Pond digging, sunny weather and all that

[William]

With the recent sunny weather I started hacking away at some earth in my garden, soon I hit rock but unfazed I mined further

I've got about 1/3 of the way I would say, and as you can see I wasn't joking about rock in the first picture. I'll get dimensions a bit later, I was just wondering if you guys had any ideas how to line this thing, as I realised (see 2nd picture) that the edges are jagged, would hate to puncture the lining and when full presumably it'll push out against all sides

Will post dimensions up later, its a quarter of a circle. I just thought it looked likea right shape for a pond. At least this way I can't get round not having any more fish in the house

Thanks in advance.

 

[William]

The red being the radius is of course the same all the way round, I could always dig it down deeper on the inside than the outside depth, that wouldn't be a problem for myself if it would be beneficial.

Any ideas much appreciated!
William
P.S. apologies for the bright colours

 

[ryan]

Looks good, I see alot of potential. I would cement over those jagged edges until smooth then add the layer of sand and the liner, personally I would double over the liner to be extra safe. Twenty three inches is fine depthwise, the fish will be able to happily over winter in there, but if you want you could always go down deeper to increase the volume. What fish are you planning for it?

Potential - You could have a nice waterfall/foutain coming from the wall, if you want a filter for the fish theres room to store one out of sight. What are the beds leading away on each side, is it possible to join those to the pond? It would make a nice shape and provide more room.

 

[William]

You know ryan I didn't think of using cement to make sure the edges are quite smooth, d'oh! Thanks, I'm sure that would work!

As for the fish, I haven't decided yet, koi would get too big I think, I do like them though . Will have to do further research on this, main thing is building the thing though, knowing me and my DIY skills it'll fall apart

 

[ryan]

I'm sure it will be fine . Koi would need at least 1000 gallons but there are plenty of other options other than the Common Goldfish or Comet. For example-

Golden Minnows
Golden Rudd
Golden Tench
Green Tench
Golden Orfe
Blue Orfe
Gudgeon
Sticklebacks
Stone Loaches
Wheather Loaches
Shiners (notropis lutrensis)
Bitterlings (licenece might be needed and they are difficult to find)
Red Bellied Dace
and many more......

But you can plan that when all that building work is done.

Good Luck

 

[William]

I like the sound of these fellas;
Golden Rudd
Green/Golden Tench

Never really knew there was this much choice B)

 

[ryan]

I like the sound of these fellas;
Golden Rudd
Green/Golden Tench

Never really knew there was this much choice B)

Nice fish, I have both in outdoor ponds. The Tench is a great scavenger and with time becomes confident enough to feed by hand, it also gets quite large. The Rudd are a fun shoaling fish, but they need to be in a large shoal other wise they tend to shy away.

 

[Dragonslair]

The pond you are building should be cemented and then lined with felt or and old carpet with a hessian backing. Then place a butyl rubber lining over that.
Then you will need to carefully get in it and then start to fill it with water. As the water fills the pond up you will need to carefully straighten out the liner to accomadate all the curves of the pond. Unfortunately a 23" depth is not suitable to keep you fish alive over the winter, unless the pond is covered with a perpex top so that it can't freeze. Min. depth for an open pond is 24".
It is ironic, the pond that you are building is similar tothe one I dismantled last year, before building a large garden pond.
Will post some pics.

 

[FishAddiction]

you should put a waterfall in the back and then have 2 little falls on each side of the pond to go into each of those beds on the side then have the water just keep flowing...

like this

 

[ryan]

The pond you are building should be cemented and then lined with felt or and old carpet with a hessian backing. Then place a butyl rubber lining over that.
Then you will need to carefully get in it and then start to fill it with water. As the water fills the pond up you will need to carefully straighten out the liner to accomadate all the curves of the pond. Unfortunately a 23" depth is not suitable to keep you fish alive over the winter, unless the pond is covered with a perpex top so that it can't freeze. Min. depth for an open pond is 24".
It is ironic, the pond that you are building is similar tothe one I dismantled last year, before building a large garden pond.
Will post some pics.

Fish can overwinter in 18" of water Dragon. I have kept outdoor fish for nearly ten years, my 4000 gallon Koi pond is only 24" deep and they are fine and my two other ponds are 18" and 20" and again I have never lost fish through winter depite the water freezing and snow. If you keep a water circulation through a pump etc the water will not freeze and it will allow a warmer area of water to develop at the bottom of the pool. In my 18" pond I have Orfe, Tench, Koi and Goldfish and I once kept a species of Bitterling in there. Although 24" would be best fish can overwinter in 18".

 

[William]

dragon I'm in central london so there shouldn't be a problem of it freezing. The only good thing about all the pollution is it keeps the temperature up
May even dig down the extra inch if you reckon it'll make a difference

William

 

[Opcn]

Well you have got about 235 UK gallons of water in that corner from what I figure in my head (aproximatly 7.25 US to a cubic foot and .83 UK to a WE I think) I would suggest that you dig as deep as you can you want as much water in ther as posible to protect them from the temperature fluctuations of fall and spring.

Oh and fun fack that blanket of smog covering the city isn't why its so warm its acctualy a lack of chlorophil. You see the plants absorb the energy from the sun and turn it into gloucose where as when the concreate absorbs the energy from the sun It turns into heat. TRhe smag acctualy displaces more effective greene house gasses like water vapor and CO2 altough in a city I would encourage buffering the hell out of that pond just incase it rains on you (acid rain being bad for fish and all).

Opcn

 

[Dragonslair]

It sounds as though Ryan knows what he's talking about, We only have a wildlife pond which attracts frogs, and dragonfly, newts, toads and millions of midges larvae, which the stickleback thrive on.
During winter the pond does have a freeze factor of 4" of ice on the pond, and we do have a running waterfall buy the water still freezes, but there again the weather is always colder up here.

 

[William]

Oh and fun fack that blanket of smog covering the city isn't why its so warm its acctualy a lack of chlorophil. You see the plants absorb the energy from the sun and turn it into gloucose where as when the concreate absorbs the energy from the sun It turns into heat. TRhe smag acctualy displaces more effective greene house gasses like water vapor and CO2 altough in a city I would encourage buffering the hell out of that pond just incase it rains on you (acid rain being bad for fish and all).

Opcn

Thanks for the volume calculation opcn.

I was joking earlier when talking about the pollution, londons a pretty clean city. Seeing as all energy ends up as heat in the end anyway, I'd imagine its not down to lack of chlorophyl. After all the vast majority of sunlight would be reflected regardless of whether it hit plants or concrete. I would imagine its more to do with the heat generated by so many cars and their combustion engines, people respiring, and the very nature of cities in which the wind's movements are restricted, keeping the whole city in effect insulated like a "warm pocket", which doesn't dissipate over time.
Regards,
William.

 

[ryan]

It sounds as though Ryan knows what he's talking about, We only have a wildlife pond which attracts frogs, and dragonfly, newts, toads and millions of midges larvae, which the stickleback thrive on.
During winter the pond does have a freeze factor of 4" of ice on the pond, and we do have a running waterfall buy the water still freezes, but there again the weather is always colder up here.

Dragon I have found that I underwater oxygen pump with a largish airstone will keep the water surface moving and prevent freezing. In cold temperatures it will freeze over by 1-2cm but that soon melts with the water movement. Amphibians go into a state of hibernation during winter in which they slow their heart rate down and lay dormant on the bottom of the pond in a warm pocket of water. 23" would be fine for fish and wildlife alike to over winter in, but if possible you can dig down deeper William to increase the overall water volume.

Good Luck