New Pond

[Scrofula]

Hey, Though I'd share my latest bit of DIY with you all. I built this back in Easter it took about 5 days working flat out but I'm fairly happy with the results.
I decided to use railway sleepers as the edge as they work well with the rest of the garden. However some of the sleepers that were delivered were totally unsuitable (covered in oil) luckily I managed to find 3 good ones that don't turn the water into an oil slick when it rains. In fact There doesn't seem to be any issues with them so far. I at least expected a little bit of run off or something. I'm using hyperlinks as embedded images can be annoying esp when there is so many. The pond including new pump, filter, liner, sleepers and gravel cost ~£400 which is pretty good going. I already had the waterfall from the previous pond.

So to start. My old pond was removed... completely removed. The poor fish had to live in a paddling pool while this was done . They didn't seem to care though.
I only have 3 one large platinum Koi and 2 medium blue orfe (damn herron )

http/img442.imageshack.us/img442/1221/dscn0466ax6.jpg


Once the old pond was binned. I started digging with the trusty £5 spade I'd bought plenty of liner which meant I had a few feet to play with when it came to digging the pond out. It really boiled down to proportion and making it look like it fits into the garden. The last one was way too small it looked out of place. This one looks a lot better.

http/img259.imageshack.us/img259/8453/dscn0468vc4.jpg


Once I was happy with the shape, layout, and size it was time to put the ground felt in. This stuff is cheap and well worth the money. Before laying it get rid of any large stones in the ground. If your really paranoid a thin layer of sand may be worth thinking about. I just went and picked up any large showstopping stones then put the felt in.


http/img252.imageshack.us/img252/3296/dscn0470tk6.jpg

Now for the liner. (I'm onto the second day now). It actually took a whole day to fill which was annoying as I had to wait around tweaking the liner now and again and making sure my levels were good. I had to do a few adjustments so that the water level ran sligtly toward the front of the pond (A bid to keep the water off the railway sleepers) You can see in the following pics that the top left corner sits a little high. This was sorted out nearer the end.


http/img404.imageshack.us/img404/373/dscn0472vu2.jpg
http/img530.imageshack.us/img530/4617/dscn0474tn1.jpg


For a little bit a bling I embedded LED lights into the sleepers. You can gardly see them! These thinkgs cost me a few quid from Ebay. They run back to a solar panel and turn on at night. They work really well though I only have one picture at the moment and it was done when the pond was still being built. All the sleepers round the pond have them in. I'll try and get a better night phot now its completed as it really does look quite cool

http/img518.imageshack.us/img518/2586/dscn0473wf1.jpg
http/img261.imageshack.us/img261/5948/dscn0475xi8.jpg


You can see things starting to take shape now. The 2 edges are in anf the scoop for the waterfall has been cut out. (that took a huge amount of effort even with the chainsaw. These sleepers are solid oak and blunt the chain after a few seconds )

I also wired up the filter to get the bacteria up and running.

http/img404.imageshack.us/img404/433/dscn0481yc4.jpg

The waterfall was added, leveled and secured. This actually took a few hours as trying to get the thing to sit level is a pain in the a$$ and getting a water tight seal from the filter to the inlet isn't easy either. I can't abide dripping joints! You can see that I've also cemented some pebbels into the front sloped area. I also bricked of the stoned area around the pond.

http/img408.imageshack.us/img408/5648/dscn0486ke1.jpg
http/img404.imageshack.us/img404/7312/dscn0485pt5.jpg
http/img504.imageshack.us/img504/1570/dscn0487al6.jpg

And the last few images are the finished product. A few sleepers cut (took ages) to box in the waterfall and a temporary cover to keep the heron away. gravel put down, fish added as well as the plants and a few water checks to make sure everything is A OK, beer drank


http/img517.imageshack.us/img517/2112/dscn0489zk0.jpg
http/img404.imageshack.us/img404/6206/dscn0490lb0.jpg

And there you have it. I'd like to be able to see it more often but I built it in my parents garden ha ha I'm looking forward to visiting in the summer and having a few beers in the summer house overlooking the garden. I was never totally happy with the waterfall but I think when the plants have grown round it and it gets covered in moss it'll look OK.


I've kinda rushed this a little (the post that is), I'm supposed to be working on my Open Uni assignment but I get so easily distracted (can you ever get tracted? ) If you have comments/questions then let me know.

ScroF

 

[GoldLenny]

Looks good. The only change I would have made in the construction was adding a berm around the perimeter of the pond so it did not get run-off from the surrounding garden area. It looks like the rest of the garden area is a little higher than the edge of the pond which means rain will wash run-off into the pond. If the timber was treated in any way, that could be bad. If the rocks are any that might leech, that could make your water extra hard which isn't the worse thing but it's something to monitor since you don't want your pH bouncing around. It's not bad if it's high, as long as it's stabile.

 

[Scrofula]

Hi GoldLenny.

The area surrounding the pond drains real quick so we don't get much of an issue with surface run off its mostly stones. The sleepers were tested and I agree that there not ideal for pond edging, but these ones seemed OK. No pollution in the water and its been in for months now. PH is a stable 7.6 it never changes. The media was taken out my old filter so the pond cycled itself pretty quick. The fish are loving the extra space they have

 

[sakaspuds]

the new trend when it comes to herons is a small electric fence only a few inches high, herons wade into ponds it will only try to wade into one with an electric fence once

i forgot to ask, do you have pics of your fish?

 

[Scrofula]

On the old pond we had some wire that ran around the edge (not electricuted though) the heron wouldn't step over it. Its too much of a trip hazzard on this pond though.

No photos of the fish I'm afraid. I'll take some next time I'm down

 

[Scrofula]

Ah ha found a pic of my Koi. My ex GF bought this for me about 6 years ago. He was only tiny he was labeled up as a platinum koi (thats why she bought him girls and platinum... I think she wanted something platinum in return ) He's prety big now and enjoys all the extra sapce he has. He destroys all the plants in the pond but we put up with him

You can just make 1 one of the 2 blue orfe in there too. Thats all thats in there at the moment. 3 fish... It'll get some more next year.



Its a big image. if your using firefox click the middle mouse button to open it in a new tab then wait a minute for it load. cick the loaded image to zoom into it.