As many of you will know, i have dreamed of the day when I could finally become a pond owner.

Well that day has finally come.

After many weeks of pondering and visualising, we reckoned the best place would be smack in the middle of the garden. We bought a shed *10x8 ft* which will eventually be a summer house and have doors opening onto the patio area.
We had to clear the jungle that was there and I found it particularly hard to say goodbye to some lovely plants and bushes that were there.
This is the area thats been cleared and shed put in place.


The ground falls away quite sharply and there is a drop so we placed breezeblocks at the height the pond will be level at.


I laid the lawn down on the bare ground thats been cleared.


Now, the marking out of the patio and outline of the pond.



Digging begins. We used what came out the pond area to help raise the patio and surrounding area to the back and other side

We thought it best to angle the sides as the soil is rather loose and the bottom is 4 foot deep.



The next day we made it a bit bigger on the bottom and then laid with a whole carpet and lined it.

Filling begins


You can see where the hose from the pump goes into the shed and the outlets will come out the side and onto a waterfall down to the corner. As i said, the only way to the patio will be via a door or two on the shed, and then a step ot two down.







Theres still more water to go in and im still trying to work out how much water is in there. Doing it by the bucket method of timing 2 gallons and then stopwatch the rest gave us 180 something gallons. With it full it may be 200 gallons.
Its about 10 foot long and 7 foot wide and averages around 3 foot.
Theres 20 feet of tubing from the pump which does 5000lph and the filter does 9000lph.

Will post more pics when we get further along.

What a nice project Sandy! I'm sure it will look amazing when it's all done. It must be very exciting when something you've wanted to do for such a long time finally starts to happen. Good luck with it all Sandy

oh that's sooo exciting to watch sandy...what lovely soil you have to dig in...mine was all rubble!!!

looks like it's going to be a fair size!

keep the pics coming

Good luck with your build!

Jude

Wow, that's going to be realllllly cool!! I'm jealous. I want mine bigger now.

When you say 200 gallons, you don't mean American Gallons, do you? Cuz that's a LOT more than 200 gallons!!

Thanks for the replies guys

Erika we measured 200 uk gallons which are bigger than Us gallons. Ive been told if you did it as a big square then halved it then it would be just over 500 uk gallons.
I dont know which to believe as I thought the bucket method would be pretty accurate.

Yeah, the bucket method does seem like it would be. I kinda wish I'da thought of that when I filled my pond, hehe. Instead we had to do a bunch of math, and that wasn't fun.

That looks pretty cool Sandy. A nice one for sure

And by the way, I love the look of Scotland....everything looks so green and lush there. Very pretty.

nice, very pretty

Your pond is looking good. Looks like it was well thought out as well. Congratulations! Your going to have many hours of enjoyment. I can't wait to see the fish in it now!

Scott

Sandy... I did the math, and with the dimensions you quoted (10 ft X 7 ft x 3 ft) that works out to be more like 1600 US gallons (or just over 1300 UK gallons).

the formula is easy... I did it 3 times to make sure I was right. it looks WAY bigger than only 200 gallons... I have a 150 gallon pond myself, and yours is much, much bigger...

Just wanted to let you know so that you get a big enough pump.

Yeah, but you got to take into account her shelves. It's not the same depth in the whole pond.... that's what I had problems with cuz I have a shallow (1 ft) end and a deep (3ft) end. Ponds are hard to figure cuz they're not squared like tanks! GAH!


So, what all's going to inhabitate that sucker Sands?

Sandy it looks wonderful so far. I can't wait to see it when it's complete!!!

Your pond looks excellent Sandy!! Im excited to see the updates.

I'm so happy for you Sands! I guess that somewhere down the line,you turned Bob's thoughts around. lol!!!
It looks much bigger to me than 200 gallons all though I am terrible at math.Were you able to relocate some of the bushes ,etc from where you dug them up?
All in all,it looks like it's going to be a beauty when it's all said and done,and with your touch of plants,I'm positive it's going to be striking...
I get sooooooooooooooooo excited just seeing everyones creativeness,and ponds. being done. I've always wanted one since I was a small child.
Hey,continue with the pics-I'm loving them!!!

Wow, what an adventure! I bet you are so happy with the way it is turning out! It looks amazing! Keep the pics coming as it is fun watching the progress.

WOW Sand's!! It's looking wonderful...It's a fish POOL, Not a Pond!! It's going to look great when you get it all finished.

I can't wait to see updated pic's as it come's along.

CONGRATS!!!!

It looks amazing. In fact it is a great step by step guide to making a pond...no words needed the pics explain it all the way along. One day I hopeI can do something similar. Congratulations and can't wait too to see the finishing touches

Sandy that looks fantastic! What a great backyard you have.

I think it looks larger than 200g myself but the graduating depth is the real tricker. It looks as though half the area of the pond is 1 foot deep or less, the 3ft and 4ft areas are about a quarter of the total area of the pond.

If you do two calculations, 3/4 of the pond at 1 ft deep and 1/4 at 3ft deep then add them together you come up with 250 US gallons, which is closer to your outcome using the bucket method ... OR

If you do three calculations, 1/2 the pond at 1ft deep, 1/4 at 2ft deep and 1/4 at 3ft deep and add them together you get 242 US gallons.

OMG Sands - I knew you were going to start it soon but to have it almost finished? I can't believe how fast you work. It looks absolutely wonderful (and I love the way you lay grass ).

I want to see so many more pics - I'm that excited for you

PS. It really does look more like a 400 gallon to me - but i'm also bad at the calculations

Sandy congrats on the new pond its looking good.Wish we had a big garden like you I would love a pond.Keep the pics of your wonderful work in progress coming.

putting the filter in the shed is a great idea...i must remember that next time i build a new pond!

Thank you everyone for the replies, we really like how its turned out and im glad you all do too
Yes Jamoko we planned to try and keep the filter frost free and we bought the shed with that in mind as well as to convert it.
As for gallonage, we have to go with the bucket method as it seems to be the most accurate, and has already pointed out, theres a lot of earth still in that hole and I reckon if we flattened it out you would be lucky to get the three feet of water, though that might give us around 1300 if you did it by your calculations squeeker, but it doesnt look like it holds that much..
Theres still some more filling to be done so hopefully get it over the 200 gallon mark by our bucket method.
I have a 55 gallon and no way would four of those get to the level we have, maybe six which would be over 300 gallon.
So I think we would be safe at 300 gallons then?

The fish going in are three shubunkin x fantails, and just pray they get through the winter and hopefully some red and white wakin. Dont know how many but i hope to get at least two.

OK, I am not trying to be a pain in the butt here, but I am SURE my calcs are right. Fishmerized, I'd be interested to know how you did your calcs?

You said your pond was approximately 10 feet X 7 feet, with an average depth of 3 feet. For the sake of arguement, let's say that the pond is a level 1 foot deep instead of 3 feet (just to be cautious and not over-estimate).

Now, the formula for US gallonage is [lengthXwidthXheight (in inches)] / 231.

10 feet = 120 inches
7 feet = 84 inches
1 foot = 12 inches

So, [(120)(84)(12)]/231 = 523.6 US Gallons.

There is just NO WAY that your pond is any less than this. And, honestly, I wouldn't trust the integrity of the "bucket method". It's just too inaccurate (for reasons I wont' get in to unless ppl want me to explain my opinion).

If you take more exact measurements (length, width, and depth of each shelf, etc) I can figure out the exact gallonage for you... but I am SURE that your pond is at LEAST 600 gallons, if not more.

My $0.02.

And, it looks like it's going to be fantastic! I can't wait to have a backyard larger than your pond! (cuz that's all mine is, LOL)

Do you know what you're going to do for heaters and such for the winter? It gets cold in Scotland doesn't it? Oh, and where'd you get your liner?

I think I agree that it has to be bigger than that, my pond is 180G and you know how small that looks, and the deepest part is only about as wide as yours, and as deep.. unless my calculations are wrong and my pond is a lot smaller.

Have you been swimming in it yet!?

Ok then Squeeker your maths make sense. So what would you say the gallonage if it was two and a half foot deep as that seems to be about the level if it was filled in?
From what youve given so far that would make it 436 gallons uk.

If you dont mind please tell us why you think the bucket method isnt accurate.

Erika
the liner we bought from a garden centre and cost just over £50 and is 5.5 x 6 metre
As for heating the pond we dont know yet, maybe an ice melter on the surface ought to do. If we get weather thats going to be well under -5 for a long time then we will have a think.

Lucy how deep is yours and what levels and slant is the slope at?

I havent swam in it but bob fell in it twice

With a depth of 2.5 feet you'd have 1309 US gallons (1090 UK gallons).


As for why I don't think the bucket method is all that accurate...

Water pressure is not consistent. It fluctuates all the time, depending on if other people are running the tap, including others down the street that share the same main. If you use a 2 gallon pail to estimate the flow rate in gallons/hour (or gallons/minute, whatever you decide to use) you are sampling only a very small bit with a lot of margin of error! The smaller the sample, the larger the margin of error will be. So, if you use a 2 gallon bucket to measure flow compared to a 50 gallon bucket, you will be "more wrong" using the 2-gallon bucket.

Think of it like you would statistics. If you were to randomly ask 5 people what they ate for breakfast that morning, and 4 people said "eggs". You would not automatically conclude that most people in the world eat eggs for breakfast. Likewise, in order to get an accurate reading for the flow rate out of your hose, you'd want to sample a much larger amount of water.

It also depends on how you were to measure that flow. When is the bucket full? When it starts to overflow? Did you turn the tap on, let it flow, then turn it off? Or, did you already have the water running before you put the bucket underneath? If you did it the first way, the water would flow more slowly while you were turning the tap on and off, thus skewing the results.

If you REALLY want to know EXACTLY how much water you put into your pond, you can get flow-meters that attach to your hose and monitor how much water passes through. I don't know how easy they are to find, or how much they cost, but I do know they exist.

Hope that helps!

Heres a linky http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a184/fis...tos/pond125.jpg
I made a diagram with approximate measurements.

LOL, Squeeks, you're brilliant!

I try... Just didn't want Sandy to buy a pump/filter for 200g when she'd need one about 5X that!

At least now she can put a bazillion more fish in!

Wow,1,000 gallons? Thats a heck of a lot. The way you tell the bucket system it makes sense.

Ok then. The pump is for 5000 litres which is for just over 1000 uk gallons so thats one turn over in an hour and the filter can shift 9000 litres an hour so looks like its spot on then.

Thank you Squeeker

Sounds good!

You're welcome!

I love your pond Sandy, it's gorgeous! I am so jealous of your soil, there is no way I could just take a shovel and start digging a pond in this Georgia red clay I'd need a backhoe or something!! I can't wait to see it when it's all finished with the fishies and all. I sure am gald people around here can add and multiply and all that good stuf, I was so lost.

Oh sandy! That is going to be GORGEOUS!!!!! Im excited for you!

Thanks Gia and Maceo

Working on the waterfall but the irony is it keeps raining so I cant do much
Hope to get the first 3 fish in it by tomorrow

Ummm Sands.... isn't it time for more pics?

I tried to dig a hole in my backyard because I was going to try and rig up a pond but it's pure rock and dirt. I'd need an excavator unfortunately I think your grass is going to grow beautifully in that rich soil

Ok

Here is the first step to the waterfall. Its made of a wood frame and then each section drilled together. This is only temporary to get it through winter and then we will design something better in the Spring



With the liner




You can see here the pebbles going in and the rocks on the side. Im going to do those again as Bob didnt do it properly.


Close up of it





Jen the grass has taken already and is growing well

I can't believe how far it's come I see what you mean about the grass - it's looking so lush. What a great idea for a waterfall... Bob's such a handyman

I would love to have a pond like yours - especially aesthetically. I really love the way you've got the pavers done. How long until the fish go out there?

Wow Sandy I love how you are documenting it for us. It is going to be lovely when you are done.
Hey, is that a pointer of some kind I see in one of those pics?

I like the idea for the water fall, that looks nice.

Jen, I put the fish in it yesterday, the four original ones I had in quarantine and they love it. They look so tiny in there as well. The other three I might have to put in today as I need the garden extension they are using for the filter in the tub to run the pond filter 24 hours.

Laurie, thats our german pointer Callie you can see. She is 7 but acts like a 1 year old

Thanks Scott. We are building up the stones for next year so we can do it properly.

Hang on a sec Sands - you've put the fish in and yet <looks around> no pictures?

I can't wait to see them in the pond - I bet they're just loving it. What are you doing for filtration? DIY?

Ive tried taking pics of them in the pond but they swim to the depths when i get close and the only one you can see is the red and white one. I will try again though.

The filter is a hozelock 9000 with uv. The pump does 5000 litres an hour so should be ok.

We stood the pump on bricks which was a mistake as it keeps falling off, so Bobs going to have to swim with the fishies to move it as im not going in

Lol - so it's pretty much complete?

Also, have you worked out how many gallons yet? It looks nice and large so it'll be interesting to see roughly how big it is

Haha that made me laugh "if you want something done right, do it yourself "

It looks great Sandy I like that big green grass thingy!

Wow Sandy, it's looking absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I wish I had a bigger yard, I really do. I'm extremely jealous.

Now, as for getting in and swimming with the fish, I'd jump at the chance to do that!!

fantastic...i too really like the way the paving is done all around the pond...sooo contemporary...keep those pics coming!!!

Hey, I didn't realize you are already THIS far ahead on your pond, Sandy!! It looks absolutely stunning, and a very nice design on it. Especially the deep center in the middle of the pond is a great idea for the winter time, thats the place where the fish are gonna hang out when its the coldest.
Nice going on the waterfall - thank goodness for handy husbands! Can't wait until its all finished and planted and such. And definetely more than your estimated gallon, Sandy - I have a few 300 gl tubs, and those would fit in there about 3-4 times...