First attempt at a large pond

[addy1]

Wow fantastic job!

 

[j.w]

Wonderful and is going to be such a nice pond area!

 

[Telion]

Wow it has a been a while since I stopped in.. You are making some head way/ good deal / looking pretty sweet. I had to truck in boulders to make my yard look like something not so boring. You got the mountain in your back yard that puts my boulders to shame.

What is that carpet padding you placed under your liner?

You did a hell of a better job at your liner sizing then I did. I literally had like 11 feet more then I needed. mainly due to the pond filling in a couple feet over the winter.

Can't wait to see these crazy falls your going to make.

Thank you. I did want to ensure the view was tied into the build so we lucked out there. The carpet is actually commercial carpet underlayment. Much more dense and stronger than conventional underlayment. We lucked out and got them for 25.00 per roll so it was also cheaper than pond underlayment.

I was really worried about the liner. As I was grading and cleaning the excess dirt out I kept thinking I was going to make the pond bigger than measured and too big for the liner. Turned out perfect though.

 

[Telion]

Wonderful and is going to be such a nice pond area!

Thank you we can't wait

 

[Telion]

Wow fantastic job!

Thank you, finally at that point where water is soon to come.

 

[Telion]

Okay so here is a run down of the plumbing and the diy skimmer. The pump will sit about 2.5' underwater. Its force and the natural water pressure of being submerged will hopefully allow it to suck water from the skimmer and the bottom drain it will then oush the water to the bog which has a ball valve to control the amount of water it gets. And the bulk of the water will be pushed to the top of the falls.

Now for the DIY skimmer setup. I used a 55 gallon drum and cut the top off at a point where I could still use it ad a lid. There is a DIY for this somewhere.

next I created a compression valve connection by gluing it to the drum. I wanted a nice fit so I made sure to get the fitting ad close as possible with the ability to still screw its mate into place.

then I took a tree planter pot and cut a hole in it the size of a smaller pot. This was originally to house a pump that would feed water to the bog bit since I am going to try the one pump method I put a net there to catch any excess debris as seen in the pic below. Disregard the accordian tube behind it ad it 8d not used lol

Next I took a blanket and folded it up nicely to tuck arund the tree pot. Keep in mind mechanical filtration is not so much the goal here really it is skimming stuff off the top of the pond and keeping small particulates from getting to the pump.

Above is a blanket folded nicely to create some additional filtration and create a liner for the buffer pads. Got a great deal on those 5 for 10.00 I see them used in many mechanical filtration applications so I figured why not. I got the basket which will catch the leaves from the dollar store. Should keep thing quick and simple.

Blow is a pic of one of the buffer pads I used two of them and used the small circular cut outs to put in place of the drums screw in openings. I did this so if the basket gets so full with leaves that it does not drain the two openings will still drain providing water to the pump (a dry running pump is a burned up pump).

above is the drawing of where I will cut the top it the drum for the water to feed into. I don't want to cut it until it is in place because I need to make sure that the bog feed line is positioned correctly.

Above is just a close-up of the compression fitting DIY.

 

[GBBUDD]

Crrrrrrrazy Telion you have been one busy individual you have done one hell of a lot of homework making your skimmer and main drain. Very impressive!!

 

[RobAmy]

Very creative, I took the lazy way out and bought one premade

 

[addy1]

Neat build! The blanket may get clogged up fast with fine debris. If it does get some quilt batting, easy to rinse out when it does clog up.

 

[Lisak1]

Very creative skimmer! I agree with @addy1 - you may find the blanket clogs up very quickly. But you didn't invest a fortune in it, so that's easy to change if necessary.

Now let's turn the water on!

 

[Telion]

Crrrrrrrazy Telion you have been one busy individual you have done one hell of a lot of homework making your skimmer and main drain. Very impressive!!

Thank you GBBUDD. Yes I have watched more than my fair share of skimmer and mechanical filter DIY's. Before deciding to go with the bog I wad going to do a 3 barrel multistage mechanical filter. Then I realized I didn't have anywhere to put it and have easy access to it without it either standing out and being unsightly or plumbing it down into the basement. At one point I thougt about making them into bar tables lol. Then I began learning about bogs and tying that to how my wife hates the idea of plants in the pond and like that problem solved. All I needed then was a bottom drain, a skimmer and a place to plant some water loving plants.

 

[Telion]

Very creative, I took the lazy way out and bought one premade

I love to play around in DIY land because I can never afford what I really want.

 

[j.w]

Wow amazing work @Telion and I wanna see it in action when you get it all up and running .A video would be good.

 

[johnnyi]

I love to play around in DIY land because I can never afford what I really want.

Man, ain't that the truth. Looking good!

John

 

[Telion]

Very creative skimmer! I agree with @addy1 - you may find the blanket clogs up very quickly. But you didn't invest a fortune in it, so that's easy to change if necessary.

Now let's turn the water on!

Thank you to both of you. Great minds think alike the blanket actually has a very thin outer layer and the inside all batting boight it at Goodwill it only a ciuple dollars. I figured I would try it this way first so I could easily remove it and hose it down when needed but if it does clog quickly I don't mind so much because the buffer pads and the lower filter basket are really get the fine stuff out. The top basket can also have a netting in it if I find that too much big stuff is getting through the mesh.