New Tropical Pond

[tuggerd]

Here's a picture of he entrance of the pool/pond. The drain pipe is sticking out. Usually the drains are at the bottom but I want to be able to sweep the bottom of this little play area and have the algae clear out of the water as quickly as possible. Another "keep the peace" with my wife plan. The next photo is of the water fountain area. The whole area will be a play for the kids but also act as a heating area for the water. The next photo is of the bog area. It will be about 1 meter deep and the water will flow up over the retaining wall into the swimming area. The last photo is of the entrance of the pool/pond with the boulders in the background.

 

[malawi mayhem]

sweet...!

mm

 

[new2natives]

this is truly MONSTER !!!!

Congrats, this makes me wish i was in a tropical zone !!!!

 

[tuggerd]

Wednesday we put up the walls for the fountain area and the water heating area. I'm playing around with a couple ideas. I tried concrete with black die and sand. It turned out a little too rough. Right now I'm leaning toward black concrete with river rocks. This should give a natural look while still heating up the water. We also got the first layer of alternating rocks on the retaining wall done. The larger boulders will go one level higher on the blocks. The fourth picture is where my Laguna skimmer/filter will go. This will supply the main fountain.

 

[mrunlucky07]

I was wondering if you went through with it, glad to see its moving along for you. It sure will be amazing.

 

[tuggerd]

Here's a quick update. The first picture is of the bog area. I just need to poor the concrete over the re-bar and seal the blocks. The next two photos are of the 55 gal barrels that will go behind the fountains running into the pool/pond. The first is from a skimmer. The second is from the skimmer via the water fall next door at my apartments. The end up paying the electric bill for my skimmers. The last photo is of my settling tank/ main pump are.

 

[Muske]

Is the barrel in between the skimmers it's permanent location?

Ideally, the skimmers would be placed opposite of the falls for maximum cirrulation and effect.

 

[fishman646]

HOLY S*** this is a crazy build looks sweet !!! HOw much money so far?

 

[tuggerd]

I know the location isn't ideal for the fountain but its gravity fed and its coming from the apartments fountain on that side. Its more or less an extra for the beauty and aeration.

Here are my costs so far "Roughly"

Cement Block $1,000
Cement $500
Sand/rock 14 Sq. Meters 7 Sq. Meters rock $700
Boulders $200
Re-bar $800
Labor 3 workers $500/wk
Cement mixer $50/wk
Back Hoe and Mini mac/3 days $600, The guy did me a favor.
2 skimmers/filter, 5000 gal hr. pump, 2 3000 gal hr skimmer pumps,4 aqua lights, valves, $1,500.

Around $7,000 so far. They just re did the road in front of my house so I've been collecting rocks for the past 8 months. I also bought the re-bar and block about a year ago when the price was going up. It's about a third of the price now. Oh well. I've got my pond/pool.

 

[gangster]

That is amazing! Really cool buily. I hope to have something like that one day in a green house to help control temps because I dont live in a tropical area. Have you ever thought about adding color to your cement mix to allow the color of the mud to bend in better w/ the boulders?