I don't have any experience building above ground ponds, although i do have experience building a large in ground fish pond outdoors.
Probably my first advice to you would be to check a map of the house and all the potential cables, pipes and drains etc which it may have running through the garden under the soil- you definitely don't want to be building a pond on top of any of these! Also check that the garden has a suitable area for the pond- certain types of tree's can shed large quantities of leaves into ponds during the autumn (which can be a pain in the bum to net out- pine/evergreen tree needles are also toxic to fish), while the roots of growing large tree's may puncture the ponds lining or crack its sides etc. If you are not interested in having pond plants, then a shady area may be the best place to put the pond to help prevent algae bloom problems.
Other than that, if you are planning on having koi, then a pond that is as least 4ft deep by 12ft long and 6ft wide is the ideal minimum recommend size pond to have (koi can easily grow to 3ft+ long). They also need powerful filtration (as at a large size they create a phenomenal amount of waste/poop)- my goldfish pond is 3200gallons and the filtration unit for it is 6x2x2ft big, so space & access for filtation also needs to be taken into consideration. If you go for goldfish then you can go with a lot smaller pond, 6ft long by 2ft wide and 3ft deep is the minimum size for a goldfish pond (although as always, bigger is better
)- even a pond this size though would only hold a few goldfish etc.
However don't under-rate goldfish though- they come in a large variety of colors and patterns, and given lots of space, clean water and a good diet can grow to at least 1ft long and live for a couple of decades+. Plus they are not anywhere near as expensive as koi (even a lot of bod standard petshop koi start off at £25), and their smaller growing size means that you don't need to build as large a pond or run as large a filtration unit (electricity bills can be expensive), and they have a friendly personality and can learn to recognise their owner quickly
. There are two main varieties of goldfish which can be kept outdoors all year round, which are the Common Golfish and the Comet goldfish (a longer finned variety of the common goldfish)- unless you live in a climate that doesn't drop to freezing temperatures at any time of the year, then you cannot keep the shorter bodied fancy varieties of goldfish outdoors as they are not very good at coping with the cold.
Digging a pond in the ground, you will need to;
1. Smooth the sides of the pond with sand after removing any visibible rocks etc.
2. line the pond with a protective insulating underlay, which helps prevent the pond from growing too freezing cold and helps protect the liner from stretching as well as protecting it from rocks & plant roots etc.
4. Then line the pond with a rubber liner, before filling it up with water etc.
I suppose with an above ground pond you could miss the sand smoothening bit, although i would still advise using pond underlay (it looks like a thick felt sheet) before putting in the rubber liner. If you are planning on constructing a large pond, be warned that the costs of underlay, rubber liner and filtration can seriously add to the cost of the project, so make sure you have a decent budget set aside after planning the size and relevant cost of the pond etc
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Lol i hope i am not putting you off constructing a pond too much lol! They are really wonderful things to have and there is nothing quite like chilling out in your back garden in the summer by your cool pond, watching the fish swim around doing their stuff its very relaxing and nice
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/forum.koimag.co.uk/ espeshaly in the pond build photo section http
