On Thu, 01 May 2003 14:10:56 GMT, "Madd Hatter"
wrote:

I'm in the Toronto area (I think this equates weather wise to Michigan, near
the lakes)... I don't plan to make this a year round thing. I heard that
around june 1st the temp. gets warm enough to keep atleast South American in
there. I know there will probably be a lot of temperature fulx between night
and day... Is there a minimal depth i should dig to to minimize that? I'm
digging it in a large raised bed veggie garden. The angle of my yard would
make it pretty difficult otherwise, as I have the runoff drain for 3 or 4
houses in my yard. This way the water level will be above ground level.
Ofcourse this also means that I need to go deep enough to to have some
temperature stability. I hit clay at about 12"... Would about 3' be enough
for the deep end (2' at shallow) or should I make 3' the shallow end? I'm
planning to create it in steppes instead of a slope, so I can avoid
everything sliding to the deep end.


A couple of things ... 1) in toronto and environs if you go to 24
inches deep you need to get a pool permit and have a pool
fence... which is a pain... I went to 22 inches to keep my pond
in the "water feature" category and still help overwinter the
goldfish.

2) going deeper will help you maintain temperature stability, but
around here that means the deeper you go the cooler your water
will be... I have not paid a lot of attention to my temps but
even at 22 inches I only seem to occasionally get up to the mid
70s' and then only if it is really hot out... as a kid we had an
inground pool (unheated) that would range between 68 and 74
degrees.