjoying each moment even the hard digging and shoveling. Gets me back in shape after seating in a desk for so many years.

Thank you for the forum as I know I will continue to check back for more learning info.

 

[HTH]

Glad to hear you are enjoying the dig.

Pictures would be nice and helpful.

It is EPDM and I buy 45 mil EPDM roofing as it is less expensive. Old carpet will work to protect it from the rocks. We have yet to have anyone here report that roots punctured EPDM. But they do grow under it.

If the digging gets too tough rent the tools you need to get the job done instead of killing yourself.

 

[addy1]

to our group!

Building ponds is fun hard work.

 

[sissy]

I retired and did the same thing :cheerful: Welcome and do coconut palms get coconuts on them .Make sure it is deep enough to keep fish cool

 

[DrCase]

Welcome to the Forum

 

[Becky]

Hello and welcome aboard! :wave:

 

[Joe T]

Thank you all for the welcome. Yes I am planing on EPDM 45 mil for the linner and I have been able to make the hole to 45" allready. Now, What to do with all this dirt sand?... well part of the fun. I learned how to dig coconut tree roots out and beleive me thats a shore, I have sand mixed with coral rock and the roots grow through the coral, fun ..yes.. But I did it "wow. Not bad for an old man a shovel and a pick.
Yep, this trees do have lots of coconuts but what I do for safety reasons, I cut them down when they are very small but leave some in the no danger of hitting my head zone.
I do worry about the roots and thatks for the mention about not penetrating EPDM but I am trying to figure out on what to do about that.
Now my next thing would be the Pump and I an debating on an above ground pump. I figured out that my pond volume would be in the 3000 gal range, give or take a few gals. Oh yea, I am planning on installing a good skimmer and one of the preasurized filters with UV and all.
Well as you can probably figure out, I do not know much about this but what the heck at my age I can go on a hit and miss learn as you go and pray my hits will be more than my misses. Well this is for fun and God willing, I have plenty of time to learn and enjoy.
I will soon post a photo. Thanks for the welcome and the comments.

 

[HTH]

As I understand it pressurized filters can be a bit of a pain and use more electricity. You would really need some good filtering prior to it so as not to clog it frequently. Maybe someone who actually uses a pressurized filter would like to comment.

I have an old swimming pool filter that I plan to use for water polishing one of these days. But I don't think it would work well as the only filter in a pond with plants etc.

 

[Joe T]

Thanks for the info, I really need to learn more about this and I know today is a good day to do it as it is raining hard here and my project is on standby!

 

[HTH]

It is hot here here. I am digging too. Making an existing pond a foot deeper and and 1/3 shorter.

This is a tree root I found growing under the liner.

 

[Joe T]

Yeap, I am down to about 42" to the estimated water line on the deepest Center side. The pond extends about 18' long by 8' wide and it has a border step of about 12" all around with 16 inches to the warwe line.
I dont have hard wood trees around it but the two coconut tres have a webb of thousands od roots clump together. However the bigger ones are just about 3/4" thick but can be over 6' long.
I dont think I will go deeper than 48".

 

[addy1]

Think of herons and heron protection. They love to stand in the water and eat your babies. Up here they like to walk up to the edge of the pond and snack. I fight them all of the time here. I see them down in west palm beach area.

Your pond is going to look great.

 

[HTH]

I think your pond will look wonderful when finished. Sounds like you are going to be needing to put a net over it at night. Knowing that during construction can let you make it easier to do.