First Pond Progress Thread

[bagsmom]

When there was no water there was equal pressure , when he filled the pond there was equal pressure when he put in two pumps the intake bay was drained to where there was no longer equal pressure and the wall let go . is my understanding

I don't think I understand what happened. The side walls of the intake bay collapsed? Because of the draw of the pump?

I was trying to figure it all out also. I was thinking if something happened and the water ran out in the intake bay, the pump would just essentially burn up and quit.
I am not a math/physics person, so it is making me nervous -- hoping that any errors in my planning would not cause a similar disaster.

 

[addy1]

That looks great, and what a mess to clean up, but at least now during the build rather than failing after fish and plants are doing fine.

 

[combatwombat]

When there was no water there was equal pressure , when he filled the pond there was equal pressure when he put in two pumps the intake bay was drained to where there was no longer equal pressure and the wall let go . is my understanding

That makes sense.

@HayFam2022: Was it your weir that collapsed? Did you build the weir over the liner?

 

[HayFam2022]

I don't think I understand what happened. The side walls of the intake bay collapsed? Because of the draw of the pump?

Sorry everyone for the confusion.

So, we first noticed there was an issue when the intake bay was running very low. But, what happened was, my wetland filter— that receives the water from the intake bay—became unstable with the large volume of water being dumped into it and my temporary walls collapsed.

My wetland filter is built up off the ground 2.5 feet. While I had lots of rock and dirt all around the outside of the filter, I hadn’t yet brought the dirt/rock firmly up to the edges of the liner, because my dirt is sandy and it was causing my liner to collapse inward while the filter was empty. Here is a picture of how the wetland filter sides looked:

In the second picture you can see how we connected the pond and wetland filter with liner for the two waterfalls. You can also see how the wetland filter liner is just laying up on the rocks and dirt (the liner is laying on the ground on the left side).

In this next picture I put an X where the liner fell over and the water gushed out..turned to mud and rushed into the pond:

Here is how the wetland filter looks now, the edging still isn’t done, but the rock and gravel is all in and the sides are secured:

 

[HayFam2022]

That makes sense.

@HayFam2022: Was it your weir that collapsed? Did you build the weir over the liner?

Weir would my weir be? Lol, if it’s similar to a wetland or bog filter then yes.

 

[combatwombat]

Weir would my weir be? Lol, if it’s similar to a wetland or bog filter then yes.

The weir is what the water flows over to get into your intake bay. That's what I initially thought had collapsed.

 

[HayFam2022]

Ahh..I gotcha. No unfortunately it wasn’t the weir.

I just felt motivated to go out and take some pictures for reference.

The reason it caused such an issue was that the failure happened at a spot 2’ above the main pond, in the direction of the pond, and across a few tons of dirt. So it was like a mudslide into the pond.

After that we decided to take a few days off from the pond

Like @addy1 mentioned, thankfully it didn’t happen after fish and plants were added.

All that said, I’m thrilled with how it’s coming along. I took this earlier today just before it started raining

 

[cas]

Sorry to hear about your set-back, but the pond is looking good.

 

[GBBUDD]

Just think when your all done you can build the 8000 gallon cistern to save on your water bill.

 

[combatwombat]

Just think when your all done you can build the 8000 gallon cistern to save on your water bill.

I wonder how much water costs in FL?

 

[YShahar]

Ouch! That mud slide sounds like the kind of learning experience that one could do without! Glad you're back on track, though. It's looking really great!

 

[GBBUDD]

Not so much it will make up the cost of 300 aquablocks and liner

 

[GBBUDD]

Ouch! That mud slide sounds like the kind of learning experience that one could do without! Glad you're back on track, though. It's looking really great!

THOUGHT I'D BE READING THAT YOU WERE FLOATING IN A CHASE LONGE DRINKING A RUM SWIZZLE WHILE HIS HINESS THE COOK FANNING YOU

 

[YShahar]

THOUGHT I'D BE READING THAT YOU WERE FLOATING IN A CHASE LONGE DRINKING A RUM SWIZZLE WHILE HIS HINESS THE COOK FANNING YOU

Not yet, alas. I've been facing the dilemma of having only a fixed quantity of larger boulders to work with: do I use the best ones around the upper edge most visible from the viewing area or do I use them in the waterfall? So I'm trying out different combinations, then stepping across the pond to the viewing area and looking at them for a while. No good? Roll them out and try something else... Lots of rolling boulders to and fro, but not as much forward progress as I'd like.

I'm also trying to rig up some sort of pipe and slide apparatus to get three tonnes of river gravel down from the neighbor's yard...

Looking at the progress on @HayFam2022's pond is actually providing some much needed inspiration to keep plugging away. In the end, I'm pretty sure I'll need to do some scavenging of building sites for more rocks. Just need to get to the rocks before they haul it all away to landfill somewhere.

 

[cas]

No good? Roll them out and try something else

I did that with the smaller rocks, but sheesh. Those large ones would be placed once and then done!