Derekp's Pond Build Thread...

[derekp]

Updates!

Okay so here is the deal with the sand filters. I originally was going to have them behind the cedar trees and have two pumps involved, one pumping to the filters and one pumping to the pond. We were going to have a power outlet buried over to there to hook up the pumps. Well after much deliberation and talking to electricians, I decided to scratch that idea as it wouldve cost too much. So I have relocated the sand filters (with alot of hard work) and used gravity to feed them back to the pond. Im using my torpedo pump that i had on my 700 gallon indoor pond to run water. Im also going to find a way to cover them and the pipes to make them less noticeable but our hot tub pretty much hides them from the view of the house.

PICS!

 

[derekp]

Water has already cleared up nicely.

 

[Midnite76]

Hi Mate

That was a great build.
I followed every page with interest as I am considering a heated pond build for my tropicals here in Aus.
Your build was full of fanatstic ideas that will be very helpful

Thanks for sharing

 

[derekp]

Thanks man. Good luck with a heated pond, that will be quite an undertaking. I hope all goes well.

 

[derekp]

Some spring time pics of the pond. Everything is really growing back quickly. The pond water is also alot clearer than it looks in the picture. The last picture is the view of the backyard from the back porch. Enjoy!

 

[Muske]

Lovely.... The plant shelf along the back edge is coming in nicely.

 

[Maor0]

WOW
Amazing!!
love your filter wish i could build something like that

 

[derekp]

Thanks Guys. The filter isnt that hard to build, just takes a little time. I did lots of research and studied other peoples photos before I started builing them.

I have been backwashing the filters for the last couple of days as well as plumbed my skimmer up finally. The water is beautifully clear and all the fish came to greet me this morning and wait for food. To give you an idea of how big they are those channel cats are about 2 feet long or so.

 

[derekp]

Okay so a few things have happened recently. I have had an ad on craigslist for about three weeks saying that I can take any koi, goldfish, or plecos that have outgrown peoples tanks or ponds. Well I got an email from a guy saying he had 25-30 japanese koi that he wanted me to take.These koi were not little as I previously thought from the email. They were all about 12" to 18" and were about 32 total. I spent all day sunday running fish back and forth from his house to my house and it took about 5 trips total. The guy had them in this nasty green pool and we had to drain it to catch them. They all made the trip without any casualties. Very beautiful fish though and there were some fatttt females. I jokingly made the comment that "I bet if i get these guys into some good clean water they are gonna go at it." Well this morning I went outside and the water is pretty dirty because they have been stirring everything up and spawning. There were eggs everywhere, and i mean everywhere. There were even some out of the water on the rocks, like they just sprayed the area and rocketed them out of the water. As a cause of this when I got home around 3 there was an incredible amount of foam on top of the water. For those of you that know koi, im gonna just refer to it as "dirty foam". lol Ive spent the last two hours cleaning my filters so that the water will clear up. As well as turned my skimmer pressure up so the dirty foam will be skimmed out.

 

[anarekist]

wow your pond came together beautifully!