"mdurkin" wrote in message
s.com...
Hi All,
I'm about to build a brick pond with a window and was hoping for some
advice. Here's what I'm planning at the moment:

Brick built (2 brick deep walls) pond about 2.5m x 1.5m, raised above
the ground by about 60cm, and sunk a further 40cm below the ground.
That will give me ~80 cu ft.

For the window, this will be on the short length wall and I planned to
build the outer wall with a suitably sized hole (40cm x 120cm), lintel
above. I planned to build the inner wall with a slightly larger hole so
that I can have a piece of glass cut that will significantly overlap
the outer hole. I'd then use window sealant to seal it in place.
I'd then concrete line the whole pond (except the window!) and treat
with concrete pond sealant.
Does anyone have any advice?
What thickness glass will I need?
Has anyone else build a pond with a window - will my suggestion work?
Will my pond be structurally sound with this large window?
etc etc

Hope to hear from people with more experience soon!

No experience of doing this but a few things occured to me with what you are
suggesting

1) Have you considered using some kind of Acrylic rather than glass? It will
scratch easier if you are not careful but may be more manageable and I think
you can laminate it (i.e. use 2 or 3 layers bonded together) & is very
strong & flexible

2) If you build the window into the walls as you are suggesting then all the
load from the window will be on the outer single skin wall - I'd be more
inclined to bond the window over the hole on the inside of the inner wall.

3) I should have thought aquarium safe silicone would be a good bet for your
sealant

There was a website for details of a huge indoor aquarium that used an
acrylic window (2 layers of 1/2 inch thick bonded together If I remember
correctly) but the link seems to be dead. The window was 8'x4' so pretty
huge.

For what its worth, if you buy something like a 48x18x24" glass fish tank it
will be made of 10mm glass at least.

I