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Our backyard pond
When we purchase our house, there was an existing concrete pond, concrete and rock waterfall and a "filter system" made of stuff. It leaked like a sieve and was butt ugly. We removed it, re-layouted the backyard to create "new pond 1". The new pond and its Koi and gold fish lasted for about 2 years until the Raccoon's found that we had tasty fish. We kept the pond a life for the goldfish and plants put could never get Koi to live more than several month.
So in the Spring of '08, we tore down the "old new pond 1" and build "new pond 2". Our thanks to Richard at The Pond Outlet for his advise and supplying the Aquascape Micro-Series pond kit and Greg at Cherry Hill Koi. for some of the pond
modification recommendations and the plants and Koi which live there.
The new pond
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Looking West toward the new pond
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Aerial view
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Close up of the East end
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Some of the residents
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The first new Koi residents
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The tear down
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Our first pond after 7 years partly torn down
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This is the old EDPM liner. It was in service for 7+ years
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Construction
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The new liner has arrived
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The outline of the "enlarged" pool. The depth of the pond is limited by the fill base on the land fill we live on. We were able to get approximately 6" deeper and raised the sides bo 4"
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In the foreground is a Aquascape MicroSkimmer with the pump discharge line going around to the MicroFalls. The 2x4 and level was used to level the berm. The MicroFalls location is the control point. The pump in the center is pumping out the seepage from our winter.
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Close up of the MicroSkimmer
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The MicroFalls and Microskimmer in place and connected by the pump discharge line which has been buried
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The pond is mucked out and sloped toward the MicroSkimmer
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The new liner laid in position to be unfolded. It is laying over a matting which came with the pond kit to help protect the EDPM liner from roots and rocks
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The liner is unfolded
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The pond is partly filled to help form and hold the liner against the walls. The river gravel in the bottom has since gone away
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With the liner trimmed and ready to place rocks on the birm to hold the liner in place and hide it
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The waterfall is "falling". We tried a couple of rock waterfall ideas but neither worked in the space available. So I decided to go with redwood flume. The edging rocks are in place and wait plants to help hide the sides of the pond.
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Adding a "vacuum drain"
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The Aquascape Mirco series relies totally on the water circulation off the top of pond. On the recommendation of some local Koi pond owners, we added a "vacuum drain" to pull water from the bottom and circulate the nitrates and other "materials" though the filter system. The MicroSkimmer has an offsetted bottom below here the wier and large debri net are. I wanted to make sure the liner coming up from the bottom of the pond to the wier opening was smooth and had no sharp corners around where the "vacuum drain" connected into the skimmer. To solved that problem I got a 1/2" thin piece of plexiglass which makes that area flush with the wier face. It is held in place by silicone and the bulkhead fitting. This bulkhead fitting is from West Marine as the outer diameter of the "stock" water pond 1-1/2" fitting are too large for the available flat surface inside the Skimmer
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The inside of the MicroSkimmer with the marine bulkhead fitting
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The 1-1/2" flex line curves nicely from the "vacuum drain" into the bottom of the MicroSkimmer
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The pond is refilled
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Adding an automatic fill
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On the recommendation of several shops, I wanted to install an automatic fill for the pond to take care of the evaporation. The all recommended the Hudsen float value shown at the bottom of the picture. HOWEVER neither Hudson or Aquascap supply mounting bracket to attach the float valve in an area where the sides of the MicroSkimmer are flat or the value will not interfer with the other things in the MicroSkimmer. So off to Tap Plastics to get some scrape plexiglass to make a mount to attached the Hudsen valve to the MicroSkimmer. So from the bottom of the picture upwards: - The bulkhead fitting is the overflow for the pond
- The homemade mounting bracket for the Hudsen float valve
- The clear line coming from the right and going into the valve is the supply
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On the left side of the picture you can see the weir flange into the MicroSkimmer and the floating "gate" for the wier. Attached by tie-wraps to the wier's floating door is some closed cell foam. I added foam to gate to restrict the flow of water off the top and force more water to be drawn off the bottom of pond. On the left side of the picture you can see the weir flange into the MicroSkimmer and the floating "gate" for the wier. Attached by tie-wraps to the wier's floating door is some closed cell foam. I added foam to gate to restrict the flow of water off the top and force more water to be drawn off the bottom of pond.
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Adding a UV Sterilizer
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The existing circulation line is 1-1/2" and connected into the MicroFalls using a 1-1/2" barb fittingwhich was to a 2" bulkhead fitting. The UV Steriizer uses 2" input and output lines. At the far end of the picture, I ran a piece of 2" ABS from the MicroFalls to where I wanted the end of the Sterilizer to be. At the bottom of the picture, you can see a 1-1/2" barb fitting into an other section of 2" ABS going to the input side of the Sterilizer. With the original design from where the garden trowel is, the 1-1/2" line followed the outline of the pond's edge and connected to the MicroFalls through the side.
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Electric fence and heron guard
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We ran the pond for about a month with new plants and 4 4-6" Koi and the water started turning green from the algae. On the recommendation of Greg at Cherry Hill Koi, we installed an Aqua Ultraviolet 40watt UV Sterilizer in the circulation system.
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To hopefully protect the Koi and other residents of the pond from raccons, I installed an electric fence around the parameter which is on a timer that comes on a dusk and off at dawn. The electric wire is attached to the top of each of the electrical conduit driven into the ground. I then stretched fish line between the post cris-crossing the pond to "scare off" birds that try to land in the pond
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