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[Shdwdrgn]

Today was rock day. I needed a break from digging, so I went looking for rocks to line the edges. The rocks I picked up are around 8-10", but when I sat them on the bank, they were just too big. I looked again to see if I could find flat river rocks, but nobody had any. Finally I figured what I really wanted was for the rocks to sit down in the water, so I dug a short trench right beside the water, which allowed the rocks to sit much lower to the ground.

This is essentially what I ended up with. The normal water level will come up another inch or two higher, and still leaves a couple inches of liner behind it for the rainy season.

From the back side, I filled in a few inches of dirt underneath the liner behind the big rocks, then stacked 4" rocks on top of the liner to fill out the edges. Added a few shovels of dirt to cover up the last bits of liner, and its ready to start planting...

And one more shot up the river showing how the rocks were sunk in comparison to the unfinished edge. I also used some of the larger rocks to make some short rapids in the river, which seemed to work great when the fish tried swimming it... the bigger fish went right up, but the smaller ones gave up.

Tomorrow we'll be back to digging again... wheeeee

 

[j.w]

That's exactly what I did around my pond and it works very well and the little fishes like to poke around the nooks and crannies where the rocks are and hide in there too. Coming right along nicely Shdwdrgn :alieneyesa:

 

[addy1]

very nice! love the steam and pond fish treadmill!

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Wow Spring is here! We got a lot of rain overnight, then snow first this this morning. Too much of a mess to try digging today, so I worked on my pre-filter design. The idea is to take a 3.5 gallon bucket with a gamma seal lid, set up a screen to catch leaves, then some kind of floss filter to clean the water. The lid allows easy access to clean inside, and should pass clear water to the biofilter.

Only problem is, those lids aren't made with the idea of internal pressure. There are definite leaks around the edges, so it would never work as a stand-alone filter. However, I'm thinking there must be some way to mount the bucket inside the top of the 55-gal barrel. The inlet and outlet on my bucket are both on the bottom, so I could potentially sit the bucket directly on top of the swirler pipe. Any leakage wouldn't matter, and the whole assembly would take up less room without compromising the functionality of the biofilter.

Any opinions on this?

 

[j.w]

Hey can you post pics of what exactly you are doing w/ that bucket/screen set up?

 

[Shdwdrgn]

j.w. - I will try to get some pictures of the initial setup this weekend, but I don't have a completed unit yet. Too tired to go back out tonight, see next post...

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Busy busy BUSY day - now my back hurts. Moving wet dirt is hard! Today my sister helped again for a few hours. We were able to finish digging out the first layer, putting the plant-shelf at about 8-10" depth, with a gentle slope up to the river bed. One tree root has been removed, and one more root remains in the way (which isn't bad at all!). We also were able to dig up the sprinkler line, and relocated it off to the side, where it rests just under the plant shelf.

After working a bit more to level the top bank (which I think is still lower than the river bed), I marked out and started digging the next level. It's a good thing my sister needs a huge pile of dirt to replace the pea-gravel in her garden, as I've completely run out of room to dump what's being dug out. She'll be taking the dirt away on Sunday, and then I'll be getting some of the pea-gravel from her to fill my quasi-bog area at the head of the river.

Once this second layer is dug down, I'll go back and dig the holes that the filter barrels will sit in, and prepare the shelf for the waterfall bricks. Then I need to dig a trench to finish running the water pipes to the filters, and finally I will get back in and dig the last 1-foot section out of the bottom of the pond. The way things are looking, I think the 3' deep section alone is going to cover as much area as the koi's old home, so they should be very happy campers!

 

[j.w]

Looking good, now you take two aspirin, jump in the hot tub and relax for the rest of the night and start all over again tomorrow :fish:

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Hot tub? *pouts* I wish!

 

[j.w]

Well I don't have one either but I have a bathtub. Just fill it up w/ nice hot water and maybe some bath bubbles and voila.......................hot tub. Great for soaking your worn out pondering bones

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I have a crappy tub, very shallow. I can get just about enough water to cover my legs. But I got a quick nap, feeling a lot better, now on my way to a hot shower.

I did a quick check with the level to see how even my plant shelf is sitting. I'm within 1/4 inch, which I figure is close enough. Mind you, I've only taken one other reading with the level, which was from end to end, and that came out within 1 inch. All the digging has been done by eye, against a sloped yard. I guess I just have an excellent eye for that sort of thing. :fish:

 

[fishin4cars]

Keep a good pile of that dirt handy. You really want to make sure it is very close to level before you install the liner. Once it is installed your a lot more limited to what you can do to fix it. As you know, water will tell you just how level you really are. Be sure and allow for one spot of your pond to overflow. This spot should sit at least two inches or more higher than the rest of your yard. The higher you are the less chance that you will get run off back into your pond. That's a mistake I made is my overflow drain is even with my yard. Normal rains aren't a problem, but tropical systems or rains when we get more that 1.5" in a 6 hour period I back up back into my pond. I had to add a drainage pit six 4" drainage lines 8' long and 4' deep back filled with gravel,with a pump I can plug in that pumps water to the street if it gets too much now, It's not the best but it is working for me for now. If I had know this ahead of time I would have built my sides up with the spare dirt a few more inches all the way around the lower points and forced the water level to be higher.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Yep I've definitely been planning to keep enough on hand. My yard has a gentle slope to it, with the effect that the water in my river will essentially be flowing uphill (in comparison to the yard). As I get closer to filling the new pond, I will try to get a long enough board to lay a level across and see how this final pond pays in comparison to the small pond, but I think I'll have to bring the edges up a couple inches to match the bottom height of where the large edging rocks are being placed. Hard to say for sure at this stage, but it won't be much longer before I do the final leveling with water.

Fortunately water run-off is not a problem for me. My yard is already a few inches above my neighbor's, and the banks around the finished portion of the river are about 4" higher than the yard, so the pond will not see any runoff from a heavy rain. However I do like the idea of having a specific area made for overflow. Control the excess water, and prevent future problems... I like it! Thanks!

 

[fishin4cars]

I had some extra liner where I needed mine, I got a plastic shower drain and installed it through the liner, then just hid it behind the rocks, when I do get a heavy rain I have to make sure leaves don't get in front of the drain but this keeps the fish from swimming out. The first time it happened I had four koi get out and were swimming in the back yard! LOL That will make you fix a problem real quick, Not easy catching koi in the rain!!! Even in 2 inches of water and grass, them suckers are fast!

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Wow that had to be quite a sight to see! I had a hard enough time catching mine when they flopped out of the temp pool onto the dry ground. However for my case, I don't need to do a drain or anything special, I can just do a low spot in the raised bank, blocked by larger rocks, which will let the excess water pass through, but keep the fish back.