So i decided i want to get into this hobby, and have been getting advice form people and will i have taken the first step to build my pond. ( I think what made this decision easy was the vist to Pieter de Villiers and viewing his awesome ponds and fish.)


So i decided where i wanted the pond and what size i wanted and then it was time to get started.

First marking and digging the hole:
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You will see how badly my garden slopes as im on the top of a hill, the dimensions are 3m x 6m and the on the top of the slope 1,2m deep although the pond will be going above the surface aswell to prevent run off water and dogs making their way in.

Next up plumb in the bottom drains


Dont really have a good pic but you can see the drains in the pics below.Decided to go with 2 bottom drains with 50mm outlets as im going to run them straight to the pump.
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Then Came the Base

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We then lay a 15cm base and leveled the floor, this was a crusher mix which was compacted. We then lay the plastic wich was 2 sheets of 175 micron as they would only sell 250 micron in 30m rolls. This is both to keep as much moisture in the concrete while it dries and stop anything from trying to grow through.


Then came the steel reinforcing and the concrete base
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The Steel reinforcing was bent and goes a meter os so up the side just to give extra support to the sides for the backfill.

The Drains are now about 10cm or so below the base so i will need to extend the hats on the bottom drains.

Any thoughts comments ??? i will try update this as we go along.

Thanks
Lee

Thanks for sharing. You clearly did your homework first and got advice from an "experd". The way to go! Very well done so far.

Please keep us posted.

Hi Lee,

I hope you used class 6 SABS, 50mm pipes!

Pieter J de Villiers wrote:

Hi Lee,

I hope you used class 6 SABS, 50mm pipes!

Hi Pieter

They definitely SABS ill check if i can see on the piping if i can see what class they are, i told him what i wanted to use them for and said the should be fine they as they have 3.4mm thickness ??

Cheers
Lee

Dont really have a good pic but you can see the drains in the pics below.Decided to go with 2 bottom drains with 50mm outlets as im going to run them straight to the pump.



DOES THISM MEAN YOU SUCK FROM THE DAM AND PUMP TROUGH SANDFILTERS WITHOUT ANY SETTLEMENT CHAMBER?

Nelius

Nelius wrote:

Dont really have a good pic but you can see the drains in the pics below.Decided to go with 2 bottom drains with 50mm outlets as im going to run them straight to the pump.



DOES THISM MEAN YOU SUCK FROM THE DAM AND PUMP TROUGH SANDFILTERS WITHOUT ANY SETTLEMENT CHAMBER?

Nelius

Yup

Nelius wrote:

Dont really have a good pic but you can see the drains in the pics below.Decided to go with 2 bottom drains with 50mm outlets as im going to run them straight to the pump.



DOES THISM MEAN YOU SUCK FROM THE DAM AND PUMP TROUGH SANDFILTERS WITHOUT ANY SETTLEMENT CHAMBER?

Nelius

Yes thats correct the pump (1.1kw) is going to get fed from the two bottom drains and wier/skimmer and into two 2 or 3 bag(havent decided) sand filters ( koi sand and modified filters)in parallel and then bio filters and UV and back to the bond.

Keep in mind the pond is only around 23 000 litres.

Sucking from the bottom directly into your filters .... hmmm ... me think you will wake up one morning and take Tequila instead of coffee and then start banging your head against the wall.

This plan of yours is going to force you to clean those filters plenty times a week and once you have big fish you might be cleaning filters plenty times per day.

Just my 2 cents.

Colyn wrote:

Sucking from the bottom directly into your filters .... hmmm ... me think you will wake up one morning and take Tequila instead of coffee and then start banging your head against the wall.

This plan of yours is going to force you to clean those filters plenty times a week and once you have big fish you might be cleaning filters plenty times per day.

Just my 2 cents.

I haven't decide exact filtration setup but i am defiantly sucking from the bottom drains and skimmer , I have looked at a couple of ponds and setups and decide that the route i want to go.

From a maintenance point two back wash every second day and thoroughly agitate and back wash one a week i can live with, my two dog are more maintenance than thats at this point.

Different strokes for different folks, lets see how it turns out.

Hi LJ
Consider your bottom drains and skimmer to lead to a settlement chamber prior to your main filter system.
This will reduce the amount of solid waste that passes through you main filter system and so reduce cleaning effort.
Jan

Hi,

Please people don’t talk about things you don’t experience yourself.

There is no problem sucking water direct from the bottom drain to the sand filter!
I am doing it for years with no problems. Most people have problems with to small filter system, over stocking and feeding and then they blame the sand filter set-up!

So as julle nie weet waarvan julle praat nie, bly liewer stil ! O ja, vir ‘n lui gat sal dit nie werk nie!

Sjoe, maar oom Pieter is kwaai vanoggend,

Either way there is going to be maintenance for any koi pond. The quality of water so forth will be determined by the amount effort put in.

Even if you have a settlement chamber doesn't mean you dont have to clean it in the same way, the longer the stuff is in thier the worse it will contaminate the water just the same way as a sand filter.

I dont think there is a right way or wrong way just various ways to do the same thing.

Like i said ive looked at a few different setups and decide that this is the way i want to go.

Cheers
Lee

Die koue en 'n dam wat lek help ook nie juis nie!

Daar is ‘n paar van ons se tjanke darem nou solied afgetrap!
Ek het nou net ‘n sielkundige gekontak om te laat kyk na hierdie gekneusde binneste van my.
Ek is ingelig dat as ek ‘n paar mede geaffekteerdes saam bring kan ons afslag kry! So kontak my as julle belangstel.
Jan
(die luigat)
Ns. Jammer oor jou dam Piet.

Pieter J de Villiers wrote:

Die koue en 'n dam wat lek help ook nie juis nie!

Eet/speel jou water buffles nog steets lekker aan die cemcrete ?

Lee,
They are in a 20 000lt portable pond, the pond is empty, and they start with the marble-lite tomorrow.

Jan,
jou ander gat ook...............maar dankie met jou medelye, ek stel dit hoog op prys.

Sal later fotos plaas oor die gebeure rondom die herstel van die dam op

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Hey Pieter

Hope they doing ok in the portable pond and the fixes to the pond go smoothly and quickly, will go have a look at the photos a bit later.

Cheers
Lee

Will a bit more progress.

We got the main wall constructed
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another view:
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Next i sealed the bottom drains with prattly putty.

I had to chip away the concrete so i could get a nice seal where the drain meets the concrete, you can also see here what i mean by having to rise the hats on the drain due to the depth.

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chipped away
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sealed

Did the same with deep water return and skimmer. the skimmer was also modified but still needs to be siliconed tight.

deep water return
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skimmer
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Will thats all for now will carry on the weekend.

Any thoughts comments ??

Cheers
Lee

Hi LJ
We're at approximately the same stages ito construction. I've done the plaster work and the surrounding 'coping tiles'.
As for the weir..did you drill holes in the 'flap' of the skimmer? There must be a reason for this, but please share this with me.
What do you intend doing as a final sealer? I'm confused with my construction (final waterproofing) at this stage. I've had strong recommendation for marbelite...fibreglass...waterblok...Coprox...Cemflex (Sika). Need an effective - yet reasonably priced - solution, as I'm way over budget already! I said to my wife before commencing...about 6K..already at 9.
Your project seems to be well planned and thought through. I'm very much the novice in this Forum.
Regards
Jack

I am basically at the same stage. This weekend we are going to plaster- but will add 2.5 kg Coprox per bag of cement as well as 25 kg salt per bag of cement.

With the final sealer/paint, I plan to use Hydroseal- it is a cement base sealer, but I'm open for suggestions (but I will not use butamen again)

Albie

You have a seriously strong pond here Albie.

I would suggest that you take look at the pictures in the Rhenosterkop thread an see what I did when I plastered my ponds. I laid a ring of bricks that was tilted at 45 degrees around the bottom edge where the walls meet the floor. We then plastered the walls to end off against the top edge of the slanted bricks. Finally we plastered the floor to slope up the slanted brick and trimmed off against the wall. This helped to get away from that sharp joint between wall and floor.

You don't want that sharp 90 degree joint between wall and floor. Your pool floor will be under maximum load of the water weight vertically. Your wall is under linear increasing pressure horizontally and the pressure increases as you go deeper. The end result is that the maximum vertical and horizontal pressure will be where the wall and floor meet. By sloping this corner you dissipate the inherent forces along the wall as it approaches the floor and by that reduce the potential "hot" spot and you make the area in which the vertical and horizontal forces meet, wider.

The same should be applied in the vertical corners ... at least round them instead of joining at 90 degrees. I know this might go against the grain of a dedicated and committed follower of the formal structure rules

I plastered with Plasterkey only, no salt and finally applied two coats Coprox.

Good luck with the project and I am looking forward to seeing the final product.

Jack Bach wrote:

Hi LJ
We're at approximately the same stages ito construction. I've done the plaster work and the surrounding 'coping tiles'.
As for the weir..did you drill holes in the 'flap' of the skimmer? There must be a reason for this, but please share this with me.
What do you intend doing as a final sealer? I'm confused with my construction (final waterproofing) at this stage. I've had strong recommendation for marbelite...fibreglass...waterblok...Coprox...Cemflex (Sika). Need an effective - yet reasonably priced - solution, as I'm way over budget already! I said to my wife before commencing...about 6K..already at 9.
Your project seems to be well planned and thought through. I'm very much the novice in this Forum.
Regards
Jack

Hi Jack

I am in the same boat as you hey this is my first pond,this was a tip i got from Pieter and it was done to stop fish from being sucked into the skimmer, i have bent the front so that it stays upright by clipping it in front of the stops on the side but still need to silicone so it says in place, i also drilled the 5 holes using a hole saw you can judge how big you want these depending on the size of the smallest fish you plan to keep but keep in mind you want leaves and debry to go through.

As for the waterproofing basically the same as what Albie has said in his post but the coporx cemet additive to the plaster, is a additive and afterward it will need to be sealed using another coprox product or flash harry or something similar and then final waterproof paint sealer.

Cheers
Lee

albie wrote:

I am basically at the same stage. This weekend we are going to plaster- but will add 2.5 kg Coprox per bag of cement as well as 25 kg salt per bag of cement.

With the final sealer/paint, I plan to use Hydroseal- it is a cement base sealer, but I'm open for suggestions (but I will not use butamen again)

Albie

Hi Albie

I still got a fair amount of brick work to finish but will hopefully be plastering soon, ive also got the coprox cement additive which i am going to add to the plaster.

I havent decide on a final sealer myself yet but im looking at either coprox or flash harry.

Cheers
Lee

Now I'm also doubting if I should use the Hydro Seal, although I believe it is very good. As I have said, I will add the Coprox cement additive and salt to the plaster mix.

So what do the wise men say? How many layers of what? This time I really want to make sure that it doesn't leak.

(Is Flash Harry the stuff that you use for a roof leak?)

Albie