Honored and Proud to have been chosen Aquascapes DIY pond of the year for 2023. 12,000 Gallon...

Large KOI pond with a Wetland filter, Negative edge and an intake bay. Start to finish, Building, Maintaining and expanding / seaming . https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=687652723148180
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Thank you for the incredible praise.
It is my first build . I had searched for days weeks months even trying to find a similar post when I built mine. Hope it can help you and others.
 
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I did a lot of home work when i decided to build the pond but never found everything together so i decided to try and do just that. i appreciated the praise I do have city water and add 100 gallons everyday in summer but i never add dechlorinator anymore. but i also collect water from the roof so i suppose im white washing the effects of one with the other. The pitchers are in the pond water but it's more of a saturation area there is no upflow bog there. i am in connecticut so they freeze solid in the winter i want till spring to cut back what browned out over the winter and they have been doing quite well. they are in a mixture of sand and peat. and what they recommend not using beach sand is what i did use but it's mixed with small river rock as well it's a little this little that
The pitcher plant bog got a face lift due to African violets taking over the bog. So the whole thing was pulled apart. I TURNED OVER ALL THE PLANTS AND MOSS AND REMOVED ALL THE ROOTS I COULD FIND. Made a design change as I took the 3/4" rock and built that right up to the water level then placed 6 inches of 50% COURSE sand and 50% peat moss . This will keep the mixture constantly moist exactly what the plants love. without it being a muddy mess. The pitchers and the moss grew very well in this new setup.
 
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If anyone has any ideas as to what they would like to see more information on, or that was not mentioned. Let me know.
Thank you for asking. I did read at some point you have/use a cistern can you please elaborate on this part of your system. is just a tank of water waiting for use? or is it constantly part of the water flow? does it have some pumps in it?

Thanks for your time.
 
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@Beercan31 the cistern is right around 3000 gallons and on average it can keep the pond toped off without adding water. mother nature rained enough even after this past year to keep it full. I have half the back side of my house collecting rain water where it is piped directly to the pond, there is only a fine wire screen that filters out small granules and twigs from the gutter.
The -pond was built first , I then added the expansion with the negative edge and cistern.

I had hoped that I could just move the intake from the skimmer "which was abandoned". To the cistern , however what I quickly found out was that external pumps are poor at pulling water. The bottom of the cistern is about 5 feet lower and a good 12 feet away. The external pump just could not draw the water on it's own no matter what I did. Even adding a hose bib" outdoor garden faucet " to the pvc pipe and had the hose running on full to supplement the flow getting the pump started. FAILED

So the solution was to add a small submersible circulating pump at 500 gph that is on a float switch. This pushes from the cistern up to the stream above the main and upper pond.

An 2" intake pipe was added in the small catch pool below the negative edge which is about 2 feet lower and 8 feet away from the external pump.

So the water in the pond has the two main drains and a negative edge for suction pipes. The water that goes over the negative edge is pulled in 90% by the 2" intake that is within a aqua block and is buried under 2" rock. the remaining 10% over flows this catch pool and drops into the cistern.
This can be seen in this video at 1:40 i show the overflow into the cistern which is the small lower fall and the larger at the top is the negative edge and the catch pool.


The cistern is stacked 2 rows high and is 12x12 . if you scan down the showcase you'll see the cistern being built, AND IN A OLD BUILDING TRASH DUMP WHEN THEY BUILT THE HOME BACK IN THE 20'S
 

cas

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I always like looking at the pond showcases during the winter to get me through till spring. I am still in awe with how much you have done in such a short time. I can't believe what your yard looked like before you started your pond. I just love your pond and get such inspiration looking through your pictures. I'm so glad you took the time to document your pond here.
 
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Thanks @cas It has helped some with there design builds , while others like you and I like living out spring looking at them IN THE DEAD OF WINTER. , While others say i'm not reading all that, and i can't blame them. i'd be there myself unless i was just looking to build again.
I have NOT STOPED, the last video i did showed some of what I have been up to, but it's just a start ,This spring i'll make another video
 
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Nice condensed version of your build, great for the DIY’rs or in @combatwombat ‘s case the never finishers…..
He's getting there. All he has to do now is add one fern one pice of moss and the shows over. I love how much of both is out there.

Hell, I'm coming into year 6 and I can finally say I could call it done.
 

YShahar

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Hell, I'm coming into year 6 and I can finally say I could call it done.

Uh huh...

Until you decide that you want to add a 15,000 liter plunge pool just behind that garage. With maybe a 2 meter-high waterfall for people to swim under. And then, "Well hell, if I'm already doing it, may as sell add a little cave under the waterfall like in that recent youTube video. And while we're at it, maybe a heating pool for lounging around in during the winter months..."
 

addy1

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Uh huh...

Until you decide that you want to add a 15,000 liter plunge pool just behind that garage. With maybe a 2 meter-high waterfall for people to swim under. And then, "Well hell, if I'm already doing it, may as sell add a little cave under the waterfall like in that recent youTube video. And while we're at it, maybe a heating pool for lounging around in during the winter months..."
How true!
 

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