Bills Pond Build
5/01/07
First off I'm not new to pond building just new to one this size.
I started the planning and ordering phase of my latest pond.
Info:
Live in Minnesota zone 3 almost 4 so winter is a big problem to fit into the design and
maintenance of pond.
Pond size approx:
12 feet across at widest, 22 feet long, 3 1/2 feet deep in middle plus a drain bog off one end about 10 feet by 5 feet.
A water fall about 4 feet high.
a custom built skimmer box
a 150 gallon bio filter box a home made skippy style gravity
at top of falls.
6000 gallon plus 2 horse main pump
2 inch main pluming line
45 mil rubber liner main piece 20 by 30 feet
Landscape fabric under rubber and also under some of the large rocks going in pond.
A 5000 gallon a hour power head pump for home made under gravel filter system
similar to what's in aquariums
The main pond will have natural or should say local rocks from
pea gravel size to 3 foot across covering most of the rubber.
Here is a pic of the start I will be renting a mini excavator
as this pic shows 8 hours of hand digging and I have so far to go.
I'm using a little trick to find the level of the pond and make sure the
pre grade is to the right level a 1/4 inch clear tubing with water in it. Add water
until its to the level you want with the tube on both sides of pond water will go to level.
I wish I would of done this on my first pond.
5/6/07
Next weekend and a few more pics for ya the digging is for the most part done.
This week I hope to get the wiring done
and some fine tuning of the hole.
Along with building the skimmer box and finishing the bio
filter.
I hope to be adding the rubber by the weekend.
5/13/07
Been hard at it today and have the rubber
in and starting to fill, I still need to cut a opening in
the skimmer box. And start adding some rocks.
Here a few pics.
The first two are of the home made skimmer box.
This is the fun part adding water. Still
so much to do.
5/20/07
Cold this weekend only 44 degrees still working on
pond thou adding some big rocks yea its going slower
than I thought it would. I had to drain off some of the
water to make it easier to work, I also hand dug the pond a
little bit bigger. I also have to make the hole in skimmer
box bigger as it's below the surface when I get the water
to the level I want.
I thought I had figured that right with water tube, but
skimmer box must of sunk in sand a little when full of
water.
Here are a couple more pics
See the two rocks on water fall those are
the size I can carry around much bigger than that and they
get too heavy. The rock in the water in front of the
bobcat is a really big one even the bobcat was getting tipsy
carrying it.
Almost warmed up so back at it.
5/23/07
Bought four water lilies and two mini
cattails for the pond today at Wal-Mart they were on sale.
I have them in the bio filter starting to grow. Not much
progress on the rock during the week, because the mosquitoes
are really thick when I get home from work.
I also made a couple
spelling corrections on this page as my brother Wade
pointed them out to me.
5/27/07
Been getting some work done on the pond
this weekend. I 'm fighting a sinus cold so again work is
going slower. I did get the skimmer box opening to the
right size now and added most of the water back into the
pond. I also have been busy moving some more rocks in and
doing some fine tuning of the grade. Here a few more pics.
6/10/07
I have not done much this weekend as I had to work. I
did get the pump hooked up. Still need to build a house for the pump. And do more work on the skimmer box as I
don't have the skimmer door in yet and the basket to
collect the leaves. I was surprised by the flow of water
that the 2 horse pump throws.
My skippy filter box almost overflows I had to put a
temp crate over the outlet so the scrubber pads didn't
block the exit hole for all the water. I also moved the
plants to the pond out of the skippy filter.
6/24/07
I took last weekend off went fishing, I did get some nice walleyes.
This weekend I did get some work
done on the pond. I replanted the water lilies
into bigger pots. I added more rock to the water fall. I
also built the skimmer net. Then I did some wiring
to a relay so the water fall would go off for 6 hours at
night and come back on before I wake up and also
wired in some waterproof outlets. I bought some lights for
the pond and installed them. Was that fun looking at the
fish at night. That's right I added about 12 small
goldfish feeder size hoping they eat some of the mosquito
larva.
Added a new page for the skimmer box shots.
Skimmer box page.
Added a water lettuce plant and a narrow
cattail along with some under water plants not sure of
there name thou.
I developed a leak when I was working on
the water fall I think a fold of rubber slide down behind
a big rock at base of water fall in the pond so I need to
pull out the big rock and fix that will be a fun job.
07/01/07
Fixed the leak it was just what I thought
it was. I worked on the ridding lawn mower for a good
chunk of Saturday I had to replace the blades and they haven't
been off the machine for at least 6 years. I did get some
work done on the pond, I added a skimmer door picture is
in the skimmer page link to your left. I also did more
rock work to the waterfall and to the main pond. I also
added a small pool of to one side this is going to be for
plants.
I also bought some more little goldfish, and three 5 inch
koi.
I think I lost one of the Koi thou as I haven't seen all
three together the last couple days. They sure are fun as
they are already getting more accustomed to us and are
feeding closer every time. I have some pictures of them in
the link to your upper left called pond
fish. I also added a
wild plant page.
07/08/2007
Work this Saturday didn't happen as it was
98 degrees fahrenheit to hot to work. Sunday was a little
bit better so I worked on the pump house it isn't done but
close.
I also hauled 7 yard of boulders this should be enough to
finish the mound rock work.
I added some cattails and a broad-leaved arrowhead plants.
I added another page to the pond build as
this one was getting to long in pictures.
Pond Page 2
