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Thread: GT's 1st pond

  1. #1

    GT's 1st pond

    Ok,
    It's been a few weeks since my initial post, we've been reading up and looking at photo's and before I got around to starting this the groundworks have started ahead of schedule.
    The size has changed slightly as we're working around the rest of the garden, although it's slightly smaller I have won a concession in that I now have a pond window.
    With regards to the build, I have a local pond maintenance guy that came recommended who is guiding the build and I'm just trying to project manage this from a distance as commute daily for work, but would be a lot easier if I could be more hands on.

    Initial plan(s) for the layout:
    Initial plan.JPG

    Latest Photo
    20190719104800044_4e139f0d23054346ba2f32beac4fdc75_C43514870.jpg



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  3. #2
    Senior Member Rank = Grand Champion andikoi's Avatar
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    fantastic news,looks like will be a great build,,,,andi

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  5. #3
    Looking forward to seeing this one develop. Good luck with the build mate.

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  7. #4
    Senior Member Rank = Jussai Alburglar's Avatar
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    You could have pond one side of the bridge and. Plants the other. Lots of maintenance free filtration that way.

  8. #5
    Just realised the picture is not that clear (need to work on an updated design). The brown area to the left of the pond is going to be gravel/natural/plant filter, which will be approx 3.4m x 1.5m x 0.3m in size.
    The main pond should be around 9.3m x 3.4m x 1.2m, so around 31,000 litres / 6950 gallons, was bigger but lost some space to seating and foundations not being where I ideally wanted them.

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  10. #6
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    nice one mate looking fwd to the build. and keep them pictures coming.

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  12. #7
    Hi all,
    First of all I'd like to apologise for not posting any updates last year. The build was moving along until the weather started to turn and then we decided to leave the render and glassing until Spring and well it's been on hold until we have some builders back on site.
    To be fair we've had a lot of other renovation work going on and the pond hasn't been top of the list of priorities.

    Back to the pond, walls are built, sparing a few bricks, steel reinforcements are in place (required by structural engineers) and we have supports for our bridge in place.
    Next job is to get the render finished and prepare for fiberglass.

    Now, with regards to the build, we have been using a local pond guy based on some referrals, who has been laying the pipework and advising the builders on the construction. The only issues we have is some of the pipework seem to be last minute and longer than needed with more bends then we probably need.
    His core design, has one bottom drain, two TPR's (side returns) and a waterfall blade. Concerned about turnover, he added a couple of skimmers late into the build, and the pipework for these isn't as short/smooth as it could be.

    Having spent a little time earlier this year looking into filtration options that may work with the water height of the pond, I've been seeking advise from Koi retailers and have also been leaning on the support team at Oase. The team at Oase have been very helpful and have been able to take our dimensions as well as details of water height and lengths of pipe runs and run some calculations.
    After looking at this they are concerned about the turnover, which confirms my concerns and those by a couple of retailers.

    As as result, my current plan is to add 2x 4" side drains and run another two 4" tubes to the pump house, which should hopefully provide a better turnover. Ideally we'd have had 2/3 bottom drains but we are where we are and it is not practical to do this.

    The dimensions of the pond have also slightly increased and are currently estimating a total volume or around 50,000 litres.

    The approx dimensions and spec at the moment are as follows

    Shed/pump house - 5.3m x 2.2m
    Pond 10m x 3.3m
    Plant/bog filter 1.7m x 3.3m
    Max depth of pond 1.6m (rectangular pond with contoured sides and bottom to remove/limit dead spots and angled to direct waste to central bottom drain).
    1x Bottom drain with 4" pipe
    2x skimmers with connected to a single 1.5" pipe - situated 1.6m above base of pond
    2x angled side returns in pond, 2x 1.5" pipes - situated 1.4m above base of pond
    1x blade return via plant filter with 1.5" pipe
    Water height/skimmer height above ground level in shed - 57cm

    Distances

    Bottom drain to shed (1x 4") - 28m
    Skimmers to shed (1x 1.5") - 25m
    Return to Blade / Plant filter (1x 1.5") - 41m
    Return 1 (1x 1.5") - 24m
    Return 2 (1x 1.5") - 35m

    A couple of photos of current progress
    Pond - Garden view.JPGPond - House view.jpg

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  14. #8
    Sunken seating area with window.
    Sunken seating area.JPG

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  16. #9
    Senior Member Rank = Grand Champion RoyLittle0's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gtuser View Post
    Sunken seating area with window.
    Sunken seating area.JPG
    That's one hell of a project you've got there, your right to be concerned about the pipe lengths they are very long, what bends have been used, are they all sharp bends or slow bends, the bend takes a lot from the flow
    4600 Gallon Concrete Block and Fiberglass
    2100 mm x 710 mm Infinity Window 32mm thick glass
    2 x Aerated Bottom Drains and Skimmer
    Filtreau HiFlow 30 Drum Filter
    Bio Chamber - 140 litres K1
    Bakki Shower - 30 KG Sakura Far Infrared Media
    2 x 18,000 lh pumps
    Heated from house boiler through a heat exchanger
    Idealseal MS290

    My Pond Build

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  18. #10
    The current drain and Side returns are pretty much a straight run without any sharp bends. The blade return however, doesn’t look like it was planned well and we counted 12 bends which we are going to change and relay whilst adding the extra drains.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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  20. #11
    I had been distracted with work and keeping on top of the main house works.
    The main pipe work runs seem fine, I think we just need a couple more.
    The height seems ok for a gravity filter and the one item that I’ve not looked into too much will be the return pumps.
    Given the distance, we need to make sure this is fast enough.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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  22. #12
    Nice big pond makes my 4 x 2 m one look tiny

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  24. #13
    Hi All,
    Having made progress on house & garden renovations I've turned my attention back to the pond. After speaking with SKS (Selective Koi Sales in Norwich), OASE Tech support, KOI reference books and various threads on here I have come to the conclusion that I need to make some changes.
    Our shed/pumping location is too far away from the pond (approx 20m) and we need additional drainage to provide the required flow rates.
    I have been working with our builders and structural engineer to find a way to get extra bottom drains installed, which will require boring through the side, and have persuaded the wife that I need pumping structure adjacent to the pond.

    Now, I have drawn up a couple of potential layout plans and would appreciate any feedback on the proposed changes.
    With regards to the pond design, there are a couple of items that I'm unsure of and would appreciate some advice on;
    1) Should I factor in any heating for the pond or addition of internal insulation before fibre glassing? We are Cambridgeshire, so doesn't get that cold but haven't found anything conclusive on this topic.
    2) Filtration, looking at a Pro-Line Expert Combi Drum 50, which I have been told should be more than sufficient for our ponds capacity. Does anyone see an issue with this.
    3) Can anyone see any issues with the locations or quantities of pipes, drains etc on the layouts (attached/below). I have marked the existing pipework that is being kept and rough proposed connections. The BD pipes are just there for quantities and not actual placements.

    Pond Layout.JPGPipe Layout.JPG

 

 

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