Pond Build! Upgrading from 400 gallons to 2000 gallons. With Bottom Drain.

[Priscilla]

The bottom drain doesn't arrive in the mail until Monday, so

I think I'll rehome all of the surviving fish and snails from my old pond into the trash can tomorrow. Then I'll drain the pond and fill in the hole with dirt. It's starting to get difficult to work around the pond now.

Well, I hope you have better luck than me with 'reclaiming' your yard. My husband still has what looks like a full quarry of rocks he's collected and 'might' still use. So there they stay. But he has a serious rock problem. He should probably be in some sort of group for these things, but he won't admit there's a problem yet. Keeps blaming the pond.

You're so lucky, you seem to have a great supply of rocks!

 

[sissy]

rocks anonymous .I think we all need a little help with our rock obsession there were rocks and retaining wall block all over my yard for a month out by the pond .I had to watch or I would trip over them

 

[max384]

Well, I hope you have better luck than me with 'reclaiming' your yard. My husband still has what looks like a full quarry of rocks he's collected and 'might' still use. So there they stay. But he has a serious rock problem. He should probably be in some sort of group for these things, but he won't admit there's a problem yet. Keeps blaming the pond.

You're so lucky, you seem to have a great supply of rocks!

I am lucky to have such a readily available supply of rocks around me. I have a small yard, so I don't have much of a choice but to reclaim my yard. As it is, over half the yard is covered with rocks!

 

[max384]

Today I tore out my old pond! I was expecting to find a bunch of leaks, but I was pleasantly surprised to find not a drop of water had leaked through the cheap 20 mil PVC liner I had used on my old pond, despite being covered with sharp rocks and walked on on many occasions over the three years it had been up and running.

There were six fish left that survived the winter and about 20 Japanese trapdoor snails. They're now temporarily housed in the trash can that I was going to use as my filter.

I couldn't believe the root systems on the lily pads. Wow they were huge! I think I may only keep one of the lily pad plants for the new pond. I had to constantly trim back the pads in the old pond because they took up so much water surface area.

I got the 55 gallon barrel bio filter put into place and another couple of loads of fill dirt.

 

[max384]

Everything came in the mail now, including the new 4200gph pump and bottom drain... But I've had zero time to work on it this week. I'm hoping I have some breathing room this weekend to get the bottom drain and liner in.

I also found that the glass bulb shield on my UV sterilizer was broken. Buying a new one is about 3/4 the price of just buying a whole new UV sterilizer. Ugh.

 

[DoDad]

What brand and watts is your UV?

 

[max384]

Well... Two weeks and I didn't do anything! I injured my back doing a stupid lift in the gym and I also had board exams to study for, so this was pushed to the back burner. However, today I got the bottom drain cemented in and the liner in. I'll post pics later tonight.

 

[max384]

What brand and watts is your UV?

Beckett 9 watt.

 

[max384]

Okay, so some real progress this weekend finally!

On Thursday I cemented the bottom drain in:

 

[max384]

Then on Friday I got the liner put in:

However, we got a bunch of rain, and I had to hold off on connecting the liner to the bottom drain...

 

[max384]

Today I got a lot of work done. I started off by draining the pond. WOW, that 4280gph pump really empties out a pond quickly!

Then I attached the liner to the bottom drain. Cutting the hole in the middle of the liner is an unpleasant thing to do! The whole time I was just waiting to realize I screwed up and had a new hole in my liner!!! However, everything went according to plan fortunately.

I also figured out what I was going to do for a skimmer. Instead of using a tupperware or similar container and attaching it to the liner, I just dug a hole next to the pond and then put the liner's overlap over the new hole. Then I used a skimmer net over my pump. Easy peasy!

IOW, this:

Then I built up some dirt around my filter/waterfall, added an outflow pipe from the filter to the waterfall, and put the liner in the waterfall and creek. Next up was rocking in the pond. I only partially got this done, and didn't get to fill in any of the spaces with pond foam. Hopefully I'll be able to finish that up tomorrow.

Also, since I had so much liner overlap, I dug out a small flat basking area about 8-10" deep. You can see it in the picture above on the right.

 

[max384]

This morning I filled in the spaces between the rocks with pond foam and pebbles.

Then in the evening I started filling it with water.

I also got the waterfall/creek somewhat finished.

I need to do a little more work with the waterfall to get the type of falls I want, as well as to decrease oversplash so I don't lose too much water... But all in all everything seems to be working well. I had a mild panic attack when I first turned on the pump and it drained out all of the water from the tub it was in before it could be refilled from the bottom drain. However, after the water level was up higher and it was completely over the drain outlet pipe, the pump and bottom drain worked perfectly!

I just turned off the hose a couple of minutes ago since the pond is now full. I need to tweak the edge height and the liner around the edges in a few places, but it's pretty darn close to being where it should be. Then I need to finish rocking in the top edges of the pond. I'll need to run electrical conduit for the pumps and lighting, and then all I'll need to do is work on the landscaping and it'll be done!

Bad news is that my next set of big exams is coming up and I won't have much time to work on it. However, on the positive side, at least I can keep the pumps running and get a biological filter going in the mean time.

Me and my boys also got our garden in today too!

Usually we do all seeds, but this year we cheated a little and bought mostly seedlings since we got a bit of a late start to planting. The only seeds we planted were for our corn and green beans.

 

[sissy]

I love your waterfall .

 

[max384]

I love your waterfall .

Thanks. It's a little too vigorous for my liking the way it is right now. I want to break it up somehow.

 

[MitchM]

Looking great, looks like you got a lot of work done!