Going for it! phase one 12,000 gallon pond.

[Telion]

It's discouraging when your working your a-- off and you look over and man's best friend is definitely enjoying the nice weather and watching you work.View attachment 110258

Although I would rather see him rest thank tearing up all your hard work.

 

[Telion]

Very productive day!!!!!!!! got the plumbing glued up and cut the main drains into the edpm. Even with all the tips you may see on you tube there's usually one where you wish that some one had posted. Such as when you are cutting in the smaller suction drain to place a paper towel across the opening until you get all the screws poked through the rubber and pull out the paper towel at this point before you snug up the screws. Why do is say this well because I dropped one stainless stele screw down the three inch wide pipe and of Corse I had to but the one that had a sweep directly at the bottom and the screw was not able to be seen. So I got to go fishing before a drop of water even got in the pond. A coat hanger and a pair of angle thin nose saved my butt. And I swayed toward caution with all the moving the liner around I decided to see what my pump of 12,000 gph looked like before I stated to build my water fall on Monday photo attached tried to do a video but the site says it's too large. It was a good days seeing the project come alive even if only half of it.View attachment 110260 View attachment 110261 View attachment 110266 e though it's less then a few seconds long. it was a hell of a surprise getting the pond up and running even if it still needed another couple feet of water.

Super motivating to see your progress and I am soooooooo happy to see a pic of the 12k gph pump in action. Yes please link me to a video I can never find any videos of one in action.

 

[Telion]

Thanks addy
This was one thing that i could not find online . I found only a couple videos showing small volumes' of water up to 5,000. it was a guess as to what i wanted for my pond so here is a post showing 12,000 gph.

Tears of joy YES!

 

[GBBUDD]

A little out of order but with rock going in tomorrow I decided I better get my cinder block walls poured with some concrete 30 bags latter and the wall is all one now. # 9 re bar pins. into the footings and now poured with concrete.

I also decided to add one more return jet from the far left side of the pond where down the road a stream will exit the pond and act as it's own skimmer but until that point in time a return jet I felt was needed.

After the test last night filling the pond partially, well I had to drain it today and figured I'd use the new pool pump as it puts out about 50 times the flow rate as does a garden hose. Use it to wash out the very poorly washed gravel I had picked up, if it wasn't so varied in the color I would have brought it back. THE WASHING WAS BS they did not wash this product what so ever. And the size is hardly 1" -2" while there are few over 2" there is a ton of 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2" stone in the mix. but seeing as this is strictly decorative .

 

[GBBUDD]

Haha, mine was napping in the hole while I was digging it.

Coming along, waiting to see what you do rocking the pond in. I’m sure it is going to look nice, with the selection of rock you have to choose from.

That's what I keep telling the Mrs. as to why there is so much rock. So I can pick and choose and not grab and settle

 

[Jhn]

Those are some dirty rocks.

Unfortunately, with the smaller rock you have to watch how they load your rock. When they scoop it up with equipment most will scoop from the bottom of the pile into the middle. The bottom middle is where all the fines and dirt end up, so you end up with dirt and small rock. Getting them to scoop the edges of the pile or up higher on it will eliminate this, if they are willing to do it.

 

[GBBUDD]

Those are some dirty rocks.

Unfortunately, with the smaller rock you have to watch how they load your rock. When they scoop it up with equipment most will scoop from the bottom of the pile into the middle. The bottom middle is where all the fines and dirt end up, so you end up with dirt and small rock. Getting them to scoop the edges of the pile or up higher on it will eliminate this, if they are willing to do it.

Special order and I got in in mason bags 1.5 tons per bag. Fortunately this stone is just for the decoration of the pond and seeing as it has fines it should help lock up a bit more then the 1 to 2 inch that I ordered but they got a ear full and a half.

 

[GBBUDD]

A busy day Waiting on a delivery of the Lull I was less than pleased, as a good friend took the day off to help. but the lull did not arrive until 2:30 pm. We still got some work done the mafia blocks were installed. Man they were less than accurate and even in any way. Mafia blocks are left over concrete from the deliveries. Thank god the drivers stick to driving as the blocks they make are weak at best.

And the first couple rocks got placed YESSSSSSSS......!!!! GOT THE STAIRS IN , The fish cave is lined with rock and caped but not pleased witht he cap NEXT. installed the main character stone for the pond

 

[Telion]

Fish cave looks amazing. And oh how I wish I had inexpensive access to some heavy duty equipment for moving rocks that big. Am I correct in seeing that the fish cave is at the base of the waterfall and is that so it gets good aeration through it still?

 

[GBBUDD]

+

Fish cave looks amazing. And oh how I wish I had inexpensive access to some heavy duty equipment for moving rocks that big. Am I correct in seeing that the fish cave is at the base of the waterfall and is that so it gets good aeration through it still?

Nothing is cheap, yes I didn't pay for most of my rock but I had to dig it out of spoils piles and truck it 40 miles. Unfortunately equipment hasn't been at a discount. When am done with the week rental of the construction fork truck with the rental of a mini excavator for 4 days i'll be at $2,600.00

And yeah the fish cave in the =center of the photo I thought would be cool if you could see the fish huddled in there and add a light but face it to the back wall not in the front and get a light glow then while rocking today I made a second much larger cave with an in and an out it's been fun designing but as Jw said lt's of sore mussels right now.

 

[j.w]

Hard work, very hard, heavy, back breaking work but it will be worth every sore muscle you have!

 

[RobAmy]

Nice progress

 

[GBBUDD]

Hard work, very hard, heavy, back breaking work but it will be worth every sore muscle you have!

The construction fork lift has been the right tool for the right job. Along with several tools to go along with it . I got two endless straps a 10' foot and a 16' a rated chain with mounts for the forks and the most handy of all has been a LOGGING set of tongs that's the yellow object hanging for the forks holding the rocks. good night

 

[GBBUDD]

The construction fork lift has been the right tool for the right job. Along with several tools to go along with it . I got two endless straps a 10' foot and a 16' a rated chain with mounts for the forks and the most handy of all has been a LOGGING set of tongs that's the yellow object hanging for the forks holding the rocks. good night

opps the yellow object hanging from the forks is just an endless strap here's the tongs in this photo

 

[myswtsins]

Amazing build so far! I'll be following along now. BTW I thought I recognized your screen name then when I saw your aquarium pic I was certain I knew you, from aquariacentral. I'm sure your pond will be epic based on your aquarium!