Pond Wall

[superdaft]

Hi,

This is the design of my pond wall

Could anyone tell me if the design of the wall in the diagram is suitable to hold 6000ltrs (1320gallons UK, 1584gallons US) of the volume of water.

I would also like to know, if this volume of water is suitable for Koi, or am I better off with other species?

Any info will be most appreciated,

thanks Rory.

 

[addy1]

That looks like a very well built wall, I think it would do just fine.
People do keep koi in that amount of water, if you have excellent filtration, water movement you can keep a nice amount of koi. Ow you should keep the numbers of fish down.

Or go with shubunkins or goldfish, there are some beautiful ones, they are more forgiving and don't make as much waste or grow as big.

Are you going to coat your concrete block or put in a liner? the stuff inside the pond, ow you will need to cure it before the fish can be added.

 

[superdaft]

Thanks for the reply,

the wall will be getting rendered, and then a coating of Hey'di K11, the recommendation from the manufacturers, is to fill the pond and leave for 9 days or more and then empty it and refill, Then I'll check to see what the ph levels out at.

The plan is to try some feeder fish to start with and see what my filter can handle, and how the pond and the fish cope with the winter, the last 2 winters have been quite harsh.

I expect a steep learning curve coming up:lol:

 

[addy1]

We all go through it. It is great to have people you can chat with about it. I put some feeders in my pond the first year, figured they all died, had very low ph. When the pond melted in the spring (8 inches of ice covered it for months) found 5 fish that had grown a great deal from when I had put them in.

In fact whitie is the main mom of the pond. Now have a bunch of very pretty fry, shubies and goldies.

Pick pretty feeders they may do just fine , grow nicely and if you are like me, I could not get rid of my test feeders.

 

[superdaft]

8" of ice , in that case our "harsh" winters seem quite summery now, that put's my mind at ease, we've had a couple of nights down to -20c, but the cold weather has never lasted more than a week or so, before the temperature starts to rise again.

 

[addy1]

I didn't have a hole in the ice, or a air pump running. Just turned everything off. No fish so why worry. Then spring ice melted and ...........drum roll........... 5 fish showed up.

We even had deer walking on the pond. We can get to -10f not very often, usually hit zero and bounce back up, usually sits in the teens

 

[stroppy]

you could always put a cover over it in the winter, i did last year my pond is raised and my fish all did well

 

[superdaft]

This is the pond wall built from the diagram above, instead of the polystyrene, I opted for a product called vermiculite, it is a insulation which can be added to a wet concrete mix, and poured into the cavity, hope this helps anyone planning on building an above ground pond.

 

[sissy]

that stuff is a great insulator so should work great .I would not keep my water that high in your pond unless you plan on having screening on top .Fish jump out ,I had one of my fish jump out this past spring .I have screening on mine but up by the one waterfall I did not have it and one fish managed to jump out there .

 

[superdaft]

Thanks Sissy, I was planning to put a framed net over (mainly for the falling leaves in the autumn), but it should stop any jumpers .

I also need to put an overflow into the side of the pond, after realising how much the water level rised after the last rain fall.

 

[sissy]

make sure you make a large enough overflow .I have 2 because I figure on the heaviest amount of rain I could get .I used shower drains for mine so the fish could not get sucked in also

 

[addy1]

This is the pond wall built from the diagram above, instead of the polystyrene, I opted for a product called vermiculite, it is a insulation which can be added to a wet concrete mix, and poured into the cavity, hope this helps anyone planning on building an above ground pond.

Neat idea! I have used that in the past but not for ponds.

 

[sissy]

I wonder if you could use that idea on concrete items like countertops if it would make them lighter or making things like walking path stones ,I have to make some for the other house hmmmm

 

[superdaft]

I wonder if you could use that idea on concrete items like countertops if it would make them lighter or making things like walking path stones ,I have to make some for the other house hmmmm

I would think you could use it for countertops, I have seen a lot of pre-formed fire places made with it, it makes them a lot lighter and and hokds tiles well.

 

[sissy]

I built my concrete countertops in place but wish I had seen this first I had to add extra wood to the cabinets because of the weight and may even try this with a mold for a large flower pot .I have seen the preformed fire places but did not know that .Well learned something else from you today .Glad I saw this post