That all sounds good mate, really enjoy large build journals. I dont know anything about ponds but am trying to learn for when/if i get the opportunity.... i'm currently in a rented house.
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Journal My new pond
- Thread starter Ed Seeley
- Start date
LondonDragon
Member
We need photos Ed 😉 love ponds, shame can't have one on the roof since I live in the top floor lol
Ed Seeley
Member
Sorry for the delay. Been working like crazy and then went to Africa for the summer! Anyway the pond has water in it but still isn't finished due to lack of time! Hopefully will be finished over half term. Pictures to follow.
Ed Seeley
Member
Yeah, it's been a slow burner! Water is now in up to ground level (~18,000 litres). The edges are laid (engineering brick to trap the liner and slab on top) and filter chamber is installed - just plumbing to do (which in all 4" is a bigger job than I gave it credit for) and edges to seal. Then I can finish the fill. I estimate it'll hold around 25,000 litres or 5,500 gallons.
nry
Member
Ed, if you don't mind me asking, if someone were to pay for something like this to be built, complete with filtration etc., what sort of figures are we talking?
Ed Seeley
Member
nry said:
Well to build one with my filtration system I don't think you would as it's different and not "off the shelf".
Generally you can reckon on a pound per gallon if you're doing it yourself and £2-£3 per gallon for a professionally built one.
And mine's a 5,500 gallon pond.
By the time it's finished I'll have spent approximately £700 on soil and waste removal, £300 on digger hire, £300 on liner, £200 on insulation, £800 on concrete, blocks and bricks, £300 on filter chambers, £80 on media and £400 on pipework, skimmer and bottom drain. So with another few hundred on other things around £3,500. So not bad for such a large pond really!
If I went with a commercial equivalent system I'd have needed a Nexus 310 filter for a similar amount of K1 media and they're £1,600 for a new one which would have added a fair bit to the cost...
nry
Member
Within the realms....is this something you do commercially perchance? If I can persuade my better half to let me have one, it would perhaps be half the size of yours.
Ed Seeley
Member
nry said:
Sorry mate; 10 years ago in a former life as a garden designer i would have. I'm a head of a primary school now so barely have time to finish my own pond! I might be able to put you in touch with a pond builder local to you. Pm me and I'll see what i can do.
nry
Member
Will do if my wife ever agrees to one, cheers 🙂
Ed Seeley
Member
Finally a catch up on some pictures and the progress pretty much up to today!
Pipework in before concreting base.
Pipes into filter chamber.
Concrete base poured!
Fitting the insulation.
Last little gaps being filled.
Liner in!
Bottom drain sealed!
I then had to leave the sealant to go off overnight before starting to fill! I only part filled the pond at this stage before we went away over the summer so that I could finish off the brickwork and trim the liner when we get back.
Pipework in before concreting base.
Pipes into filter chamber.
Concrete base poured!
Fitting the insulation.
Last little gaps being filled.
Liner in!
Bottom drain sealed!
I then had to leave the sealant to go off overnight before starting to fill! I only part filled the pond at this stage before we went away over the summer so that I could finish off the brickwork and trim the liner when we get back.
Ed Seeley
Member
And pretty much up to date
Engineering brick and stone capping now on to trap liner,
Filter chamber build and plumbed,
View from above to show the plumbing.
You can see the flexible bend on the upright pipe from the bottom drain (and connecting 4" pressure to 4" waste pipe) leading into the vortex.
There's then a 4" pipe with two bends from the vortex to the fluidised chamber and a 4" pipe feed from the skimmer to the fluidised chamber.
Finally you can see the two 4" diagonal pipes going along the bottom of the filter room to the two uplifts on the bottom left of the photo.
(All this pipework will be covered by decking laid about 2ft off the bottom of this chamber.)
This is a close up of the skimmer pipework,
And a side view of the two uplifts,
And the exits back into the pond,
I've now pretty much finished the last parts to get the pond running. I've sorted the insides of the filter chambers out now (DIY easy in the vortex and slotted 4" pipes in the fluidised chamber). The liner around the skimmer has been cut and resealed to fit in correctly and now just needs to dry before the skimmer fitting is finally sealed into the pond liner. Then the pond can be finally filled and fish moved across!!! Hopefully next weekend or over the Christmas break. (I can move them now as they are currently in my old pond at the same temperature - I wouldn't add new fish otherwise at this time of year.)
Engineering brick and stone capping now on to trap liner,
Filter chamber build and plumbed,
View from above to show the plumbing.
You can see the flexible bend on the upright pipe from the bottom drain (and connecting 4" pressure to 4" waste pipe) leading into the vortex.
There's then a 4" pipe with two bends from the vortex to the fluidised chamber and a 4" pipe feed from the skimmer to the fluidised chamber.
Finally you can see the two 4" diagonal pipes going along the bottom of the filter room to the two uplifts on the bottom left of the photo.
(All this pipework will be covered by decking laid about 2ft off the bottom of this chamber.)
This is a close up of the skimmer pipework,
And a side view of the two uplifts,
And the exits back into the pond,
I've now pretty much finished the last parts to get the pond running. I've sorted the insides of the filter chambers out now (DIY easy in the vortex and slotted 4" pipes in the fluidised chamber). The liner around the skimmer has been cut and resealed to fit in correctly and now just needs to dry before the skimmer fitting is finally sealed into the pond liner. Then the pond can be finally filled and fish moved across!!! Hopefully next weekend or over the Christmas break. (I can move them now as they are currently in my old pond at the same temperature - I wouldn't add new fish otherwise at this time of year.)
Ed Seeley
Member
Well it's all finished now! Started the final fill this morning!
First a close up of the skimmer,
Filter finished and air pipe plumbed in,
Static chamber finished (though the flimsy container being used at the moment will get replaced with something more sturdy soon),
A close up of the air lift returns as the water just gets up to their bottom,
And a quick video showing the flow rate,
First a close up of the skimmer,
Filter finished and air pipe plumbed in,
Static chamber finished (though the flimsy container being used at the moment will get replaced with something more sturdy soon),
A close up of the air lift returns as the water just gets up to their bottom,
And a quick video showing the flow rate,
Ed Seeley
Member
And almost full,
And a full width shot,
It's now full almost up to the top of the returns and it's circulating nicely. Now it's full the flow doesn't look as strong as it did when lower, however as the water's flowing out of almost the full 4" it wouldn't. The flow throught the vortex and the skimmer is so strong that I'm very impressed. There's more water flowing through the skimmer than when I had a 12,000lph sequence pump on the same model as my old pond.
I am debating whether to add another 60lpm air pump I've got at mum and dad's just to run the air lifts so the other pump can just run the bottom drain leaving the 40lpm one to run the filter but for now I've got plenty of flow so I won't bother until later on. I'd like to find some 4 to 6 inch rubber diffusers to power the airlifts straight from 8mm airline to boost the flow even more and so they also won't need cleaning / replacing and they have a narrower cross section than the ball airstones I've got in there at the moment.
And a full width shot,
It's now full almost up to the top of the returns and it's circulating nicely. Now it's full the flow doesn't look as strong as it did when lower, however as the water's flowing out of almost the full 4" it wouldn't. The flow throught the vortex and the skimmer is so strong that I'm very impressed. There's more water flowing through the skimmer than when I had a 12,000lph sequence pump on the same model as my old pond.
I am debating whether to add another 60lpm air pump I've got at mum and dad's just to run the air lifts so the other pump can just run the bottom drain leaving the 40lpm one to run the filter but for now I've got plenty of flow so I won't bother until later on. I'd like to find some 4 to 6 inch rubber diffusers to power the airlifts straight from 8mm airline to boost the flow even more and so they also won't need cleaning / replacing and they have a narrower cross section than the ball airstones I've got in there at the moment.
Ed Seeley
Member
Cheers Andy. The pond now has it's first inhabitants. I've added some mature media along with three koi; a gin rin soragoi, chagoi and mukashi ogon.
Here are some old pictures of them; it was too dark to get decent pics today.
Mukashi Ogon
Chagoi (the brown one)
Gin rin soragoi
Here are some old pictures of them; it was too dark to get decent pics today.
Mukashi Ogon
Chagoi (the brown one)
Gin rin soragoi
LondonDragon
Member
Coming along nicely Ed, great write up too, looking forward to when things settle in 😉
Ed Seeley
Member
Cheers Paulo.
Put three more fish in yesterday. Going to let the pond settle now and the filter adjust. Will probably be adding fish every couple of weeks from their old pond as long as everything goes well.
Here are old pics of yesterday's transfers.
A young shiro Utsuri,
An older and larger shiro utsuri,
And a Cha Utsuri,
Put three more fish in yesterday. Going to let the pond settle now and the filter adjust. Will probably be adding fish every couple of weeks from their old pond as long as everything goes well.
Here are old pics of yesterday's transfers.
A young shiro Utsuri,
An older and larger shiro utsuri,
And a Cha Utsuri,
Tim.jp
Member
Really enjoyed this.
Ed Seeley
Member
Thank you.
I've still not added any more fish due to the cold weather. The water is also still green but I'm not adding a UV as you just end up with a ton of blanketweed then. IME the bloom will die out as the filter matures. Filter is running brilliantly all on air. With the air done off at the moment the pond is only using 70W of power and I estimate the pond is being turned over every hour, so 5,500 gph.
