- Joined
- Nov 19, 2020
- Messages
- 149
- Reaction score
- 129
- Location
- North West New Jersey
- Hardiness Zone
- 6a
- Country
As some of you know I "was" a Prefab user, forgive me I have learned the error of my ways. (the hard way).
In the beginning this is what I started with
the biggest problem was a complete freeze over that would kill fish and plants.
So I decided to go a bit larger and deeper, much deeper.
after dealing with spring rains and the hole filling up with water every night, playing in the mud is without a better work sucks...
that little square knob lower center is a 20 ton rail jack that is 3' 6" tall. pump down, work repeat. for at least 8-10hrs a day.
at this point I still needed to get at least 10 more inches deeper. it took a while but finally got to the bottom of it. among many of my concerns were the massive boulders needed to be stabilized from moving inwards. this was done by pouring a 10" thick concrete wall under them.
This dig came with its problem and did I ever have them. at one point it took over a week to under mine a rock that ended being a boulder. getting it out of the hole took another 6 hrs. to give you some perspective that S.O.B. is over 3' tall and 5' wide and it took my lil tractor everything it had just to drag it on flat ground.
here it shows part of the concrete and the return pipes. the one pipe with the sweep is direct return to the pond and the one behind goes up to the bottom of the upper waterfall. each return pipe can be independently controlled from the pump pit. all return pipes are 1-1/2"
another view of the stabilizing wall.
and the 2 return pipes.
I don't have any photos of the concrete pour, I did the mixing my self with 3/4 stone, sand and Portland. standard 1,2,3, mix. the bast I could get out of my little electric mixer was 2 1/2 5gal pails. don't know about you but a single full 5gal pail of concrete is heavy as all get out. I ended up doing 1/2 buckets 2 at a time for balance in and out of the hole. it seemed like forever to complete this part of the build.
At this point I installed 3 bottom drains, left corner, center, right corner.
It was at this point I posted a desperate cry for help with installing a liner that broke my budget. I never installed, cut or mended a liner before. for those who have posted "HOW TO" threads and people I have chatted with I can NOT thank enough to get me beyond this point. I will be forever indebted to you.
One thing I did NOT do is vacuum test the return lines, the were all pressure tested at 15lbs for 1hr and passed but with the "CHEEP" pipes I used they are subject to cavitating the pipe before the fitting that might cause a leak or air getting in the line before the pump. All pipe are built under the pond to lessen the chance of freezing. at a depth of 40-48" under sand and crushed stone.
The 3 drains run together into a 2" pvc pipe that runs straight out the back wall to a street elbow that goes to the bottom of the bio filter and the main pump.
the pump pit kick my behind more than the pond. I just did not have the energy, will power or stamina to dig out another boulder, so it was built a little smaller than I needed and everything I did to save flow loss in the pond was lost in the pump pit and I still ended up with more water flow than I needed.
there is a lot more going on here than you can see. the pit is 4' deep solid filled concrete blocks and bottom. by my feet are 2- 2" returns 1 from the pond drains and 1 from the bio filter. Just above the pump screener and to the right are the 2 - 1'1/2" returns, the one you can see is directly to the left is the pond return and the one that is directly under the coupler is to the waterfall both have ball valves to regulate flow rate to my choosing. most of the time the pond return is full wide open and the upper waterfall is cut back to slightly more than half.
The fill and testing
here is where I just had to wait. fill, watch the liner, if the wicking on the liner was over a 1/2" I had a leak some were... wait till it stopped find it, fix it, try again. AND because it was my first time I had to cut the whole right corner out and start again. surprisingly every fitting through the liner did not leak, just my bad job at doing seams.
but you can't say I'm not persistent.
after all said and done I was thinking ??? maybe 900 gals.... Nope. had to clean out my shorts when I dumped 3,250 gals in the pond.
I have a shallow well. so I ended up borrowing a 275gal water holding tank and a lil generator and pumped water out of a pond loaded with plant life.
I treated the pond with 2gal of pure bleach tested daily to get the lowest reading and then hit it with 4 gals of ammonia. this was to jump start the bio filter before life was added. tested daily till no reading and then waited 4 more days before adding my fish that were in a crowded 75gal fish tank. the were beyond happy for there new home.
This spring is phase 2.... hopefully no boulders but I'm not counting on it.
Forgot to mention with that freezing dip we had we hit a whooping 2.7 degrees here and the lowest temp on the pond was 32.8 no freezing pipe no water stoppages.
Water is flowing under the ice buildup on the upper waterfall.
In the beginning this is what I started with
the biggest problem was a complete freeze over that would kill fish and plants.
So I decided to go a bit larger and deeper, much deeper.
after dealing with spring rains and the hole filling up with water every night, playing in the mud is without a better work sucks...
that little square knob lower center is a 20 ton rail jack that is 3' 6" tall. pump down, work repeat. for at least 8-10hrs a day.
at this point I still needed to get at least 10 more inches deeper. it took a while but finally got to the bottom of it. among many of my concerns were the massive boulders needed to be stabilized from moving inwards. this was done by pouring a 10" thick concrete wall under them.
This dig came with its problem and did I ever have them. at one point it took over a week to under mine a rock that ended being a boulder. getting it out of the hole took another 6 hrs. to give you some perspective that S.O.B. is over 3' tall and 5' wide and it took my lil tractor everything it had just to drag it on flat ground.
here it shows part of the concrete and the return pipes. the one pipe with the sweep is direct return to the pond and the one behind goes up to the bottom of the upper waterfall. each return pipe can be independently controlled from the pump pit. all return pipes are 1-1/2"
another view of the stabilizing wall.
and the 2 return pipes.
I don't have any photos of the concrete pour, I did the mixing my self with 3/4 stone, sand and Portland. standard 1,2,3, mix. the bast I could get out of my little electric mixer was 2 1/2 5gal pails. don't know about you but a single full 5gal pail of concrete is heavy as all get out. I ended up doing 1/2 buckets 2 at a time for balance in and out of the hole. it seemed like forever to complete this part of the build.
At this point I installed 3 bottom drains, left corner, center, right corner.
It was at this point I posted a desperate cry for help with installing a liner that broke my budget. I never installed, cut or mended a liner before. for those who have posted "HOW TO" threads and people I have chatted with I can NOT thank enough to get me beyond this point. I will be forever indebted to you.
One thing I did NOT do is vacuum test the return lines, the were all pressure tested at 15lbs for 1hr and passed but with the "CHEEP" pipes I used they are subject to cavitating the pipe before the fitting that might cause a leak or air getting in the line before the pump. All pipe are built under the pond to lessen the chance of freezing. at a depth of 40-48" under sand and crushed stone.
The 3 drains run together into a 2" pvc pipe that runs straight out the back wall to a street elbow that goes to the bottom of the bio filter and the main pump.
the pump pit kick my behind more than the pond. I just did not have the energy, will power or stamina to dig out another boulder, so it was built a little smaller than I needed and everything I did to save flow loss in the pond was lost in the pump pit and I still ended up with more water flow than I needed.
there is a lot more going on here than you can see. the pit is 4' deep solid filled concrete blocks and bottom. by my feet are 2- 2" returns 1 from the pond drains and 1 from the bio filter. Just above the pump screener and to the right are the 2 - 1'1/2" returns, the one you can see is directly to the left is the pond return and the one that is directly under the coupler is to the waterfall both have ball valves to regulate flow rate to my choosing. most of the time the pond return is full wide open and the upper waterfall is cut back to slightly more than half.
The fill and testing
here is where I just had to wait. fill, watch the liner, if the wicking on the liner was over a 1/2" I had a leak some were... wait till it stopped find it, fix it, try again. AND because it was my first time I had to cut the whole right corner out and start again. surprisingly every fitting through the liner did not leak, just my bad job at doing seams.
but you can't say I'm not persistent.
after all said and done I was thinking ??? maybe 900 gals.... Nope. had to clean out my shorts when I dumped 3,250 gals in the pond.
I have a shallow well. so I ended up borrowing a 275gal water holding tank and a lil generator and pumped water out of a pond loaded with plant life.
I treated the pond with 2gal of pure bleach tested daily to get the lowest reading and then hit it with 4 gals of ammonia. this was to jump start the bio filter before life was added. tested daily till no reading and then waited 4 more days before adding my fish that were in a crowded 75gal fish tank. the were beyond happy for there new home.
This spring is phase 2.... hopefully no boulders but I'm not counting on it.
Forgot to mention with that freezing dip we had we hit a whooping 2.7 degrees here and the lowest temp on the pond was 32.8 no freezing pipe no water stoppages.
Water is flowing under the ice buildup on the upper waterfall.
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