Wisconsin Pond Build

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Herz, Your stream looks great. It's going down into the 30's tonight and 50 degrees for mom's day.., then high 80's next week. I would be happy with something in between!
 

herzausstahl

herzausstahl
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LOL wow I have been away for too long, luckily I have all the aforementioned animals to potentially contend with but the only ones who ever pose a problem are the rabbits and only when it gets colder. I put chicken wire across the holes by my gates in fall, but I already had a rabbit inside. I trapped him, moved him out, but he found a way back in 2 times before I hauled him miles away to let him go. He had a nice little home under my deck, will post pics of that in due time. I've still been tweeking the pond, but my second daughter is now 18 months which has considerably limited my time for other things, but I did manage a few tweeks this past summer and will post them over the next several days. I got rid of the corrugated tubing I had running through my old Jabao Filter (same one Jason on here is having troubles with, mine never leaked, I just wanted to go all natural and take it out); and from there onto my waterfalls. So I switched out my two pumps to 2 Lagunas after taking Haro's great advice and I loved their performance and energy savings. Then I ran 1 1/2" flex pvc pipe from them to the falls. On the way part splits to run some water over rocks in the pond by the corner of the deck, some splits off into a mini bog I made, another splits off into a trickle filter I put in, and then the rest heads to the falls. The water running over the rocks is 3/4-1" with a valve to limit the flow, the bog gets 1 1/2" pipe with a valve, and the trickle filter is 3/4" with a valve. This is all powered with a 2400 gph laguna, I got the 4200 gph to run the stream. Both combined use about the same electricity as my old Smartpond 5100 gph I used on the stream. Series of pics to follow, hopefully some each day. Oh and for those wondering, this winter has put us back into a solid zone 4a with record days with below zero temps, its kinda sad when you get used to walking out in single to negative digits and it feels normal, but warmer weather is on the horizen.
 

herzausstahl

herzausstahl
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oops, thought I was at the end of the postings with the animal references but that was several posts ago, but anyway here are some update photos from last summer, if my youngest daughter is in any of them, she is about 1 years old in the pics. I also created easier to remove panels on the left side of the deck where the plumbing runs under, instead or removing several screws on 4-6' long boards, they are joined together underneath forming panels that are only 3' wide. These pics are of the area where the water flows over the rocks near the deck.
Here is how I got my daughter to co-operate
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Here is the tubing waiting to go in
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The rocks it will go over
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Here is the tubing I rigged to branch off from the main line running to the falls, looking at the pics its 3/4"
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Here's everything in place on this part of the project
DSC01352.JPG DSC01353.JPG

I kind of started the project from one end and worked towards the other. More to follow...
 
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Good job, Nathan. I'm wondering if you were able to leave everything up and running this winter (since it was so much colder than our last 2 winters), or if you shut off the lines? Also, assume your water lines are running outside of the ponds, and wondering how you keep them from freezing if you did keep them running. Thanks!
 

j.w

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You've been really busy and like what you did w/ your split tubing. Glad to hear about the Laguna's working just fine for you too as that will be my next submersible pump. Cute little daughter.................reminds me of my new grand-daughter who just turned 1yr.
Glad to see you back here posting :)
 

herzausstahl

herzausstahl
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Good job, Nathan. I'm wondering if you were able to leave everything up and running this winter (since it was so much colder than our last 2 winters), or if you shut off the lines? Also, assume your water lines are running outside of the ponds, and wondering how you keep them from freezing if you did keep them running. Thanks!

Thanks Patty,
I did switch everything that runs outside the pond to flexible pvc, its very rigid and they claim it can freeze solid without breaking although I have never tested it. But the nice thing is its easier to work with than the "corrugated tubing" they sell, its stronger, and you can glue regular pvc fittings to it which is really nice. So what I do is I leave my main pumps in the pond, but turned off. They sit about 2 1/2-3' below the surface (mounted on crates about a foot off the bottom), still connected to the flexible pvc. With the pumps turned off, most of the water drains back into the pond, and I just figure whatever is left can expand down the piping as it freezes. I have had this kind of tubing powering my stream from the beginning and then just changed the waterfall to it this last summer. I have 2" running the stream, and 1 1/2" running the falls. I do still have 2 pieces of the corrugated tubing connected (one at the top of the stream, and the one pictured above) but they should be relatively free of water and I''ll recheck them for leaks when I start things up in spring. So to answer your question I don't leave everything running mostly because I would be afraid of ice dams forming along the stream and the falls, but believe me I have been tempted. But I had a 450 gph pump running with a bubbler fountain top the first winter and it actually formed an ice dome even though it was constantly running, so that kind of stopped me from trying more. What I did this winter is I have my old 1500 gph pump running through sump pump tubing. The tubing runs into the base of the stream and all the tubing is confined in the bottom of the stream so if it would get a hole it would all be contained, and then I have the 450 gph pump running 3/4 corrugated tubing in the pond sending a jet of water towards the middle. I have these pumps running to keep the water moving under the ice/snow that forms and also so when spring does arrive the fish get water movement before I turn everything on. I wait to run the main water features until I know I don't have to worry about freezing temps anymore. I also have a 100 watt pond heater to keep a hole in the ice, but I turned it off in the middle of this winter to conserve energy as with our extreme cold it wasn't doing much. But yes all my lines run outside the pond. Through the series of pics I'm going to post you'll see where the waterfall line runs and the stream line is about 40-45' the majority of it outside the pond.
 

herzausstahl

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You've been really busy and like what you did w/ your split tubing. Glad to hear about the Laguna's working just fine for you too as that will be my next submersible pump. Cute little daughter.................reminds me of my new grand-daughter who just turned 1yr.
Glad to see you back here posting :)

Thanks JW, I was worried about going from a 5100 gph for the stream to the 4200 laguna, but the drop off was minimal and the electric savings were well worth it!
 

herzausstahl

herzausstahl
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So after setting up the water movement over those rocks to kind of give a spring look, I next focused on adding a tiny bog to replace my Jabaeo filter. The UV ballast died on the filter and I could have ordered a new one but instead I wanted a more natural look that I wouldn't have to remove each fall. Plus for bio filtering I have the stream that I added gravel to over the summer to serve a dual purpose. First off the added gravel to aid in filtration, and the second to make the stream seem shallower and more natural, before it always looked way too deep for me.

So here is the location, the black tube on the side is the 2" flex pvc that powers the stream (I always have to remind myself its along the fence line when digging there, the white tape is roofing tape for the time when I first built the pond and almost chipped into it, I took a tiny chunk out of the outer layer and taped that over it, so far so good)

DSC01354.JPG
Here is the digging progress, I made it about 18" deep knowing that I would not have a lot of surface area, with the idea that it will be overcrowded with plants, but to give the roots space and let nature take over
DSC01355.JPG DSC01358.JPG
Being out of the great underlayment I used on the pond, I used cheap carpet fragments and scrap epdm liner
DSC01359.JPG DSC01360.JPG DSC01361.JPG
Then I laid in the liner and stapled it to the side of the deck to hold it in place
DSC01362.JPG DSC01363.JPG
Then I continued laying the tubing for the rest of the feature.
DSC01369.JPG DSC01370.JPG

More pics to follow!
 

herzausstahl

herzausstahl
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You've been really busy and like what you did w/ your split tubing. Glad to hear about the Laguna's working just fine for you too as that will be my next submersible pump. Cute little daughter.................reminds me of my new grand-daughter who just turned 1yr.
Glad to see you back here posting :)

Oh and thank you for the comments on my youngest, she is growing like a weed (90 percentile or so for height and weight) and thinks she is older than she is. 1 is a fun time, just be ready for when she gets the hang of walking and really takes off, then you will get to baby proof your house for when she comes over! :)
 

j.w

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Yep you are right 1 is fun and she has been getting into stuff here for several months already. She was walking before she was 1 and now she is really trucking! Very active little girl and her mom and dad taught her some sign language when she was very young. It's so funny now cuz they taught her the sign for milk which means she wants to breast feed..........ha ha and now her mom is trying to wean her off and her little hand is demanding it w/ that sign till mom gives in :D
 

herzausstahl

herzausstahl
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Yep you are right 1 is fun and she has been getting into stuff here for several months already. She was walking before she was 1 and now she is really trucking! Very active little girl and her mom and dad taught her some sign language when she was very young. It's so funny now cuz they taught her the sign for milk which means she wants to breast feed..........ha ha and now her mom is trying to wean her off and her little hand is demanding it w/ that sign till mom gives in :D
lol sign language is very helpful although my daughter mostly uses "more" and "please", her new thing is to take you by the hand and walk you to what she wants
 

herzausstahl

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So here is the progression of the bog, there is no rhyme or reason for the different colored gravel, its basically what I had on hand and got used. The rubbermaid container pictured was going to be used to hold water hyacinths, but I decided to take it out later. The last spout you see is the trickle filter. I took 3/4 pvc and drilled holes into it and placed it on that slope. Kind of redundant from my stream, but I had the space and wanted to put it to use.

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Here is the beginnings of the trickle filter
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Test run and then beginning to cover everything
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herzausstahl

herzausstahl
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Then I added plants I got for about $4 each on average from a garden fair at our local botanical garden. All are rated zone 4 or lower so I will see how they fair this winter and respond. For the majority of the cold they have been covered by a couple feet of snow. As you can see from some of the pics having a child around 1 does not lend much time for weeding. :)
 

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herzausstahl

herzausstahl
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I also was noticing some water loss over the summer and paranoia led me to believe it was coming from the water return from the bog. So I raised the lip, covered the joining with roofing liner one sided tape, and then used waterfall foam to guide the water back. Later on I realized it came from where I added to the upper pond to make the water level higher. I raised all the sides and thought I had all my bases covered, but I missed one spot by the opening into the stream. The way I had the original rocks in place prohibited me from being able to raise the trouble spot, so I took a sledge and knocked out the large rock I added at the stream opening and it will be back to the way it originally was. I did however change the outlet in the upper pool to allow more water to drain out of it and to get rid of the old tall outlet I had that I would replace in winter time. It also removed the "rock island" I had in it, but makes the pool look more natural, pictures of that to follow this post. DSC01427.JPG DSC01428.JPG DSC01429.JPG DSC01430.JPG DSC01431.JPG DSC01432.JPG DSC01433.JPG DSC01434.JPG
 

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