Well the fish survived without any obvious ill affects, and was back swimming with the others today. *whew* The koi have also settled down and did not bash against the boards today, so I guess they are settling down as well.
My sister came to help today, so we finished taking out the old pond, and spent the morning digging out salvageable plants around the area. After lunch we laid out the new pond, then decided to make it another 2' longer. The final result is 9' x 14' plus the head of the river (will be made like a bog and heavily planted, but will have constant water running through it) will be about 20 square feet, so that should help provide more filtration. I have a couple tree roots that need cut out of the way, and the one sprinkler line which needs to be moved, and then its all digging from there...
So here lies the end of my first pond ever... It was a great learning experience, but now everything is going to my sister so she can also enjoy the hobby.
You can see pictures of
digging the new pond here. It's hard to see the pear shape in the pics, but this shot shows where the filters will be located (sunk down about a foot), with the waterfall built between them. The board will provide a stable shelf to stack the waterfall bricks on. The river will exit to the middle-right of the view.
And that's where we're at today! I'm working on getting the liner ordered and delivered next week, so unless I run into any major problems, I might be adding water in 2-3 weeks. My koi will be so happy!
