Darksaber Pond - My Next Adventure

[milonedp]

I did not even wash our 38000 lbs of pea gravel, the dirt flowed into the pond and got filtered out by the pea gravel. Anytime you work on the bog, even if it had been rinsed, dirt will flow out when you disturb the pea gravel. It is doing its job collecting debris.

Mine clears within a few hours from not being able to see into the water back to crystal clear.

Thanks, that is really helpful to get a sense of what is acceptable. Seeing as I have so much time before I can add fish or plants I'm leaning toward trying to polish the water with some poly-fil in the waterfall or intake bay during the first few weeks then not worry about it again.

 

[CountryEscape]

Thanks, that is really helpful to get a sense of what is acceptable. Seeing as I have so much time before I can add fish or plants I'm leaning toward trying to polish the water with some poly-fil in the waterfall or intake bay during the first few weeks then not worry about it again.

This will work very well! Put a laundry basket under the waterfall or bog outlet or wherever the dirty water gets run through to help grab as much suspended dirt as possible. Especially since you have time and want to make it as clear as possible in the beginning.
I think I I already said this, but with my new pond, I added two types of beneficial bacteria to the new water, daily doses for I think 2 weeks. For my 9,000 gal pond it was less than $100 total. My pond was crystal clear on about day 12 and has remained that way ever since. I’d never in the past added beneficial bacteria but thinking I may make it part of my spring maintenance once the water warms up.
And wow it’s almost done!!! Bet you are so excited to have water in it now. I love those huge bases you’ve included, especially the one that appears to be in the middle of the wall!!! Loving watching this process.

 

[addy1]

Thanks, that is really helpful to get a sense of what is acceptable. Seeing as I have so much time before I can add fish or plants I'm leaning toward trying to polish the water with some poly-fil in the waterfall or intake bay during the first few weeks then not worry about it again.

I did that for a while, then quit, too much work lol

 

[cas]

What an impressive build! I can't wait to see it completed.

 

[milonedp]

Day 18 of work. This one is long cause I changed the settings to see more of the work. I actually shortened it today (day 19 that I'll post in a bit).

 

[milonedp]

Day 19 - changed out some rocks in the back, filling it more and working the edges, hoping to be wrapping up the big stuff tomorrow then plumbing on Friday if we don't get bad weather again. Using the clean out pump to run water back to the top of the stream through a milkcrate with poly-fil in it. The silt may be too fine for what I got so I might need to try a different type, we'll see how it looks in the morning.

 

[milonedp]

Sorry got a few days behind, here's day 20 of work.

 

[milonedp]

Day 21 of work, more detail and plumbing.

 

[milonedp]

Day 22 of work, more plumbing, and details with the lighting getting wired.

 

[GBBUDD]

Very exciting you draw near the point of pure enjoyment. the build is quite something ,looking forward to the full flow and the water fall and see the close ups around the pond .

 

[milonedp]

Day 23 of work. Got the pump to the wetland running at the end of the day. Still, one more pump to get running (check valve is on order), that last pump is just for adding volume to the waterfall so that should be about double the volume once it gets done.

The next few days will probably be slow till that check valve comes in. Otherwise, if the weather holds out (probably not though looking rough toward the beginning of next week) we have electrical going in on Monday, irrigation starting on Tuesday, and landscaping the following week. Even with the weather, I'm thinking we should be mostly done by mid-Feb.

 

[GBBUDD]

Love the water outside the rocks on the right can't wait to see a walk down and close ups

 

[Lisak1]

Loving those stacked slate urns! We have plans to add one to our bog this year.

Progress progress progress!

 

[CountryEscape]

I imagine this has been asked before, but do you have ice in the winter or does your area not get that cold? I’m only asking because of the urns you have. I love the idea of them, adding more water flow and splash!!!

 

[milonedp]

I imagine this has been asked before, but do you have ice in the winter or does your area not get that cold? I’m only asking because of the urns you have. I love the idea of them, adding more water flow and splash!!!

It'd actually be awesome if we did, Aquascape did a video with ice forming around the urns they were beautiful. We get some ice but not much, if it gets bad I could lose some water on two of them so I'll just have to keep my eye on that.