I am a new member here, but I thought this post would go better in here than in the introductions forum, so here goes!
About 5 years ago my wife bought a little 65 gallon preformed liner so that we could (basically) have a lillypad next to our patio. I'd been resisting her on the whole water gardening thing for a while, so she bought everything while I was away on a week-long fishing trip. I came home to find a half finished hole and a pile of pumps, lights, hose, etc.
The 65 gallon pond was nice... For a while. My wife and I have been keeping fresh and saltwater fish for over 20 years, so it was only a matter of time before that bug bit. The thing is, little koi get big, and they were quickly getting too big for the pond. So, we were on to v2 of the the "Great Pond Expansion".
The second version (first expansion) took the pond from 65 gallons to roughly 150 gallons. Of course, the bigger pond required bigger pumps, filters and a flexible liner. This configuration lasted most of a year before, again, the slightly larger koi got, um, slightly larger. On to v3!
The third pond (second expansion) was supposed to be "more than enough" (famous last words) for what we were going to need. A bigger pump, more liner and our first pressure filter were purchased and the pond was upsized to about 500 gallons. Our "big" koi seemed tiny in their new digs, and everything was fine for most of two years.
I need to note here that, through our watergardening adventure we had sucked a few family members into the hobby. My wife's brother was one who drank the kool-aid. He and his live-in girlfriend (with our help) skipped the growing pains and jumped right into a nice 700 gallon pond with assorted plants and a few small koi. Fastforward a few years. My brother-in-law and his girlfriend part ways. She gets the house, he gets the fish. Or, I should say, WE get the fish, doubling the number of koi in our pond.
That brings us to the fourth and final (No. Really!) version of our "Great Pond Expansion". I told my wife that this time would be the last time we would redo the pond unless or until we moved, so we'd better go for broke! Plans were made and supplies were purchased for the new aquatic behemoth.
Phase 1 started in earnest last fall. We needed to make sure the fish had adequate accomodations to survive the Ohio winter, so this phase entailed removing the fish from the pond, expanding the existing hole and getting the liner and filters running to the point that we could get the fish back in the (larger) pond. In the meantime they would be living in a 150 gallon stock tank in a shady spot on the patio with plenty of moving water and aeration. Phase 1 needed to happen pretty quickly.
With the help of a few friends, I started on the project first thing on a Saturday morning. By dinner time, this is how it looked.
The new pond is basically a rounded triangle shape. The short sides are each 13' long and, figuring in the added height of the retaining wall, it is 34" deep on the shallow end and 42" deep on the deep end.
By lunchtime on Sunday (Day 2), it looked like this.
And by dinner time on Sunday, I had the bottom drain plumbed, the underlayment and liner in and the bottom drain and skimmer were sealed-up.
Since the sealant had to cure for 24 hours, the pond sat like this until Monday evening.
... continued ...
About 5 years ago my wife bought a little 65 gallon preformed liner so that we could (basically) have a lillypad next to our patio. I'd been resisting her on the whole water gardening thing for a while, so she bought everything while I was away on a week-long fishing trip. I came home to find a half finished hole and a pile of pumps, lights, hose, etc.
The 65 gallon pond was nice... For a while. My wife and I have been keeping fresh and saltwater fish for over 20 years, so it was only a matter of time before that bug bit. The thing is, little koi get big, and they were quickly getting too big for the pond. So, we were on to v2 of the the "Great Pond Expansion".
The second version (first expansion) took the pond from 65 gallons to roughly 150 gallons. Of course, the bigger pond required bigger pumps, filters and a flexible liner. This configuration lasted most of a year before, again, the slightly larger koi got, um, slightly larger. On to v3!
The third pond (second expansion) was supposed to be "more than enough" (famous last words) for what we were going to need. A bigger pump, more liner and our first pressure filter were purchased and the pond was upsized to about 500 gallons. Our "big" koi seemed tiny in their new digs, and everything was fine for most of two years.
I need to note here that, through our watergardening adventure we had sucked a few family members into the hobby. My wife's brother was one who drank the kool-aid. He and his live-in girlfriend (with our help) skipped the growing pains and jumped right into a nice 700 gallon pond with assorted plants and a few small koi. Fastforward a few years. My brother-in-law and his girlfriend part ways. She gets the house, he gets the fish. Or, I should say, WE get the fish, doubling the number of koi in our pond.
That brings us to the fourth and final (No. Really!) version of our "Great Pond Expansion". I told my wife that this time would be the last time we would redo the pond unless or until we moved, so we'd better go for broke! Plans were made and supplies were purchased for the new aquatic behemoth.
Phase 1 started in earnest last fall. We needed to make sure the fish had adequate accomodations to survive the Ohio winter, so this phase entailed removing the fish from the pond, expanding the existing hole and getting the liner and filters running to the point that we could get the fish back in the (larger) pond. In the meantime they would be living in a 150 gallon stock tank in a shady spot on the patio with plenty of moving water and aeration. Phase 1 needed to happen pretty quickly.
With the help of a few friends, I started on the project first thing on a Saturday morning. By dinner time, this is how it looked.
The new pond is basically a rounded triangle shape. The short sides are each 13' long and, figuring in the added height of the retaining wall, it is 34" deep on the shallow end and 42" deep on the deep end.
By lunchtime on Sunday (Day 2), it looked like this.
And by dinner time on Sunday, I had the bottom drain plumbed, the underlayment and liner in and the bottom drain and skimmer were sealed-up.
Since the sealant had to cure for 24 hours, the pond sat like this until Monday evening.
... continued ...
