Journal Freds new pond build

[frederick thompson]

hi folks. little update on the pond and grow on.
seven fish have been moved to main pond.
and seven are in the grow on Quarantine tank
the five fish i worked on medically wise are all fully healed now. which i am over the moon with couple of them i have had for 20 years.
put final coat of G4 clear gloss on brickwork yesterday. so thats the cement all sealed in. had no problems since. leeching wise.
upper pond is doing well plants wise. in the next six months i will be changing it to a Bog filter. with a under water manifold.
so i don t have to keep emptying to clean out. and this will also be a better filter. i will put a cleaning pipe on the manifold capped off
to blast out with pressure washer . if crap gets in the pipe work.
and a photo of patch 10 months old now.

G4 gloss for brick work

4 coats now. does a good job.


around window as well

more to follow

 

[frederick thompson]

upper pond plants

how they have developed for this year

grow better when out the baskets and put into pond bog filter

 

[frederick thompson]

grow on and fish
set at 22.6 c tank is 21.5 c

temp for tank



heater in easy pod filter. cheap and good on the bills

 

[frederick thompson]

now the fish 8 all together they have more or less doubled in size. in 2 months. 4 to 5 feeds a day





thats the grow on fish in the tank

 

[frederick thompson]

filters for people that aint seen them. for grow on

i had to stick a board up above tank to stop fish leaping out

now onto main pond

 

[frederick thompson]

couple of pictures of the fish in main pond




thats it for now folks start weaning them on to wheatgerm food for the winter
and easing food down to one feed a day. on main pond. then when to cold will not
hit them to hard when i cannot feed them IE 8c
all the best. fred

 

[mort]

Looking good Fred. That gunnera in the upper pond has grown up nicely and so has patch🙂

 

[frederick thompson]

Looking good Fred. That gunnera in the upper pond has grown up nicely and so has patch🙂

Cheers mort. Yeah mate. The gunnera will be took out and planted some where in the garden next year. Puts to much shade in the upper pond. And some differant plants put in there withh what i have now. Once i get around to manifolding it up. Patch has grown fast. He has a great personality. And is very intelligent. Love him to death
Hope your well mort ian zozo. All the best fred.

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[frederick thompson]

Cheers mort. Yeah mate. The gunnera will be took out and planted some where in the garden next year. Puts to much shade in the upper pond. And some differant plants put in there withh what i have now. Once i get around to manifolding it up. Patch has grown fast. He has a great personality. And is very intelligent. Love him to death
Hope your well mort ian zozo. All the best fred.

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Paraguay hope your well mate.
John s. Thanks as well. All the best fred. Manifold getting put in on Wednesday. Go get all the parts first. Also get some hard piping done to grow on QT. Water. Ready for winter. Get rid of hose pipe work.

Decided now to go with just the manifold on the bottom of upper pond. No gravel. After taking advice of a few mates. Koi keepers. To many hidden nasties. So i will just keep the baskets. At least i will be able to see everything in there. With gravel its to hard to see. So thats the way. I have thought hard on this one. My conclustion was why change something that is working.
Even though i am going from pipe in at top. To manifold at bottom. The flow will stay the same. Reason for doing it is it will clean its self. No dead spots. While as is now. I have stuff settling at bottom. And i have to clean out twice a year. So idea is to move crap from bottom upwards to waterfall shute. To bottom pond to bottom drain. And on to my waste tray in drum. And away to the drain. So no more hand maintanance. All self cleaning.
Reasons. If i am away. It looks afer its self. All that has to be done is feed the sharks. Haha.
When i first did pond design. And build. That was the idea. Feeding the water into the top of upper pond was a mistake i made. And over looked. I will put my hands up to that one. So now i am putting this right. All the best fred

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[frederick thompson]

been buying the gear for my manifold . and new pipework to run from filter house to grow on QT shed.
here the gear i will need for manifold



solvent weld glue

pressure pipe 50mm 2inch 7meters

6 end caps with a 1/4 inch drill hole drilled in near cap top

 

[frederick thompson]

2x T fitting 50mm 2 inch


2x cross fitting 50mm 2 ich

1x double ball valve 2 inch 550mm

i will be doing mine in a square type way. but slots with circular saw not drilled holes
obviously it will be larger then this, end caps will have drill holes. when done will be turned to face the bottom
of my upper pond floor
starting tomorrow. have a good week everyone

 

[frederick thompson]

Today the hard piping was put in for my grow on QT shed. So now i have got rid of all hoses.
The hose you see. is there for cleaning of filters. I can now do water changes better. Piece of mind as well. As my dog patch likes rubber and plastic. Haha.

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[frederick thompson]

Thats the end product finished

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[frederick thompson]

Hers some photos of reason of why i am putting the manifold on the bottom of top pond.
As i have quoted me inlet feeds water from the top so crap settles on bottom of top pond. This is 10 weeks of build up
I feel with manifold. Water coming from bottom to top. Will move this to rotary drum and skimmer to be cleaned via bottom drain to drum plus skimmer to ultra sieve.
Some photos. All pressure washed clean

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[frederick thompson]

Hope your well hogan

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[KipperSarnie]

Peter Kay will soon be knocking on your door asking for his bread trays! 😉

 

[frederick thompson]

Peter Kay will soon be knocking on your door asking for his bread trays! 😉

Haha nice one kipper. There for just raising baskets up. Above water hight. Good advert though.

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[mort]

Looking good Fred. Are koi ponds ever finished? I've always felt the need to change things as it's the part of the hobby that interests me most but would be nice to build something that doesn't need tweaking and to be able to just sit back and enjoy it.

 

[frederick thompson]

Looking good Fred. Are koi ponds ever finished? I've always felt the need to change things as it's the part of the hobby that interests me most but would be nice to build something that doesn't need tweaking and to be able to just sit back and enjoy it.

Hi mort hope your well. This is a mistake i made. Mate. Fed from the top instead of bottom. So putting it right now. Stupid mistake really.
All my focus was on the movement in the bottom pond. And completely forgot about movement in top pond.
Your right though. Tweaking for perfection. I know when the real cold weather comes. I will not be out there every day. So by keeping it moving all the time with manifold.
On the bottom. I know it will get cleaned. Piece of mind. The hard piping to my shed grow on was always planned for later on. Because my plumber mate. Was tied up untill now. Work commitment s. Once that manifolds in
That should be all the tweaking done mate. I might build a shower on my grow on. QT next. 3 trays food boxes. With holes drilled in lids. With a sprey bar. In the top tray. And an out let in bottom to tank.
Always planned. Just aint had the time. Hows your pond mort. Hope its all going well mate. Take care.

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[frederick thompson]

Here is my manifold done. Cut slots in pipe work every 5 inches. With cutting disc.And drilled holes 1/4 inch drill bit. 50mm pipework. Flow is very good. Well happy with the results. The pipe youcan see with out caps is acting as feet 3 of these.


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