OK, I thought that i will share with everybody my ponds progress.

This was my original pond (10 000L) that i constructed in 2005.
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In April 2007 i decided that i wanted to go bigger...as all koi keepers usually do. The idea was to break the existing pond wall to expand the pond with an extra 4 meters in length.

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Here you can see where we knocked the pond wall down.

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In this image you can see the foundations of the walls. Yeah, please notice the clay we had to go through it took a team of 3-4 men 4 weeks to get to that depth. You can also see the steel rods in the walls... i later discovered that i did not use enough steel.

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This is the completed pond...just add bitumen and water i thought...

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Here the pond has been water proofed and i am adding the water.
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It took 3 days for the pond to fill and then i discovered that the pond leaks!!!!! 5cm - 10cm a day...I then i fiberglassed my pond. 3 days into the five day waiting period it started to rain and water got in between the concrete and the fiberglass and tore a 1m section open on the pond floor. Within 2days my pond was full of rain water and decided ...ah what the heck lets switch the pumps on and add the fish. Ofcourse during this period i discovered that my filtration system was way underspecked for a 30 000L pond.

It rained so hard last year that my pond remained full untill October 2007 with the ground water being just 1m under the surface.

In November 2007 i decided to beef the filtration up and installed:
4 x 400L vortexes. 2 mechanical and 2 bio logical
2 x 25L ultra zap filters.
1 x Ultra zap Protein skimmer
1 x 30 watt UV

I also added an additional .45 speck pump.

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In Feb 2008 i decided that i was time to empty the pond and move the fish to their new home in the garage so that i could work on the pond again. Eugen helped me in moving all the kois to their new home.

I got some labourers in to sand the glass fiber so that we could add another layer on top. With that done, i thought my leaky days was over...WRONG!!!

I found that the swimming pool light was leaking and so i removed it. I also found that a nail pushed through the fiber glass layer about 1m from the bottom of the pond.. so i had to drain all the water so that i could patch that.

Finally i added the water. I still have a leak of 5mm a day but i am writing that of for the moment as part of my water changes. I am convinced that it is a pipe leaking somewhere as the water level does not drop if the pumps are switched off.

Here you can see my pond as it is at the momment. I am just waiting for the coupings and cladding to arrive. I did not want to wait with the water just incase history repeated itself.

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There are 3 returns on this pond. Here are two of them.

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I will post more pictures when the cladding finally arrives.

My specs for this pond at the momment is as follows:

Pond Literage : 30 000 +-
Filtration Literage : 2175 +-

Depth:
1.2m to 3m in center of pond

Suction Lines:
Bottom drains : 1
Leave Skimmers : 1

Returns:
1 x Water fall
1 x Venturi
1 x return from protein skimmer

Pumps:
2 x .45 speck pumps (15000L each)

Air pumps:
2 x Boyu ACQ-005 (1 x Backup, 1 for Eazy filter)
1 X Boyu ACQ-008 (Bio Converters)
1 X Boyu ACQ-009A (Bottom drain diffuser)

Mechanical Filtration:
1 x Settlement vortex
1 x Infilter chamber - simular to Eazy with 100L of static Kaldness
1 x 3Bag Sand filter

Bio Converters:
3 X 25L Ultra Zap filters with Bio Balls and Oyster shells
2 x 400L Vortexes with 400L of Kaldness in total

Water Cleaning units:
1 x Ultra Zap Protein Skimmer
2 x Ultra Zap UV Lights 30 watt

Number of fish : 17[/img]

Very well planned.
Big job, but it is going to be a great pond I am sure.

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Very well planned..

Thanks, I had the whole idea planned out in Google Sketchup.

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You have guts with all that fibreglass work ... many years ago I was in the boating business and took an oath to never touch that stuff again

Well i really did not have a choice. My pond is 58 squares meters and at R 300 a square it worked out to R 17400 just for water proofing. And i was not going to pay someone that type of money just for water proofing...as you might have noticed i do a lot of things myself. I did all the planning, plumbing, electrical work and water proofing i even build the bridge myself.

Robert Wagner from KoiNetwork came and helped me with water proofing, applying fiber glass is really a two man job.

The worst part was the sanding part but i got a labourer in to do that for me.

I bought all the essensial fibreglass materials from Allied fibreglass in Maitland.

I used the following materials:
23kg of 300g chop strand matting
125Kg of ortho resin
100g of G4
40Kg of clear coat
5kg of pigment
9 rollers
5 hand brushes

This has been te second time that i had to fiberglass my pond and i am hoping to never to it again. The pond walls are 8mm thick and the floor is already 12mm thick.

Hi Wayne

It looks good and your filtration is perfect, although expensive.

I also did my first pond with Fibre Glass and said never again. I had no experience at the time and did not know that you should do it in fairly cold weather. After I did one wall, everything came down due to the heat and I had to restart again after one hell of a mess and waste because I obviously had to throw the resin soaked matting away and had to grind off the areas that were already dry.

It went much better when I restarted in colder weather, but also had to empty the pond three times. Just when you think all the possible leaks are now solved, the damn pond started to leak again. I call it my blood sweat and tear pond.

My second pond with fibre glass went smoothly as I started with the normal fairly course matting and covered that with the very fine matting to close up the holes that still exist after the course matting, and I covered it with two coats of the Topcoat.

It costs me R 4500.00 for a 12 000 liter ponds (Allied Fibre glass). At least, I do not have to worry about leaks, but it is really a shitty job.

I got good results with my subsequent ponds without fibre glass (only cement sealed with sika and durapond) and will not go the fibre glass route again.

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It looks good and your filtration is perfect, although expensive.

Hi Paul

The filtration is a bit expensive but if i take into considuration the cost of the pond structure and the cost of the fish that will be living in the pond, it is actually not that much. The filtration cost in the region of R 22 000 which is roughly the price of a Nexus which would give me a lot less filtration than what i now have. I am also thinking about adding a ozonator. Cape Koi is somehow selling ozonators for R 2900...which is very cheap...they are installing in on their own pond for demo purpouses so i will give them a month or two before getting really intrested.

I am also considering a change on my pump setup at the moment. I want to swap the porpoise .45kw pump that drives my water fall out for a .25kw Magic 6. I have to throttle my water fall line at the moment because the pump is to strong, It over fills the vortexes standing behind the palm tree. So i need to scale the water fall line down to 10 000L or so per hour.

I am glad to hear that other people also have ponds from Hell. Honestly, this pond has been a nightmare which does not seem to want to stop. The Venturi line blocked up and after cleaning it i suddenly have 300L per 12hr leak again...i think that the backpressure might have damaged a join somewhere.

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It costs me R 4500.00 for a 12 000 liter ponds (Allied Fibre glass). At least, I do not have to worry about leaks, but it is really a shitty job.

That is alot of fibre glass...Did you use the tissue paper after the normal matting? I have never actually bothered much with that.

My cladding and coupings are suppose to be arriving of friday. Bought it at StoneAge in BlackHeath...very cheap but you have to wait anything from 2-4 weeks for your tiles.

Wayne

wayneb wrote:

That is alot of fibre glass...Did you use the tissue paper after the normal matting? I have never actually bothered much with that.

Yes, I covered the whole pond with the tissue when I applied the first topcoat mixed with the charcoal colour. It just close up those small little holes that you can't even see.

One should be able to do it for less than what I used, but I also had to pay extra for mistakes made.

At least I learned from my mistakes.

My cladding was delivered today. I could not wait to see what it would look like. So here is a sneak peek.

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I am planning to clean all of them first and then to treat them with something to seal them.

Good choice, it is going to look very nice. Cladding make such a difference.

Thanks Paul.

I installed a Anti-Leak device over the weekend, once installed all water leaks disappear from your pond.
Also helps with automatic water changes.

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hmmm...i should think about cleaning that bridge at some stage.

Last week i treated all the coupings and cladding with a Dulux product called brick seal. It has really brought the colours out.

Today my labourer (Brain) and I started with the coupings and the cladding, here is a picture of the progress thus far.

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Tomorrow we will finish the cladding on the inside of the pond wall.

The stone sealer really brought the colours out.

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The stone sealer really brought the colours out.

Amazing isn't it, worked better than i expected.


Here's some photos from todays progress:

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The water colour has been affected by cement falling in the water...oops

My next project is to tile the section below...some how. You can see one of the tiles in the photo below. I want to hide the vortexes and add a bench on top, have been thinking about putting some decking over the vortexes....

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Very nice Wayne, looks better finished now.

Thanks Guys.

I am trying to design steps or something to hide the wooden bridge a bit plus easing the step onto the bridge....You know i am going to get old and won't be able to always lift my legs that high. Please look at the images below and give me some advise.

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i think it looks nice ,maybe 2 lanterns next to the bridge would look nice

Hi Wayne, you don't need steps, you need a ramp for your old age wheel chair.

Grappies op 'n stokkie, ..

The hight difference is not very much. I would just make one small wooden step to blend in with the existing wooden bridge.

I found that some old people feel unsafe to walk over a bridge without a railing. That is why I added a very simple rail on the bridge of one of my ponds. See photo.

(ook vir wanneer jy met jou brandewyn in jou hand hang oor die reeling en jou visse bewonder, of nie meer so "lakkarrr djou rigting kan hou ooor die bridge nie" eishh)

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Hi All, im in design / planning mode again. i am busy planning some of the things i want to try and do during the summer.

I want to add a pergola type thing over my pond for shade. The other project is to add a bakki shower to my pond. Eugen from this forum has been doing all the work around the bakki showers for me - i will post some pics later regarding that project.

I have never ever done anything like this pergola before so please help....any suggestion would be appreciated.

I have a few requirements:
The perogla must....
1. be a DIY project. I can't afford to get professionals in.
2. If possible be cheap to build.
3. Be wind resistant.
4. cover 80% of the pond.
5. Must fit in undeneath the trees next to my pond...i will trim the branches but no trees will be removed.
6. Its must be sloped so that anything falling on it - falls to the back.
7. compliment the pond. I dont want it to look cheap.


This is my idea so far.

Current dimensions:
Front Height - 2.2m / 2.3m
Back Height - 1.8
Width - 3m

I am thinking about using marine treaed rounded pine poles for the main "legs" and pine beems for the roof. I want to be able to stain the wood.


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