***The Pond Discussion Thread****

So.. back to the pit now the eye is better. I've also bought a glassfiber 'plastic' road plate - in the long term it will be cheaper than hiring at the same price each time (for the metal plates including delivery). Nice thing is the plate is 44Kg rather than 480Kg. It was a complete arse for the delivery driver to collect the 480Kg plates.. this one person can do with a wheelbarrow.

Thought I'd show you a video this time.. excuse the shaking hands, I'm shot after all the digging.

 
NickK said:
So.. back to the pit now the eye is better. I've also bought a glassfiber 'plastic' road plate - in the long term it will be cheaper than hiring at the same price each time (for the metal plates including delivery). Nice thing is the plate is 44Kg rather than 480Kg. It was a complete arse for the delivery driver to collect the 480Kg plates.. this one person can do with a wheelbarrow.

Thought I'd show you a video this time.. excuse the shaking hands, I'm shot after all the digging.

Click to expand...

Gonna look great mate...keep the updates coming...
 
Road plate arrived, skip number two arrives Monday. Looking forward to clearing the remaining soil.

Had a surprise. It appears that my drum filter's main controller box (IP65) leaked water during the recent rains. Water puddle inside short circuited the 240V. Blew the Matsuki switch box fuse and the PSU inside the controller (both open PCB fuse an the switched mode power supply power transformer primary side is scorched earth (PCB scorched). I checked the controller board with a desk PSU I have (12V) and it works fine. So only issue is the dead PSU and obvious water ingress - I suspect non IP rated panel switches on the front :/

Waiting for a call back I suspect they'll replace the PSU itself (~£16, it's a 150W 12V mean well unit) but say that the front buttons are inline with IP65 (otherwise they could have a recall as they advertise IP65).

I figure I will be buying some additional switches - Schnider IP66/67 switches probably to solve the issue of ingress.
 
Long story short update:
* the father-in-law passed away from C19, so two weeks spent over in France and now back in Q19, the skip had a few barrow in it when we left..
* Draco have said they'd repair the controller box (including the ingress issue
* I spent yesterday moving the large soil into the skip

Before:
y09wS6j.jpg

Dusk yesterday - did a couple of barrow loads after dark and three this morning already.
A7rHzxI.jpg
 
While cleaning out the pond I was having a looking for my anti social tench. I moved a fold of liner where he likes to sit and about 5 big frogs swam out with him! I guess I need to build some sort of frog bridge now as there isn't really any way for them to get out at the moment.
 
Yup just have some thing they can get in/out from: I remember one year pulling a large drowned rat out. Only takes a small drop in water level for things not to be able to get out.

Mrs back now so last week of quarantine and I can get the plumbing done. Order another skip (they came on the Monday morning but I got enough in not to be a complete waste).
Think it may be too risky to lay a slab down but will enquire. Still got lots todo.
 
The collected the skip on the Monday following my return - the new road plate is awesome and took the weight of the skip truck without a problem. Pished down last weekend, but today started on getting a move on.

More digging.. I need to move the existing drainage and rodding eye - this is relatively straight forward, just need to get some bits but that will have to wait until next weekend out of quarantine..

Hcq5UJO.jpg
 
Last edited:
So finally got around to working out the final levels and the final plumbing design. Everything has to be aligned to the water level - I use a laser level on a tripod for this.

The garden almost just at the bottom of the picture is 630mm below the intended water line. The hole floor is 2090mm below the water line, the garage floor is 680mm below it. The garage slab is 150mm thick and the wall under the door goes down at least 680mm. The waste pipe being 1200mm below the water line.
The hold sounds deep but 8" or 35cm of that is concrete base with the bottom drain in there.

So you end up with all this referenced off the water line, and then the bio chamber needs to sit with it's base 830mm below that water line - or 150mm below the garage floor. Point 1 - a sump is needed. Next up is the piping - the return apipe is the deepest pipe that will sit above the existing waste pipe level, so doing the calculations - I have 370mm for the bio support slab and the routing of the 110mm return pipes.
Then.. take the pipe routing - the output from the bio is 130mm from the base, so far too short a distance to have two 300mm radius 90 bends to return plus a 110mm ball valve (big mofos).. so a compromise of a T junction for the bio output drops down to a 90 that then routes back - the ball valve is then installed on the up pipe just before it returns to the pond. Not much space there so I will need to check.

So next is to order the bits, then I can crack on with it as today is the last day of quarantine :D

TLDR - water levels for gravity feed filter are a biatch, plumbing doubly so.

 
So managed to get around to sorting out step 1 in the drainage. I've got the plan for the water levels too.

The first (and deepest) in the piping entering the garage is the drain. All the others need to sit above this due to the water levels and the existing pipe needs moving for the wall. The garage foundations go down 68cm at least. The garage slab is 15cm thick. so they all sit between the drain and the bottom of the concrete for the garage. There are five 110mm pipes and two 1" pipes in total!

Before - this is the existing green pipe & rodding pipe in the post above:
O6TFOoA.jpg

After - this is the gold pipe path:
5oO1018.jpg

This allows the existing water path, the rodding eye will go into the temporarily sealed point and provided the drain from the filter as needed.

The fence post is actually coachbolted to garage wall already :D so no risk :)

In other news I got my drum controller fixed and installed today under warrantee. So that's back up and running :D
 
When I had a pond we had the Heron around - Before he arrived for some reason I put a 10ltr plastic bucket on the bottom on it's side with two bricks in to hold it down.
Got home one day and no fish in sight then noticed a few scales in shallow end - seems once the fish saw the Heron they bolted for cover in the plastic tub - I think it saved quite a few fish.
Personally now I would never have another pond unless you are really going to put a lot of effort in.

PS
This is what happens when the pump packs up and you get a heavy thunderstorm- lack of oxegen and they were floating on top of pond.
Also lost a gold one the same size

414494723.jpg
 
Last edited:
DXP55 said:
When I had a pond we had the Heron around - Before he arrived for some reason I put a 10ltr plastic bucket on the bottom on it's side with two bricks in to hold it down.
Got home one day and no fish in sight then noticed a few scales in shallow end - seems once the fish saw the Heron they bolted for cover in the plastic tub - I think it saved quite a few fish.
Personally now I would never have another pond unless you are really going to put a lot of effort in.

PS
This is what happens when the pump packs up and you get a heavy thunderstorm- lack of oxegen and they were floating on top of pond.
Also lost a gold one the same size
Click to expand...

Sorry to see that. I've heard a lot about thunderstorms - the low pressure causes the gasses to escape from the water rather than remain dissolved. Then there's the possibility of a strike nearby and the obvious shock of the sound too.

Agreed, it's been a good 7 years so I figured - if we're keeping them then make a proper pond. That corner has very little going on (it's in the shade, had patio slabs on, spikey low bushes etc that make it not a 'nice' place to be. It's also a distance away from the house.
 
I spent ages attempting to drill chisel - this is about a couple of hours.. SDS or coring the little 2Kg 3.2J Bosch found it difficult.. this concrete is hard

FYU8BSa.jpg

So a quick trip today, picked up a breaker £50 off and the last in the shop..

xiIhf6d.jpg

30 minutes learning how it works and we're cooking... 49J and the mrs could hear it in the house - a good 20m away.
 
So brand new replacement controller arrived today. Seems to be a new version too.

UAaa1Ch.jpg

Even has an override for the water-sensor triggered wash - so it can wash every 45 or 90 minutes. This means when you have a light load the drum is not sat inactive.

I'm looking at options to put a perspex clear bin over the top of it to shelter it from the rain.
 
I dug a pond once. The solid was pretty heavy so I just went straight down at about 70 degrees to a depth of five feet. I didn't use a digger, it's surprisingly easy to move 30 tonnes of earth, lol. Took me a few days to dig although there were stops in the middle for new skips to arrive. Then lined it. Course in ye olde days they just lined ponds with a thin layer of clay. There was clay at the bottom of my dig but honestly it was so solid, using it to line anything was impossible. I plumbed in a water supply from the house, which of course you are not really supposed to do, lol. I fitted a spray head to the end so that it aerated as it went in. It took a looong time to fill but then once it was full I put the surrounding stones and waterfall in place then flushed it to clear out some cement that fell in the pond. I just bought a huge filter rather than try to make one. Left it for a few months and it was ready for fish. Been there for ten years now. Fish are three foot or more now. The only real problem you have with a pond is not building, it's stopping the freaking herons eating or seriously wounding all your fish. They can stab a huge hole right through a very big fish. Also frogs. Frogs at spawning time kill your fish. They latch on to their eye sockets and blind them. Oh and don't tell the water company that you have it.
 
kindai said:
Why not? People on meters can get a rebate on their water bill if they do.
Click to expand...

I think you have to be mad to run a big pond if you are on a water meter. Mine consumed tons of water per year. And if you aren't on a meter then they charge you extra per year for a pond.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom