Hi. Would like to share my winter project with you. Years ago my wife converted the old damlike pool into a sandpit for the children-untill now. After some serious 'wheeling and dealing' with the wife and children, my beloved fishies have a bigger home-and we can expand their family! Still much to be done, but it will come in time. Spring only started this week in the Eastern Freestate! My first pond(the square one) holds 12500 liters, and this one is filled to 48000 liters.[img]https://i.servimg.com/u[url=https://servimg.com/view/17808354/2]/f30/17/80/83/54/23042010.jpg[/img][/url] [img]http://i30.ser[url=https://servimg.com/view/17808354/4]vimg.com/u/f30/17/80/83/54/00110.jpg[/img][/url]

Sorry-the sandpit. Didn't paste on previous threat.

Looks awesome and very creative idea, congrats.

wayneb wrote:

Looks awesome and very creative idea, congrats.

I agree with Wayne ,

Like the new pond.

Congrats Philip

Philip,
it looks fantastic...and it was wasted on a sand pit...He he he!
U have good negotiating techniques!
Love the veranda so much and a round pond is so easy to clean.
Did U make a BD?

I like that roof structure. How did U make it? I need one too...
Can U explain and take pictures for me of it.

Thank you Wayne, Quinten and Neli. I will post pics again when I've incorperated some plants,etc. Neli, a golfpal of mine has a shading business(Shading Pro's) and he put it up for me. The trick is in the bending of the metalpipes for the roof construction to have a dome efect. And yes,I've fitted a BD, but didn't want to cut into the concrete. Instead I've fitted a 110mm PVC pipe on top of the floor,from the centre of the pond. Near the top of the pond,I've reduced it to 50mm to fit at the skimmer and pump. From the pump the water flows through four 800mm brush prefilters,two sandfilters with zeolite, two 200 liter bioconverters, two UV's, and then back to the pond via venturies,in one directon, to create a circular flow to concentrate the solids in the centre at the BD. It works well for me.

PhilipV wrote:

Thank you Wayne, Quinten and Neli. I will post pics again when I've incorperated some plants,etc. Neli, a golfpal of mine has a shading business(Shading Pro's) and he put it up for me. The trick is in the bending of the metalpipes for the roof construction to have a dome efect. And yes,I've fitted a BD, but didn't want to cut into the concrete. Instead I've fitted a 110mm PVC pipe on top of the floor,from the centre of the pond. Near the top of the pond,I've reduced it to 50mm to fit at the skimmer and pump. From the pump the water flows through four 800mm brush prefilters,two sandfilters with zeolite, two 200 liter bioconverters, two UV's, and then back to the pond via venturies,in one directon, to create a circular flow to concentrate the solids in the centre at the BD. It works well for me.

My old pond and the QT both have a perforated pipe on the bottom...Chris nieves has one too.
My QT is round like your pond. I dropped the pipe from one end of the pond next to the side, vertical going down, and there a bend and going like a diameter from one end to the other. The slits are at the bottom, at a larger distance near the pipe end and smaller away...My floor is perfectly clear.
I dont know how to bend pipes...Maybe I will just weld it with angles. It looks so nice!

Hi Neli. Think you will succeed in welding it with angles-guess you can do magic with that welder of yours! As long as they are uniform in shape. Will try to send you some better pics. How wide are the slots you made in that BD-pipe, my concern is leaves getting stuck. Sometimes in stormy weather the skimmer can't cope with all the stuff that is blown in.

PhilipV wrote:

Hi Neli. Think you will succeed in welding it with angles-guess you can do magic with that welder of yours! As long as they are uniform in shape. Will try to send you some better pics. How wide are the slots you made in that BD-pipe, my concern is leaves getting stuck. Sometimes in stormy weather the skimmer can't cope with all the stuff that is blown in.

My slots are around 8mm and they are situated at the bottom of the pipe going around 1/3 of the pipe.
The holes I made in my old pond are round 12mm...and I used flexible suction pipe, so it goes around the island. I check the holes ones in a while around ones in every 2-3 month...had no problem with blocking. I just lift them with a net from the bottom.
In the QT I dont get any lief.But the pipe is not glued to the bend so it takes me a min to lift it up, or rotate it so the holes a perfectly on the bottom.
I think the perforated pipe keeps my bottom cleaner than even BD will keep it clean.

Thank you, Neli. Will modify mine a bit if necessary-so far,so good.

Think this will be a stunning pond when its finished. Well done Philip. Just watch out for using salt with zeolite.

What Chris said is that U need really large quantities of salt to make the zeolite free the ammonia. And those amounts of salt are not used in ponds.
He also has zeolite in his filter.

Thank you, Tommy. I'm not to worried about the salt/zeolite issue-I've read the article Chris Neaves wrote on that topic, and his explanation makes perfectly sense to me. But thanks for your concern.