No work had been done on the pond, on account of studying for exams this week. I'm hoping to get the pond finished up this weekend... we'll see though... I did take a little video of my fish and the pond today though.
Pond Build! Upgrading from 400 gallons to 2000 gallons. With Bottom Drain.
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Nice video, some nice looking fish
j.w
I Love my Goldies
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Your pond is so clear and pretty. I think your pup likes it too 
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Very pretty
I've been real busy with school and haven't done too much. I removed a dead tree in order to level and make a flagstone floor next to the pond.
I've also rebuilt the waterfall three times in order to cut down on the water loss. On the last one, I lost eight inches of water overnight, and I think I fried my 4200gph pump when it ran dry... ugh! This was last night. Fortunately though, I have the pump situated about ten inches down, so I can't run the pond dry and kill the fish.
When I get home, I'll check it out. I'm thinking about getting rid of the waterfall altogether and just sticking with a creek...
I'm pretty exasperated with this at the moment...
I've also rebuilt the waterfall three times in order to cut down on the water loss. On the last one, I lost eight inches of water overnight, and I think I fried my 4200gph pump when it ran dry... ugh! This was last night. Fortunately though, I have the pump situated about ten inches down, so I can't run the pond dry and kill the fish.
When I get home, I'll check it out. I'm thinking about getting rid of the waterfall altogether and just sticking with a creek...
I'm pretty exasperated with this at the moment...
Whew! Fortunately my pump isn't fried. After refilling the pond, it fired back up flawlessly. It wasn't doing anything when I came out this morning. Maybe it has an automatic shutoff that I didn't know about. I've ran it for about four hours now with the waterfall bypassed and only a stream. It doesn't look like I'm losing any water. I'll see tomorrow. If I'm not losing water, I'll stick with just a stream and no waterfall. After sitting out staring at it, I kind of like the sound of the babbling stream over the loud waterfall anyhow (or maybe I'm just convincing myself!).
Okay, well, I haven't updated here in awhile, because I haven't done much since I'm busy with yet another round of exams. I'm done with exams for a few months after this Friday... But I'm leaving for two weeks for my annual summer training with the army national guard, so I won't be getting much done. We're doing our training only about 90 miles away though, so maybe I'll be able to pop back in a time or two and get some work done now that I won't have studying looming over me.
Anyhow, I FINALLY got the leaking problem under control. It turned out to be a combination of too much splashing from the waterfall and the line was pinched on one edge allowing some water to leak out. It leaked into the stones and mulch, so I didn't notice the wetness right away. I decided to do away with the waterfall and just have a creek, and it's been running for two days straight now with only about 1/2" drop in water level, which I'd say can be explained by evaporation alone in a pond with a creek and about 150 square feet of water area. So I'm happy about this!
I also put together a couple of pots out of rock and stones for some plants. Here is my post from another thread on here about potting options:
Today I finally got around to putting together some stone pots. The larger one is for my lily pads. This was my first attempt at it. It turned out okay. I think once it is in the water and the plant is in and covered with gravel, it'll look nice. But, it's going to be about 18" underwater anyhow, so the depth should hide the imperfections.
My second attempt turned out great, if I may say so myself! It is the smaller round one. This one will house my Yerba mansa, which will be in my shallow basking area, so I really wanted an attractive pot, since the top of the pot will be just about at the water level.
The first and larger one was done using a few extra flat rocks I had laying around. I roughly fit them together, glued them with 100% silicone caulking, and then filled in the crevices with some smaller stones that were caulked into place. I'll see if this is going to be a permanent fixture or just a temporary housing after I see how it looks in the water with the plant inside. I have a feeling it will be replaced though.
The second one was done by picking out a bunch of flat river stones out of the stone around the edge of the pone. These stones are in the 1-2" size range. They were then glued around the edge of a flat rock in a roughly circular pattern. They were glued in again with 100% silicone caulking. I didn't worry much about the caulking showing on the inside, but I tried to keep it clean on the outside that will be visible.
It really turned out pretty nice once I put the plant inside and topped it off with some pea gravel with some slightly larger flatter stones on top.
I'll update with pictures once the caulking dries completely and I get them in the pond.
Anyhow, I FINALLY got the leaking problem under control. It turned out to be a combination of too much splashing from the waterfall and the line was pinched on one edge allowing some water to leak out. It leaked into the stones and mulch, so I didn't notice the wetness right away. I decided to do away with the waterfall and just have a creek, and it's been running for two days straight now with only about 1/2" drop in water level, which I'd say can be explained by evaporation alone in a pond with a creek and about 150 square feet of water area. So I'm happy about this!
I also put together a couple of pots out of rock and stones for some plants. Here is my post from another thread on here about potting options:
Today I finally got around to putting together some stone pots. The larger one is for my lily pads. This was my first attempt at it. It turned out okay. I think once it is in the water and the plant is in and covered with gravel, it'll look nice. But, it's going to be about 18" underwater anyhow, so the depth should hide the imperfections.
My second attempt turned out great, if I may say so myself! It is the smaller round one. This one will house my Yerba mansa, which will be in my shallow basking area, so I really wanted an attractive pot, since the top of the pot will be just about at the water level.
The first and larger one was done using a few extra flat rocks I had laying around. I roughly fit them together, glued them with 100% silicone caulking, and then filled in the crevices with some smaller stones that were caulked into place. I'll see if this is going to be a permanent fixture or just a temporary housing after I see how it looks in the water with the plant inside. I have a feeling it will be replaced though.
The second one was done by picking out a bunch of flat river stones out of the stone around the edge of the pone. These stones are in the 1-2" size range. They were then glued around the edge of a flat rock in a roughly circular pattern. They were glued in again with 100% silicone caulking. I didn't worry much about the caulking showing on the inside, but I tried to keep it clean on the outside that will be visible.
It really turned out pretty nice once I put the plant inside and topped it off with some pea gravel with some slightly larger flatter stones on top.
I'll update with pictures once the caulking dries completely and I get them in the pond.
I love those pots!!!!!
j.w
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Hey really cool ideas max!
All very cool.
Busy busy busy! But I finally got a little bit of time to get some work done today. I got my outside stone floor put in today for a table and a couple of chairs, I planted a weeping larch, two false cypress, a hosta, and another plant I can't recall the name of. I also put a frame around the skimmer and pump housing so I could hide them with rocks. It looks MUCH better with that done. It got dark before I could take any pictures, so I'll update tomorrow morning with pictures. I also forgot to post pictures of the stone pots, so I'll include those tomorrow too. I'm so happy to have finally gotten something done on the pond!
Okay, here are some pictures, as promised. I still need to do a lot of cleanup around the yard, and the grass is ridiculous, but it's getting there...
Here's also a quick little video of the pond:
Wow! Lots of awesome rocks! Love how its coming together. Really nice!