Why I havn't been around much lately......

Fab looking pond! Be sure to post the final photos. :) :smashin:
Have you done all this yourself? It seems very well done.
Have you considered installing any lighting underwater or surface level?

Where I used to live my two neighbours opposite built giant koi ponds, the first one to finish stocked up there pond with over a 1k worth of koi.
A few days later we were sitting in the local with both my neighbours talking about the ponds and the plans and were invited back to view the finished product. Believe it or not in the middle of a Saturday afternoon some scumbags had been through the woods at the back of the property and over the back fence and nicked all the fish!! :eek:
How the **** do you steal great big fish like that some of them were 10lb – 12lb :eek:

He had not had chance to get them insured. :suicide:

Still everything turned out alright in the end both the neighbours have well established ponds and well insured stock. There also members of some koi society and in the summer get coach loads of people turn up to view the houses the have even got some deal going with our local landlord as they take a coach load of guests in for Sunday lunch and they get to eat for free all year round. :)

Can not wait to get my own place so I can have my own koi pond, I am also itching for a marine aquarium but need to wait till I stop moving round the country for that! :)

Good Luck with the carp and don’t forget insurance.
 
Hi,

yes all work done myself (builders charge a fortune)

I had a lad help me the first week with the digging.

Insurance will be looked into.

will post more pics when finished just look at first post where I will add them.

Cheers
 
I went for the gound level pond, but have had to stick stones and stuff all around the edge this year due to all the sodding cats on the street trying to get my fish :mad:
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filters2005.JPG

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It looked far better last year (3rd photo) so might have to rethink things. I'd also like to find a way of hiding the filters.
I forgot to mention that it's 6 foot at the deep end and just over 4 foot deep at the shallow (near) end. I wanted to go 6 foot deep all along but there are drain going right across at the 4 foot end, so I thought I'd better stop at that depth !
 
The third pic is nice, its a shame what you have to do to keep cats at bay.

For my 2000 gallon pond I ended up building a shed round my filter to hide it.

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The problem I've got along that side of the pond is that there's very little room between the filters and the pond - in fact I fell in the pond a couple of years ago on a cold November night ! The filters are there as there's a convenient manhole cover next to the right hand filter, so I can lift that for cleaning them out (a bit naughty I know !). I could get some decking done on that side and have it overhang the pond a bit to give me more space, but I would have to be able to life the manhole cover every other week for cleaning purposes, so I'm lost for ideas really.
How do you flush away the crap when cleaning the filters ?
 
My garden loves the crap ;)

I just flush it to the garden only thing is the grass there grows 5 times quicker than anywhere else and 5 times higher lol.
 
John what you could do is build a wooden frame round your filters and make it look like a long Bench or how about some Bamboo screening in front of them ?

You could also get some largish jugs from BQ to make your return pipes less ugly:

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Or go build yourself a nice block filter and ebay the 2 you are using.
 
Decisions, decisions ! Thanks for the ideas, I'll have to give it all some thought. If I were going to redo the filters I might relocate it to the other side of the pond which at the moment is a bit of a rockery and then a 30 inch drop down to the small pond which is not connected to the main one. I wonder if I could have 1 big filter area in the middle for both ponds ? If I had pumps from both ponds feeding one filter, I would have to do a careful balancing act on the output so that the small pond only received back what it was pumping in otherwise I'd have a serious flood ! I'd also like to have a good deal of the filter below ground level but not sure if this is possible as most of them seem to have drains and outlets at the bottom. I suppose the other option would be to build my own filter but that seems like overkill for the size of my pond.
I'd love to see yours when it's finished :)
 
Most people give up on the idea of trying to balance 1 filter too two ponds because of potential floods loss of water.

If one of you ponds is higher than the other then you could have an overflow to the lower one then you would just need to make sure the bottom pond pumped more than the top one.

You'd be welcome to come and see mine when its finished.
 
Lovely pond, you never know someone might sell a dolphin on ebay one day. :D

I would put a photo of mine on one day but at the mo it looks like a swamp with giant water lillies. I don't know how te fish are still alive.

found one from last year. it wasn't in the best of health then.

it's 20 x 18 x 4 (feet)
 
Heres my pond I built 2 years ago, although now the plants have taken over some what. I dont use a filter what so ever. The water circulates from the pond into the pool, down the waterfall and back into the pond. It's amazing but its remained clear all summer and I've only just cleaned the sediment out of the small pool.
 

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On a similar theme, is anyone watching the latest series of Mens Rooms on Discovery Real Time, where they are building a smart garden?
 
Idoexist said:
Lovely pond, you never know someone might sell a dolphin on ebay one day. :D

I would put a photo of mine on one day but at the mo it looks like a swamp with giant water lillies. I don't know how te fish are still alive.

found one from last year. it wasn't in the best of health then.

it's 20 x 18 x 4 (feet)

LOL with the Dolphin :D

Bigger pic would be nice tho :smashin:
 
BadAss said:
Heres my pond I built 2 years ago, although now the plants have taken over some what. I dont use a filter what so ever. The water circulates from the pond into the pool, down the waterfall and back into the pond. It's amazing but its remained clear all summer and I've only just cleaned the sediment out of the small pool.

Looks great and superb it keeps itself clear with no filtration.
 
Will you be doing your own fibreglass work ?
 
No leaving that to the pro's.

Will add pics when its done.
 
Made lintel over window, only have the skimmer to fit then can start to render :D
 
Getting there then :thumbsup: Who are you getting in to do the fibreglassing and more importantly...... how much ?
 
Through the tons of recomendations from Richdon Forum I will be using a guy called Mick to do the glassing. I dont know the price yet but will let you know soon.
 
Just a quickie.

You can just see to the left of my photo 2 x 50 gallon filter tanks that are fed via the pump. Before the pump I have a smallish cage filled with lytag to stop bits of weed clogging the impeller.

In the two tanks is loads of lytag. For future cleaning, and my back, i've thought about getting a different filter medium, either the brush or tube type. Does anyone know which is better, or something better than both, and if there's any internet site where i don't have to pay a stupid amount of money for a lot of plastic.

Cheers
 
Problem lol

Started rendering and done the Jap Mat filter bay.

My rendering is crap lol so need someone with experience and not to far away from stoke on trent and cheap ;)

any offers ?

Cheers
 
Just out of interest, how do you deter cats from your garden (even though I don't have a pond and/or fish). Its just that they 'mark' their "territory" frequently

And recently 2 diff cats from diff neighbours have started fighting - in my garden. There's been blood.
 
LFC_SL said:
Just out of interest, how do you deter cats from your garden

A pellet gun or bow and arrow should do it.

I read a post the other day where a cat was fired from a cannon but I suppose that would prove expensive for you :devil: :D
 
I've given up trying to keep the cats from the garden and have concentrated on keeping them away from the fish. I've stopped getting annoyed and throwing things at the cats as it just winds me up even more and you have to remember that although they killed a couple of my fish and crap all over the place it could still be some child's pet cat.
 

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