Raised Pond Build Dublin

gillad

Congrats.
Because of you bad back,maybe scrap the fishpond and create a Jacuzzi.:)

goz83

gillad wrote: »

Congrats.
Because of you bad back,maybe scrap the fishpond and create a Jacuzzi.:)

You say that joking....but the thought had crossed my mind

What put me off in the end was the cost of heating the thing :eek:

goz83

Yesterday I finished the pipe work...or so I thought. I had spotted a small leak on the 110mm pipe before the ball valve, so I had to drain the pond and put in some new connections. Myself and the FIL fitted them and I finished the rest of the plumbing which took the entire day. I was at it for about 10 or 11 hours.

I started to fill the pond this morning. After a couple of hours I went to check on the pipes and the water was p1ssing out of the 110mm pipe at the ball valve connection. That emergency drain came in handy. The connection wasn't tight enough so I wrapped by belt around the collar for grip and tightened it. Seems to have done the job.

My son filled the planter with soil while I went out to pick up a couple of pond plants. Got those in and filled the planter with water and all looks good.

The water was almost at the the full level so it was time to test the flow. I filled the top barrel with K1 media and turned on the pump. The pump engaged but nothing happened. I had to turn it off to prevent burning it out .

My mistake was to assume the pump would draw the water up the pipe and get it flowing. However, it seems that the water must be fed to the pump by gravity, or by immersion before it will pump water. I had to cut 3 pipes to release the pump and test my theory.

I lowered the level of the pump so the water will flow from the settling tank into it. However, I ran out of 40mm pipe and solvent weld connections (I need 2 x 90 degree bends and a straight coupling joint), so I have to pick those up tomorrow and reconnect the pump to the loop.

I'll take a couple of pics when that's done tomorrow.

goz83

Those pictures will have to wait a bit longer. I managed to lower the pump and it worked wonderfully. However, with all the man handling, a leak developed in the inlet connection. I lost patience with it and decided to submerge the pump in the tank and blank off the connector. It was very awkward sawing through the pipes in a tight spot. I decided to pick up a pvc pipe cutter from woodies. Much better

I plan to redo the pump connection externally, but for now, I just wanted it to work without leaking and it’s doing that now.

I also had a leak in my skimmer line, so I had to half drain the pomd to fix that. I replaced a poorly sealed coupling.

Worst of all, the plant box had a leak. I could not believe it. The water had found a way under the liner and was slowly leaking out the back. I had to remove the topping, plants, stones and soil (messy job) and laid some very heavy duty liner. It was a vinyl Alfa 156 advert my FIL had put aside years ago. I levelled the planter and it seems to have a good flow now.....although the water is a bit murky from the soil.

Also managed to connect the UV and air pump. I will finish filling the pond tomorrow and this time the pics will be coming. I don’t plan anymore trips to woodies or the plumb supplies shop for a while. Fingers crossed there are no more leaks.

goz83

The pond is now functioning. I still have two very tiny weeps coming from the UV inlet and one of the outlets. This is because I didn't use enough PTFE and probably din't tighten enough. I'll take care of it in a couple of weeks when I am redoing the dry-mounting of the pump. For now, it's fine. I still have to decorate the outside. I might paint for now and wood clad later. But I think a well deserved break is in order for a couple of days.

Oh wait...I have to box in the pipes today

Here's a snap of the pond as of today.



And for those of you who are inclined....here is a youtube run through of the pond and filter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbyCt_hcVGo

wexie

that is fabulous work, well impressed.

Must get the thumb out and think of something like that. Mrs been telling me for years she'd like a little pond somewhere and the youngest is big enough now that it should be reasonably safe.

recedite

Fantastic. The weeping leaks might seal themselves up after a while if very minor. The set-up reminds me of a new "dinosaur" house in the zoo, they have a kind of glass fronted semi-aquatic thing going on there for reptiles.

goz83

wexie wrote: »

that is fabulous work, well impressed.

Must get the thumb out and think of something like that. Mrs been telling me for years she'd like a little pond somewhere and the youngest is big enough now that it should be reasonably safe.

Sounds like a great excuse to build a BIG pond so :cool:

I recommend raised pond because it's safer and easier to keep clean, as leaves and ground dirt won't blow into it so easily. Also the faxt that you can add a window gives you a whole new viewing angle.

Although the pipe work has been a right pain in the drain, I am glad I went with the DIY filter. I get way more filtration for a fraction of the price of a commercially bought system. I plan to add a filter sponger into the settling tank (tank 1) to further minimise the chance of debris entering the bio filter, but I will wait until I am dry mounting the pump again.

I added 3 small fish yesterday. Two were rescues and one was mine. My one (a black shubunkin) got sucked into the bottom drain and I recovered it...uninjured to the pond. I caged off the pump inlet with a drilled piece of 2" PVC to prevent the grinding up of any fish entering the settling chamber.

I'll slowly add more fish over the next few days, because the old pond is getting dirtier.

goz83

Had nothing else I wanted to do, so I added the shoal over a number of hours today.

Some of them looking through the glass.

UsedToWait

^ Fantastic work, and more so seeing the effort you put into it.

Could you rig up some type of alarm in the event of (god forbid) some type of failure - if the pump went, for example, how long would you have to replace it?
Would you be able to move the fish temporarily if (again god forbid) there was a failure of a seal?

goz83

UsedToWait wrote: »

^ Fantastic work, and more so seeing the effort you put into it.

Could you rig up some type of alarm in the event of (god forbid) some type of failure - if the pump went, for example, how long would you have to replace it?
Would you be able to move the fish temporarily if (again god forbid) there was a failure of a seal?

The work continues, but it’s great to see them in the pond.

The benefit of the setup I have is that in the event of a catastrophic failure, such as a pipe breaking and all the water being pumped into the shed, there would still be about half the water left in the pond, because the water will only drain as far as pump inlet.

Ideally, I would want to get it back up and running the same day, but I would realistically have a week or more to sort out.

goz83

So the final update until I decorate the pond exterior.

This morning there was one fatality....a 7" Koi

I was very surprised, because there was no sign of stress with any of the fish and none of them are jumpers. However, there it was laying on the ground after jumping out. There was no damage, so I ruled out animal/predator attack.

There was some debris on the pond floor after installing the planter which wasn't going away. I picked up an Oase pond vacuum from a guy on donedeal for €100 (about half price) and now the pond floor is looking a lot cleaner.

About 95% of the K1 media had gone from tank 2 into tanks 3 & 4. This was because I hadn't blocked the central transfer pipes and the downward flow forced the media into the adjacent tanks. This has now been rectified.

I think in time I will build a concrete planter to replace the wooden one. I have a plan to make it a bit bigger than the one I have. That's just me being fussy and it's not a priority until the pond has matured.

recedite

goz83 wrote: »

This morning there was one fatality....a 7" Koi

A decent size too, that is tough.
Have you considered installing a trampoline in front of the glass, to deflect them back into the pond?

goz83

recedite wrote: »

A decent size too, that is tough.
Have you considered installing a trampoline in front of the glass, to deflect them back into the pond?

Yeah it was a disappointment.

Too many fish injuries from trampolines. They only sell these. They are supposed to have a whale of a time though.