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Journal Freds new pond build

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ha ha love the way you say things on paper or keyboard marcel its to cold mate i would freeze to death in there
when it s a little warmer maybe. i went in last year with the dog to cool him down.

here is a list of what i have bought for the upper pond the ferns are purple and green

9 x Hessian Squares-45cm x 45cm

4 x Iris Pseudacorus-barerooted

5 x Aquatic Basket Large Square, Diameter 29 cm, Depth 18 cm

4 x Aquatic Basket Extra Large Square Diameter 40 cm, Depth 28 cm.

2 x Acourus Calamus-barerooted

2 x Stratiotes Aloides-loose plants

1 x Nymphaea Aurora-barerooted

1 x Nymphaea Albida-barerooted

what do you think mate am i on the right track all the best fred take care
 
what do you think mate am i on the right track

I guess you definitely are.. :) That Acourus Calamus is an intresting plant, never seen it till now in local pond shop.. Probably looked passed it. :)
It all is going to look awsome when this starts to grow in and bloom.. :)

Ever seen the Iceman? He's right, cold is a state of mind.. Stop thinking about it and it even becomes enjoyable.. Only the ladies, they always laugh when you come out. That's fortunately only temporary.. :rolleyes:

Btw, if you ever whish to have a Nymphaea Burgundy, drop me a line i'll send you some. :)
 
done mate send me some. is it marginal or does it just feed of water or in soil. you helped me some what mate.
so yeh i will put it in the pond upper. and when you see it in the photo s you then can say i have been a part of that build
everything is a part of the build from fish to bricks mortar electrics to plumbing planning. soil removal .to plant s and that is what attracted me to this site.
i don t know if you have heard of the other site i use. it s mainly for fish and koi. it s called extreme koi here is the web site. http://www.koiforum.uk/pond-construction-pond-build-diaries/16530-freds-pond-build-17.html
you will see some awesome pond build s on there mate. and you learn loads. like how to build your own filters and all that. i more or less learned everything about building a pond before i hired the pond people.
i will give you an example. shaun the owner and main pond builder. said yesterday. i am going to break even or be out of pocket. on this build. my answer. was i know. why do you think i snapped your hand off.
he said what did you price it at. my answer was six grand more. he said i know. i mucked up did nt i.thats what i have come up with. i just grinned at him. the point being i studied other people s build s before hand. and what they payed. if you live where i live. its £2.20 a gallon.if you live in say london £ 2.50 a gallon then i just had to work out electrician. paving and walls. i learned all this on that site. iknow you love to learn new thing s and i can see your good at diy building thing s. so have a look mate
enjoy the rest of the weekend all the best mate fred :clap: :thumbup: :lol:
 
Thats on construction of pond foxfish. Base bottom drain block work and outer walls. Where I live. Because of lower cost of living. Its about £2.00 a gallon.like I said above say london around £2.50. A gallon. If I had built mine myself.you could say half the price. For say materials. And i would not have to pay labour How did you calculate your price in your day mate. When you built them. I suppose its the same as square metres. Depth width and hight calculate s gallons. I read this on extreme koi and koimak co. Also I phoned a couple of firms up. They asked for sizes. And said that makes x amount of gallons so that will be the price. As for the fibre glassing that was in with my price. Electrics I am paying seperate. Because I want a hell of a lot more added. The price of the fibre glassing . I asked shaun what it would cost just for the glassing. If my pond was built.and that was a stand alone job. £ 3500 for my size upper and lower pond.theres a fibre glass firm who has a calculator online.you put your size in and it gives you price for what thst firm does. It was £100 differance to mine. Shaun fits infinity windows. There in his price plus plumbing. I bought my other window myself.because it cost a hell of a lot more then shauns window. Plus it is double glassed.in case one goes on you.plus heat treated.hope this helps mate.i am intrigued how did you calculate your builds mate. All the best fred
 
Not fibre glass foxfish. Its calculated on base. Block work. Outer brickwall renfering and a infinity window . Bottom drain. All plumbing and pipework.

Shaun throws the infinity window in. I bought my other window. I paid for my pumps and electrics. Fibre glass was in my price. So that put a bit more on price.like I said above fibte glassing is not in the £2.20 price. My glassing cost 3 grand for my size . upper and lower pond.london is more then my area.codt of living.hope this helps. I am intrigued. How did you calculate your pond builds when you built them mate. Hope this helps all the best fred
 
Fred, I never used a £s per gallon price, I never even thought about doing that!
I would price the individual aspects based on the given dimensions ...ie .. if the pond was 6' deep the base would be 9'' steel reinforced concrete, if it was 4' deep it would be 6'' concrete with no steel. So I did not have a set formula.
Also most of my work was about hard landscaping with the pond only being part of a project.
The most expensive pond I built was in Jersey & cost far more than an average house, it took my whole team seven months to build but the project was still on going after two years!
Anyway it looks like you have had a bargain... well done mate.
 
More then a house price. That must have cost something. What was the price mate. Mine should be finished next week.then it will be different firm in for summer house. Foxfish roughly how many ponds did you build. I have loved watching the build.its the weather that frustrates you. All the best fred
 
I am not sure Fred, I was involved in landscape gardening for about 25 years.
I think I was just in the right place at the right time, a time when Koi were exotic & very expensive!
I sold individual fish for many thousands of £s, some of the bigger ponds cost 10s of thousands to stock.

I once built two matching ponds above a ballroom in a manor house in Guernsey.
The owner was a man called Frank Hackett Jones, he owned Eagle Airways & he wanted to replicate a second world war bomber plane in the ceiling of his house.
We had a two steel frames made up to look like the glass undercarriage of a B52 but, above the ceiling we built two 'roof top' 10.000 gallon koi ponds with the frames and glass fitted in the bottom. So if you looked up from the ballroom floor you could see the koi swimming around.
Even more amazing was the fact that the ballroom floor moved back to expose a swimming pool LOL...
There was a grand opening once the project was finished complete with OK magazine photographers & various celebrities, however poor old Frank died shortly after from a heart attack!
That was an expensive build but the one in Jersey was more costly, unfortunately I am not at liberty to give details due to the owners wishes.
 
Jesus foxfish there some dream ponds that you only dream about mate. How the other half live hey.
You must be very proud of them projects. Mate. I am over the moon with my build. Micky mouse compared to them though. Respect to you though. And I fully respect your honour of not giving information on people's info.
Not many people like you left mate I am afraid. It s been an absolute pleasure talking to you my friend. And your knowledge and experience . You cannot buy.

Starting Monday the jobs still to do are .put Draco drum in nexus. Build doors for filter house and install. Facet boards on roof of filter house. Wire the full lot in. Then run the filteration. Finish putting Indian stone down. Plumb the drainage in to filter house. Put declorinator in plumb in. Install light behind waterfall. And lights around garden for pond as well..
Then when all my gear comes for upper pond turn it into bog filter. Plants and all.

Then it s on to next part of project summer house and garden shed. To match. With hot tub. This project is my wife's baby. I can sit back and relax while this part goes on ha ha. All the best foxfish been a pleasure. Fred
 
done mate send me some. is it marginal or does it just feed of water or in soil.

Ok just drop me an address to send it to via PM, still got a few small runners left fitting easily in a envelope..

Lilies are rarely marginal only very small ones cold go in zone 1 less then 30 cm.. The Burgundy Princess is a rather small and very addaptable winter hard variety needing 30 cm depth at least and can go as deep as 80cm. I'm also testing one at the time in my aquarium, also got it in the garden. Hope to get some flowers this summer to show.. Then it's name obviously comes to live, very beautiful burgundy red small flowers. They do best in soil with clay, i prefer to use a mix of pond substrate and clay to reduce the ponds organic bioload in the soil. Everybody has his own prefernces when it comes to that and all depends on pond volume.. But i do not like to much mud in a small 200 liter shallow pond setup. But still they grow best in baskets with a mud/peat mix and should be left alone to get bigger each year as their rootsystem expands, they might need a year to addappt and develop before they even flower in abundancy.

There is one thing a lily realy doesn't like and that is to much flow, so if your upper pond has an waterfall outflow to the lower pond, the lilies should be placed as far away from the flow as possible. I experience that flow drags down the leaves and this gives the plant the assumption it's in deeper water than it realy is and will grow smaller leaves on longer stems as long as the leaf is dragged the stem will keep on growing. That's where the plant looses all it's energy and probably never will flower. :)
 
cheer s mark today's progress

had problems with ultra sieve from skimmer line had to redo pipe work and drop the sieve down

upload_2016-6-13_17-5-21.png


electrics installed strip light draco drum power point and control box plus 2 x water proof wall sockets wire cables yet to be
tied to wall

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switch box where i will run my 2 x pumps 2 x air blowers from turn s its self off when dry after 5 to ten minutes
just before installation
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switch box wire up just see blue light on box. when all plumbed in and programmed digital display light s up just running
for now for the air. filters and drum will be plumbed in tomorrow. wires still to be tied to wall
upload_2016-6-13_17-59-51.png

pipe work took apart to drop nexus line on skimmer line to mid returns
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more to follow
 
cheer s ian_m
one of the main boards plus switch for strip light also 2 x more sockets water proof. all duel core cable
so as to do more later on in life if i want to
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sockets with lids up lid is what makes it water proof
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another switch board on other side of filter room this will be for summer house and what not plus more sockets going there
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more to come
 
plumbing inside nexus that pipe is the drain pipe for draco drum. you have to install with water in to set sensors
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bottom of nexus where it plugs in for wast to drain.after wash dirty water runs down there after jet was now got
t piece so as to blast down in case something gets blocked in there
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pipe drum inlet and u baffle plate
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more to come
 

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nexus filter water level and bio side with kaldi mixed new and old there is more old then new. this will give my filter
a kick start. also bought pond ball s and starter to give the filters a boost
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final pond level of water
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distance photo of back wall every thing there
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more to come
 

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Things are speeding up now, arent they.. :thumbup: Looking great.. Also good thing you got matured lilies, also looking great..
 
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