I am a student at Derby university in the UK studying Product Design
Innovation & Marketing, I am in my final year and for one of our final
projects we have to design a 'simple pond' for a large British
company. If it is at all possible i was wondering if anybody was able
to e-mail me any information on the following areas; construction,
suitable materials, relivant designs, different features that could be
included (ie, safety features)things that you consider are most
important for first time buyers of ponds. Any information that is sent
would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking time to read this.

Wow.....I rarely see anyone that is from the Derbyshire area post anywhere
online. Hubby is originally from Derby, with his Mum now living in Findern.
I adore that area. (Much milder climate that we get here in Ohio USA)

We are new to ponding, but this group will no doubt give you excellent
advice and ideas.

Lisa
www.britsintheus.com/marriednhappy/home.htm



"Ryan Cook" wrote in message
om...
I am a student at Derby university in the UK studying Product Design
Innovation & Marketing, I am in my final year and for one of our final
projects we have to design a 'simple pond' for a large British
company. If it is at all possible i was wondering if anybody was able
to e-mail me any information on the following areas; construction,
suitable materials, relivant designs, different features that could be
included (ie, safety features)things that you consider are most
important for first time buyers of ponds. Any information that is sent
would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking time to read this.

Ryan,
Let's see how helpful I can be:

1. Obviously a pond is nothing but a big hole to contain water, plants
and fish to give the pond a life, a sort of water mover to give the pond
movement, and to bring in much needed oxygen, and filtration to remove the
waste from the internal and external environment.
a) I used an epdm liner to line the bottom of my pond to contain the
water.
b) I have an external pump that picks water up from one end, and returns
it through a bio filter and a water fall. (A bio filter can do the two
required filtration, mechanical and biological, remove dirt and debris and
remove harmful contaminants such as ammonia and nitrates)
c) I use a variety of plant materials in a portion of my pond called
vegetation filter or veggie filter. I use the types of plants that absorbs
the harmful nutrients that are the by product of the fish in my pond. Think
excess fertilizer and then plants to suck out the fertilizer)
d) Safety and pond design is almost like oil and water. Reason I say
this is because you would not imagine a natural river or lake with railings
would you? Since most of us are trying to emulate nature with our ponds, we
then stay away from rails and do things like shallow edge, plant barrier,
etc.
e) These links below are from some of the guys around here that
documented their pond construction, hopefully you can get some info from
their sites:
http://www.tiversa.com/pond/index.htm
http://www.geocities.com/bickal2000/pond.htm
http://www.skippysstuff.com/index.html
http://www.therealmckoi.co.uk/?

You may have to monkey with some of the links to get them to work, like
change htm to html, or remove ?, etc. I am not a good computer dude, just
an ordinary architect.

2. I am not clear as to the level of detail you are after (maybe you can
visit some of the links you see at the bottom of our signatures to view
different pond designs and filter designs) Link to my pond is below. Good
luck and please keep us informed as you do your research. Maybe you can
give us suggestions on our perpetual battle with algae, nitrite, nitrate,
ammonia, heron, etc.

--
_______________________________________
"The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is
like an eggs-and-ham breakfast:
The chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'."

http://community.webshots.com/user/godwino

"Ryan Cook" wrote in message
om...
I am a student at Derby university in the UK studying Product Design
Innovation & Marketing, I am in my final year and for one of our final
projects we have to design a 'simple pond' for a large British
company. If it is at all possible i was wondering if anybody was able
to e-mail me any information on the following areas; construction,
suitable materials, relivant designs, different features that could be
included (ie, safety features)things that you consider are most
important for first time buyers of ponds. Any information that is sent
would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking time to read this.

Ryan,
To add to what has been said by others, when we did my pond I took a
lot of pictures and have posted them for others to see, they may help
you some. 'Rippling Waters' is the pond in it's first year(2003) and
the other album is the construction phase. Take a look, you can see
them at:

community.webshots.com/user/aspenjd

Sue W


(Ryan Cook) wrote in message . com...
I am a student at Derby university in the UK studying Product Design
Innovation & Marketing, I am in my final year and for one of our final
projects we have to design a 'simple pond' for a large British
company. If it is at all possible i was wondering if anybody was able
to e-mail me any information on the following areas; construction,
suitable materials, relivant designs, different features that could be
included (ie, safety features)things that you consider are most
important for first time buyers of ponds. Any information that is sent
would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking time to read this.

Others have already given some good information and links on construction
and materials, but for a commercial establishment, I think that some form of
raised pond, or raised seating around the pond would be a prerequisite.
When visitors come to my ponds, I am there watching to see that they don't
fall in, or knock rocks in, or do something even more stupid. For a
commercial establishment, they do not have that luxury of constant
supervision. All pumps should be remote, in a separate lockable facility,
to keep people from getting to close to the electricity, turning off the
pumps, waterfalls, filters, etc.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"Ryan Cook" wrote in message
om...
I am a student at Derby university in the UK studying Product Design
Innovation & Marketing, I am in my final year and for one of our final
projects we have to design a 'simple pond' for a large British
company. If it is at all possible i was wondering if anybody was able
to e-mail me any information on the following areas; construction,
suitable materials, relivant designs, different features that could be
included (ie, safety features)things that you consider are most
important for first time buyers of ponds. Any information that is sent
would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking time to read this.

Really good advice already given. I'll just add this website:

www.akca.org there you will find more details on the whys and hows of pond
construction and filtration. In fact, it may be more info then you ever
wanted. ;o) ~ jan

See my ponds thru the seasons and/or my filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Defrosted~
Tri-Cities, WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website

One very important thing to think about that I haven't seen mentioned is having
a ground fault protector so that you don't get shocked. I almost killed myself
when I put my first pond in.
I think that the preformed ponds for first timers are very easy.
I also really like the frog water spitters.
I do not like the preformed waterfalls though.
I agree with the mention of seating around the pond. I have 2 ponds and the one
that's raised with a bench seat around it gets way more attention and the fish
eat out of my hands. The other pond that is not raised does not get as much
attention and the fish are not as friendly.
Hope this helps.