Journal My new pond

[Ed Seeley]

Thought some of you might like to have a look at my new pond build. I've moved house so need a new pond! This is going to be very different from the last one and designed to be as maintenance free as possible with the best possible results. I'm going to have a sieve (a filter with a 300 micron curved screen that stops particles larger than that while the the water flows through) and then a shower filter (like a giant trickle filter with trays of giant ceramic media) circulating about 5,000-5,500gph with one pump that only uses 295W. The pond will be rectangular and will slope down to the deep end like a swimming pool. At the deep end there will be 6 drains that will work like giant air lifts twice a day to remove all the heavy waste onto the garden automatically.

Here's the plans,




And where the pond is going (you can see the white line marking the edge of the pond on the photo.


I'll update as I progress - Today I'm removing the unwanted shrubs in the garden. Hoping to have the tree gone by the end of the week and then the digger sorted at the end of next week.

 

[Dan Crawford]

That looks like it's going to be stunning! Quite a project and the filtrations system sounds fantastic, I can't wait to see how this progresses. Best of luck Ed.

 

[andyh]

Ed

Thats a great looking project you have there, i hope you keep us up to date!

How long do you think it will take you?

Andyh

 

[Themuleous]

Yeh, awesome project! 🙂 Love the filter system too. Its gonna be huge!

Sam

 

[foxfish]

Fantastic Ed, i will look forward to your progress.
Incidentally i have been a professional pond builder for the last 25 years but its great to sit back & watch someone else do the work for a change 🙂

 

[a1Matt]

circulating about 5,000-5,500gph with one pump that only uses 295W.

low power

At the deep end there will be 6 drains that will work like giant air lifts twice a day to remove all the heavy waste onto the garden automatically.

and low maintenance too.

Nice, very nice.

 

[Ed Seeley]

Cheers guys. Hoping to have the footings and blockwork done before my holiday ends and then get it glassed and filled before the end of October. I'm hoping I'll get the quarantine pond finished during September. Then I'll just have the patio and plants to add in the autumn.

 

[Dan Crawford]

Out of interest Ed, where are you keeping your stock of fish whilst you're waiting for this to be ready?

 

[Ed Seeley]

Back at home. I'd moved back in with the folks to save up for the house so they are happy at home in their pond while I build this. Most of the fish will be staying there, only about 25 will be living in this pond. 5,500g should give them plenty of room to grow!

I have got a temporary pool that I can set up if there's any problems and will need that when I start taking the greenhouse pool apart to move that over.

 

[Dan Crawford]

oh good stuff, a well thought out plan!

Could you elaborate on your drain system please?

 

[Ed Seeley]

oh good stuff, a well thought out plan!

Could you elaborate on your drain system please?

Sure mate! The air uplifts are at the deep end. In the pond all you will see are the 6, 2" holes of the pipes. Each pipe will then travel along to the edge of the pond where they then come up to the pond water level outside the pond in their own chamber. Each uplift outside the pond has an air stone at the bottom of the vertical section. When the air turns on the air lifts the dirty water from the pipework up, over the top of the pipe and into the chamber. This dirty water then flows out the pipe onto the garden. I'm going to put a raised border there with a gunnera in to enjoy the constant water.

Here's a diagram of the pond end on to show the uplift pipework,


The other pipework at the shallow end is designed to return all the water from the showers at the base so the current flows down the sloping base towards the deep end helping to sweep all the heavy waste towards the uplifts for removal. The water then flows up the wall at the deep end towards the surface and back along the top of the pond where it sinks back down and is met by the flow from the filter again completing the loop.

 

[zig]

Watching with interest Ed the pond section is coming alive!!

 

[Dan Crawford]

Genius Ed, thanks for the very clear explanation, I only wish i'd done something similar with my 3500G.

 

[Ed Seeley]

Cheers mate. Not my ideas really, I'm 'standing on the shoulders of giants' with other friends who've built these streamflow ponds before. Mine will be a bit revolutionary in the use of pipes to return the water from the filter to create the flow and in how the sieve/skimmer works without pipework. Other ponds like this use two or three pumps, a couple to circulate the water and another to run the shower filter. Mine will run on one pump and do both functions, hopefully!

 

[Ed Seeley]

Thought I'd post an update now as the weather's warming up and I've finally made some progress. Couldn't get much done during last year as I've been too busy, had to check tree preservation orders and then the winter intervened but I'm off to a good start now.

The plans have changed to a much more traditional approach as I'm going to use a box-welded liner for speed and cost reasons. So I'm going to have a central aerated bottom drain and a skimmer feeding the filter and no air uplifts. It's going to simplify the plumbing to a huge degree too.

So the pics;
Before,


Tree gone!


Blockwork mapped out,


Filter pit digging ( you can see the wall fottings which were rubbish concrete that almost fell apart - a bit worrying but now solved!)


Shuttering in place,


New footings/wall poured,


Waste sump dug,


And it's base poured,


And the shuttering removed,


Just waiting now for the drizzle to stop so I can get out and lay the block walls for the sump so I can pour some more concrete this afternoon and then do a bit more blockwork tomorrow.

 

[Angus]

nice work ed, really tidy cement mouldings mate, out of interest did the tree have a tpo in the end? did you take it down yourself? 🙂 (im a tree surgeon)

Regards, Gus.

 

[Ed Seeley]

nice work ed, really tidy cement mouldings mate, out of interest did the tree have a tpo in the end? did you take it down yourself? 🙂 (im a tree surgeon)

Regards, Gus.

Thanks Gus. No, the tree didn't have a TPO. It wasn't that old but I had to check as loads of trees in this area have them and you know all about the fines!!! I have a parent of a former pupil who came along and took it down for me. I've taken down larger trees but not in such enclosed spaces so wanted someone who properly knew what he was doing! 😉

 

[Ed Seeley]

Well I was frustrated by rain this morning which delayed my start but still got done all the bits I needed to do today before the rugby started!

First I laid the blocks for the sump chamber, two courses of blocks.


Then I did some work, watched the Italy v Wales game and let them go off for a while before pouring the concrete around them for the wall footings for the filter chamber.



Plan for tomorrow now is to build the blockwork wall up to ground level on the short side facing the house I've laid today. The longer side which will be the wall between the filter area and the pond will be left open until the pond is dug so after tomorrow I'm ready for the digger!

 

[LondonDragon]

Thanks for sharing this Ed, I am a big fan of ponds, just never had the opportunity to have one myself (maybe one day), looking forward to seeing this develop, nice journal 🙂

 

[Themuleous]

Me too 🙂