Mi pawnd rebild tew

[j.w]

Ok I built my first pond w/ the Firestone EPDM from a roofing company and used it for a few yrs just fine and then I tore up that pond cuz I wanted to go bigger and put it in a new place. Bought another bigger liner from a construction place that does irrigation work using the same kind of Firestone EPDM and it has been in my pond for 6 or 7 yrs w/ no problems. I did rinse them off w/ a hose before using and I would have done the same w/ any liner that I bought anywhere and that's it so don't believe the hype that the sellers are giving you at the fish stores unless you can find it cheaper there

 

[Shdwdrgn]

j.w. -- I only used this piece of liner because I had it on hand. The liner I'll be using for the river is actual pond liner, bought a few years ago and never used. I'm not sure if the roofing material is available in a big enough piece for my big pond, though. I'm planning on getting a 20 x 25 sheet (which I found from a local supplier for $275) of the firestone EDPM, and that should finish off the entire pond.

 

[DrDave]

When roofers do a 100,000 square foot roof, they are not using little pieces spliced together. I'm not sure what theirs are in width, but it is as wide, or wider than anything you can get at a pond supply. Every town has roofers, EPDM is heavy, you might save a lot of shipping cost by getting it locally.

 

[j.w]

Yes DrDave is right, the roofing or irrigation co's have the rubber on huge rolls and it comes in huge sizes too

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Well we *finally* got some rain here today, enough to wash down the roof and drain into the pond... and there's definitely a problem. I've got foam and a chemical sheen on top of the water. I could probably clean the incoming water with a small filter of charcoal and floss, but its not worth the effort. I only have about $15 into the pipe for this little experiment, so its no big deal to pull it back out of the ground and cut my losses before I lose any fish. Ah well, would have been really great if it'd worked.

 

[j.w]

Yep ya win some and ya lose some but ya learn from it all :lol:

 

[DrDave]

Rooftops are like toxic wastelands. I would never recommend putting that water into a pond.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I had assumed since my roof is so old, all the crap would have leached out by now. It would have been nice if it had worked.

 

[sissy]

most rain water collection is best done with a metal roof or the new plastic tile roof they now have .I collect rain water from my roof into underground tanks and I see the stuff that settles on the bottom of them

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Busy day today... hooked up a pump and blasted all the water out of the pond, then refilled with fresh water. Pulled the gutter drain pipe out of the ground and filled that hole in. Then I checked the joints on my main pump pipes, and decided I didn't like the looks of either joint. This particular joint in the two pipes is very critical, because the pipe runs underneath the river here... if the joint fails, and have to damn up the river and dig across the riverbed again to repair it. Anyway, I pulled things apart, redug the trench a little deeper so the pipe could lay flatter, then hit the joints with purple primer (like I should have been doing) and glued the pipes again. This time I got a good solid joint, so after doing a water pressure test, I buried the pipes.

On the left side here, you can see the blue hose coming up from one pump. When everything is finished, I will hook one pump to each pipe, but for now I connected the ends of each pipe back to each other, so the water is being pumped down one pipe, and back up the other, then follows that short bit of pipe I laid beside the pond. I wanted to get an initial idea of how much water flow would come down the river. Based on what I saw, the answer is "a lot".

Here's a shot straight down the line of the pipe. At the front you see the loop of pipe I made with scraps. The river is heading off to the left and crosses the pipe where you see the carpet padding. I also have the small pond nearly full at this point. I've been working on leveling the ground around the edge, so once the river rocks are in place, the water level will only be a couple inches higher.

Hooray! Tomorrow I finally can get back to working on the river!

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Yay I have a river! :lol: Looks like I have a high spot right in the area where I sealed the two liners together. I put a little water in the bottom to see how level it was, and its really not bad at all, considering I dug it by eye against the slope of the yard. I've also been building up the banks as I go, because the flow of the river will technically be uphill against the yard, and I wanted to keep the waterline level across everything.

So, when using this liner tape to seal between two pieces, how long does everyone wait before adding water? Is it ready right away, or should it sit for awhile?

 

[sissy]

It usually has a cure time I now mine did but depends on the brand ,mine said 48 hours and you are sure thats how deep you want to go .I know ponders always change there minds .lol I did so first to admit but then I'm a women and can never make up my mind anyway .What little mind I have left:lol::lol: looks like the pipe you have coming out of your barrel has great air action there

 

[addy1]

With liner tape, I have just installed and used (not on my big pond, can't work that fast lol) but on streams I have run water soon after using the tape. It helps if it is sunny and warm, makes the tape stickier. Mine did not have any time restrictions sissy, so yeah guess depends on brand. Curing never hurts anything and may save headaches.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

My patience ran out, and I filled it up. Had a hot sun today, so the tape warmed up fast. I left about 12" of overlap between the liners, and taped it at the back edge, so if for some reason there is a problem with leaks, I can pull up the top edge and run another strip (or two) of tape.

So I moved one of the filters up to the head of the river, and got the plumbing in place so both pumps are dumping into the river. I snagged one of the 3" goldfish out of the old pond, and watched to see how he responded. After he explored a bit, he rested in the bottom of the new pond for awhile, then decided to go back upstream again. He struggled a bit where I put rocks in the water (causing some rapids), so it looks like the flow is just about perfect. Anything much smaller may not be able to make it upstream, and if need be, I can adjust the flow by adding more rocks into the water.

If the little fish is still doing well tomorrow, I'll be catching a few more to move over, and by next week I should have all the smaller fish moved to the new pond.

 

[sissy]

little fish get bigger and may not be able to swim upstream in a couple of years so lucky you left extra liner to widen it if need be .