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Pond in planning stages
Hi All,
After lurking on this group for a few months and a lot of research elsewhere I am almost ready to finalize the plans for our pond. We will most likely be using pond liner due to the area to be covered and the fact that it won't be completely square or rectangular. The structure will be decking panels. I will probably need to put a grid in short-term because of my 4 year old daughter. We are planning to keep fish in here - hubbie wants Koi but this is still up for debate. The pond is going to be raised around 2-3 foot above ground level. I was wondering if we need to dig below the surface at all as well? The problem is that our soakaway runs around six inches below where the end of the pond is going to be. Of course there is the possibility to dig deeper at the other end of where the pond is planned for. Any thoughts on this would be helpful - especially on the need to dig and if yes how deep? Thanks Gill |
#2
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"Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message .. . Any thoughts on this would be helpful - especially on the need to dig and if yes how deep? ================== If it deep freezes where you live you would need some kind of heater to keep an area unfrozen - or dig below the frost line. As you know the fish will not survive being frozen solid. -- McKoi.... the frugal ponder... EVERYONE: "Please check people's headers for forgeries before flushing." :-) ~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o |
#3
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DUH! On Sun, 15 May 2005 15:34:51 -0500, "Reel McKoi" of mumbled something to the effect of: ===If it deep freezes where you live you would need some kind of heater to keep ===an area unfrozen - or dig below the frost line. As you know the fish will ===not survive being frozen solid. Give the folks a break. I am sure they are well aware most fish would not take kindly to being encased in a block of ice...........And you did not answer the question either. YOu can get my with most any depth, but deeper is better in the colder climes, as you can take advantage of warmer ground temps and if you install a stock tank heater you can get my with even shallower depths. Don't take it for granted if the frost level is only 2 feet your safe at 3 feet......odds are it will bite you one day. A lot of folks have kept fish in the cold climes at depths of 3 feet or less with the use of a heater in the pond, or with a shelter over the pond with a bit of heat inside.......Personally I would make it as deep as I could, and if it turns out its not quite deep enough add a heat source, or move fish indoors during winter season as a lot also do. ============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked! ~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o |
#4
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"~Roy~" wrote in message ... DUH! On Sun, 15 May 2005 15:34:51 -0500, "Reel McKoi" of mumbled something to the effect of: ===If it deep freezes where you live you would need some kind of heater to keep ===an area unfrozen - or dig below the frost line. As you know the fish will ===not survive being frozen solid. Give the folks a break. I am sure they are well aware most fish would not take kindly to being encased in a block of ice...........And you did not answer the question either. YOu can get my with most any depth, but deeper is better in the colder climes, as you can take advantage of warmer ground temps and if you install a stock tank heater you can get my with even shallower depths. Don't take it for granted if the frost level is only 2 feet your safe at 3 feet......odds are it will bite you one day. A lot of folks have kept fish in the cold climes at depths of 3 feet or less with the use of a heater in the pond, or with a shelter over the pond with a bit of heat inside.......Personally I would make it as deep as I could, and if it turns out its not quite deep enough add a heat source, or move fish indoors during winter season as a lot also do. ============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked! ~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o Moving the fish indoors is not an option - we are already over-run with tropical tanks - 6 at the last count and more planned he, he....a heater is a good option and one I have already thought of.... Our winters vary....this year was very mild down here but not in the rest of the UK where there was a big freeze. When I had a pond before I saw a good 2-3 inches of ice - used a football to provide air. Maybe if I dig down an extra couple of feet where I can without going into the soakaway this might provide additional sanctuary for the fish - and have the bulk of it 2-3 feet with a heater - what do you think? Thanks Gill |
#5
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"Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message .. . Moving the fish indoors is not an option - we are already over-run with tropical tanks - 6 at the last count and more planned he, he....a heater is a good option and one I have already thought of.... ## And that should work. Since my propagation pools outdoors are on the surface I drop an inexpensive heater in each one. It floats through a block of Styrofoam. The fish spend the winter under these dangling heaters. Even the cheap aquarium ones work and last for years. :-) Our winters vary....this year was very mild down here but not in the rest of the UK where there was a big freeze. When I had a pond before I saw a good 2-3 inches of ice - used a football to provide air. Maybe if I dig down an extra couple of feet where I can without going into the soakaway this might provide additional sanctuary for the fish - and have the bulk of it 2-3 feet with a heater - what do you think? ## That should work. You also need to keep a hole in the ice for air/gas exchange. My heaters usually keep a small hole open - but then the pools are only 150 gallons each. My bigger ponds (800 and 2000 gallons) don't usually freeze over in winter. If they do it's only for a day or so. A small cheap pump keeps an opening in the ice. -- McKoi.... the frugal ponder... EVERYONE: "Please check people's headers for forgeries before flushing." :-) ~~~ }((((o ~~~ }{{{{o ~~~ }(((((o |
#6
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Gill
What part of the country are you in? Folks routinely get by with ponds of 2 1/2 to 3 feet deep up in Rhode Island and Pennnsylvania during winter months, and not all of them use a heater, but do maintain an opening in the ice. A simple air pump will work in most cases to keep a hole in the ice........but an external temporary shelter made out of PVC pipe framework covered in plastic sheeting does a lot of good as well. It doe snot matter if your pond is 4 feet deep and it only freezes to 3 feet the fish will still be ok..............with or without a heater. Running a heater is not cheap....... ============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked! ~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o |
#7
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~Roy~ wrote:
Gill What part of the country are you in? Folks routinely get by with ponds of 2 1/2 to 3 feet deep up in Rhode Island and Pennnsylvania during winter months, and not all of them use a heater, but do maintain an opening in the ice. A simple air pump will work in most cases to keep a hole in the ice........but an external temporary shelter made out of PVC pipe framework covered in plastic sheeting does a lot of good as well. It doe snot matter if your pond is 4 feet deep and it only freezes to 3 feet the fish will still be ok..............with or without a heater. Running a heater is not cheap....... ============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked! ~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o I assume we are talking 2.5 to 3 feet below ground. |
#8
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"~Roy~" wrote in message ... Gill What part of the country are you in? Folks routinely get by with ponds of 2 1/2 to 3 feet deep up in Rhode Island and Pennnsylvania during winter months, and not all of them use a heater, but do maintain an opening in the ice. A simple air pump will work in most cases to keep a hole in the ice........but an external temporary shelter made out of PVC pipe framework covered in plastic sheeting does a lot of good as well. It doe snot matter if your pond is 4 feet deep and it only freezes to 3 feet the fish will still be ok..............with or without a heater. Running a heater is not cheap....... ============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked! ~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o I'm in the South East of England...I have seen frost freeze at least 18 inches of stagnent water (in a wheelbarrow). Plus I had a pond here once that was around 30inches and the ice didn't seem to kill the fish - the location did :-( ....under trees - a lesson hard learnt that has put me off for a good 5 years from trying again...this time I think we have the location right... Running a heater is not a cheap option but when we already run 6 on the tropicals I guess one more won't hurt.....I did the ball thing the first year of my original pond and it seemed to work.... If I get coerced, (which seems quite likely) into the Koi, from what I've read they would actually appreciate the extra depth....what do you think? BTW if I gardened naked the colour I would go is blue - LOL Gill |
#9
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"Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message .. . Hi All, After lurking on this group for a few months and a lot of research elsewhere I am almost ready to finalize the plans for our pond. We will most likely be using pond liner due to the area to be covered and the fact that it won't be completely square or rectangular. The structure will be decking panels. I will probably need to put a grid in short-term because of my 4 year old daughter. We are planning to keep fish in here - hubbie wants Koi but this is still up for debate. The pond is going to be raised around 2-3 foot above ground level. I was wondering if we need to dig below the surface at all as well? The problem is that our soakaway runs around six inches below where the end of the pond is going to be. Of course there is the possibility to dig deeper at the other end of where the pond is planned for. Any thoughts on this would be helpful - especially on the need to dig and if yes how deep? Thanks Gill I gather a soakaway is a sprinkler system? You should be able to combine all of your ideas to make this work. 1) Dig down a bit where you can. 2) Insulate the above ground part. You could use the dirt from the hole. 3) Cover (insulate) the top in winter. Since you're building this into a deck, it should be fairly simple. 4) Your heater only needs to keep the water around 39°F. This will keep your electric bills down. I only needed a 300W heater to keep my 500 gallon pond heated in the wilds of Canada. The heater only ran an hour or so a day. |
#10
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"Bill Stock" wrote in message ... "Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message .. . Hi All, After lurking on this group for a few months and a lot of research elsewhere I am almost ready to finalize the plans for our pond. We will most likely be using pond liner due to the area to be covered and the fact that it won't be completely square or rectangular. The structure will be decking panels. I will probably need to put a grid in short-term because of my 4 year old daughter. We are planning to keep fish in here - hubbie wants Koi but this is still up for debate. The pond is going to be raised around 2-3 foot above ground level. I was wondering if we need to dig below the surface at all as well? The problem is that our soakaway runs around six inches below where the end of the pond is going to be. Of course there is the possibility to dig deeper at the other end of where the pond is planned for. Any thoughts on this would be helpful - especially on the need to dig and if yes how deep? Thanks Gill I gather a soakaway is a sprinkler system? You should be able to combine all of your ideas to make this work. 1) Dig down a bit where you can. 2) Insulate the above ground part. You could use the dirt from the hole. 3) Cover (insulate) the top in winter. Since you're building this into a deck, it should be fairly simple. 4) Your heater only needs to keep the water around 39°F. This will keep your electric bills down. I only needed a 300W heater to keep my 500 gallon pond heated in the wilds of Canada. The heater only ran an hour or so a day. The soakaway is a very, very solid bit of clay piping that takes the water via downpipes from the roof away from the foundations of the house....it then trickles through a lot of rubble into the soil....very common in England. The pond will be above the deck level but actually covering it in winter shouldn't be too much of an issue..... I guess if we are going for Koi (and I'm not totally convinced as I have 6 tanks in the house to maintain) the deeper the better.... But really what you are saying is that if we do a decent depth and consider a heater digging should not be too much of an issue? Gill |
#11
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"Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message .. . "~Roy~" wrote in message ... DUH! On Sun, 15 May 2005 15:34:51 -0500, "Reel McKoi" of mumbled something to the effect of: ===If it deep freezes where you live you would need some kind of heater to keep ===an area unfrozen - or dig below the frost line. As you know the fish will ===not survive being frozen solid. Give the folks a break. I am sure they are well aware most fish would not take kindly to being encased in a block of ice...........And you did not answer the question either. YOu can get my with most any depth, but deeper is better in the colder climes, as you can take advantage of warmer ground temps and if you install a stock tank heater you can get my with even shallower depths. Don't take it for granted if the frost level is only 2 feet your safe at 3 feet......odds are it will bite you one day. A lot of folks have kept fish in the cold climes at depths of 3 feet or less with the use of a heater in the pond, or with a shelter over the pond with a bit of heat inside.......Personally I would make it as deep as I could, and if it turns out its not quite deep enough add a heat source, or move fish indoors during winter season as a lot also do. ============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked! ~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o Moving the fish indoors is not an option - we are already over-run with tropical tanks - 6 at the last count and more planned he, he....a heater is a good option and one I have already thought of.... Our winters vary....this year was very mild down here but not in the rest of the UK where there was a big freeze. When I had a pond before I saw a good 2-3 inches of ice - used a football to provide air. Maybe if I dig down an extra couple of feet where I can without going into the soakaway this might provide additional sanctuary for the fish - and have the bulk of it 2-3 feet with a heater - what do you think? Thanks Gill You can contact your local university (a geology department) and find out how deep the frostline is (the depth at which the soil will freeze over the winter) in your area, then you should dig at least 5-6 inches to a foot below (deeper is even better) to make sure that your pond will not freeze solid during a hard winter. The frostline here is at 22 inches, so the deepest part of my pond 27"deep (but it is also 18 inches aboveground - surrounded and structural held by 6 inch x 6 inch timbers, so the total depth is 45 inches). I also use an aerator in the winter and keep my waterfall going as long as possible. When the water gets around 40 F, I keep the aewrator going, turn off the waterfall, and I use start to use a pond deicer, which works very well in keeping the worst of the ice off the surface of the pond. If you decide on raising Koi (they get large, but are a joy to raise), the aerator will be very important in the winter, especially if you turn off any circulation you may have. Koi get much larger than goldfish, and have a higher oxygen demand. Also, if you raise Koi, you really should have a filtration system. It doesn't have to be expensive, it just has to work, and preferably be easy to maintain. I hope this helps, and feel free to come back and ask more questions (and do ignore the trolls). Good luck. |
#12
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For the part of the pond that is above ground, it would be a good idea to
use a styrofoam or similar insulation board to help the pond retain as much heat as possible. Do not insulate under the bottom, as heat will come up through the soil to help keep the pond critters at about 4C, 40F. The exposed sides will carry heat away quicker than a submerged pond, but insulated, it should be doable. -- RichToyBox http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html "Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message .. . Hi All, After lurking on this group for a few months and a lot of research elsewhere I am almost ready to finalize the plans for our pond. We will most likely be using pond liner due to the area to be covered and the fact that it won't be completely square or rectangular. The structure will be decking panels. I will probably need to put a grid in short-term because of my 4 year old daughter. We are planning to keep fish in here - hubbie wants Koi but this is still up for debate. The pond is going to be raised around 2-3 foot above ground level. I was wondering if we need to dig below the surface at all as well? The problem is that our soakaway runs around six inches below where the end of the pond is going to be. Of course there is the possibility to dig deeper at the other end of where the pond is planned for. Any thoughts on this would be helpful - especially on the need to dig and if yes how deep? Thanks Gill |
#13
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"Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message .. . "~Roy~" wrote in message ... Gill What part of the country are you in? Folks routinely get by with ponds of 2 1/2 to 3 feet deep up in Rhode Island and Pennnsylvania during winter months, and not all of them use a heater, but do maintain an opening in the ice. A simple air pump will work in most cases to keep a hole in the ice........but an external temporary shelter made out of PVC pipe framework covered in plastic sheeting does a lot of good as well. It doe snot matter if your pond is 4 feet deep and it only freezes to 3 feet the fish will still be ok..............with or without a heater. Running a heater is not cheap....... ============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked! ~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o I'm in the South East of England...I have seen frost freeze at least 18 inches of stagnent water (in a wheelbarrow). Plus I had a pond here once that was around 30inches and the ice didn't seem to kill the fish - the location did :-( ....under trees - a lesson hard learnt that has put me off for a good 5 years from trying again...this time I think we have the location right... Running a heater is not a cheap option but when we already run 6 on the tropicals I guess one more won't hurt.....I did the ball thing the first year of my original pond and it seemed to work.... If I get coerced, (which seems quite likely) into the Koi, from what I've read they would actually appreciate the extra depth....what do you think? BTW if I gardened naked the colour I would go is blue - LOL Gill Why should having your pond under your trees kill your fish? Are they poisonous? Did they fall into the pond? Of course, you will get debris falling off them, and leaves in the fall, but you can always pull it out. Regular maintenance should take care of that problem. In fact, having to regularly remove debris from the pond has actually made me a better ponder, since I pay more attention to details. My pond is located partially under a neighbors' large pin oak tree (it partially grows over the fenceline and shades the part of my property where the pond is located). I have actually found it to be beneficial for the pond since it provides shade for the entire morning, so that the only time the pond is in direct sunlight (all day sun is will usually help create a real algae monster) is in the afternoon. By evening, the sun is on the other side of the house, so the pond goes back in shade. As for Koi, as I said in another post, Koi are wonderful, but can be destructive of plants when they get large. But they are a lot of fun to raise. I've raised several large species (I also have a 10 lbs albino channel catfish in the pond), and I have yet to find a large fish that I like raising better than the Koi (well, I am partial to the one big cat - he does have quite a personality). But Koi truly are remarkable fish. Here is an small movie (in .mov format) of my pond from last year: http://home.insightbb.com/~jryates/catfish_eating.MOV |
#14
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"George" wrote in message news:MmQhe.80298$r53.16454@attbi_s21... "Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message .. . "~Roy~" wrote in message ... DUH! On Sun, 15 May 2005 15:34:51 -0500, "Reel McKoi" of mumbled something to the effect of: ===If it deep freezes where you live you would need some kind of heater to keep ===an area unfrozen - or dig below the frost line. As you know the fish will ===not survive being frozen solid. Give the folks a break. I am sure they are well aware most fish would not take kindly to being encased in a block of ice...........And you did not answer the question either. YOu can get my with most any depth, but deeper is better in the colder climes, as you can take advantage of warmer ground temps and if you install a stock tank heater you can get my with even shallower depths. Don't take it for granted if the frost level is only 2 feet your safe at 3 feet......odds are it will bite you one day. A lot of folks have kept fish in the cold climes at depths of 3 feet or less with the use of a heater in the pond, or with a shelter over the pond with a bit of heat inside.......Personally I would make it as deep as I could, and if it turns out its not quite deep enough add a heat source, or move fish indoors during winter season as a lot also do. ============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked! ~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o Moving the fish indoors is not an option - we are already over-run with tropical tanks - 6 at the last count and more planned he, he....a heater is a good option and one I have already thought of.... Our winters vary....this year was very mild down here but not in the rest of the UK where there was a big freeze. When I had a pond before I saw a good 2-3 inches of ice - used a football to provide air. Maybe if I dig down an extra couple of feet where I can without going into the soakaway this might provide additional sanctuary for the fish - and have the bulk of it 2-3 feet with a heater - what do you think? Thanks Gill You can contact your local university (a geology department) and find out how deep the frostline is (the depth at which the soil will freeze over the winter) in your area, then you should dig at least 5-6 inches to a foot below (deeper is even better) to make sure that your pond will not freeze solid during a hard winter. The frostline here is at 22 inches, so the deepest part of my pond 27"deep (but it is also 18 inches aboveground - surrounded and structural held by 6 inch x 6 inch timbers, so the total depth is 45 inches). I also use an aerator in the winter and keep my waterfall going as long as possible. When the water gets around 40 F, I keep the aewrator going, turn off the waterfall, and I use start to use a pond deicer, which works very well in keeping the worst of the ice off the surface of the pond. If you decide on raising Koi (they get large, but are a joy to raise), the aerator will be very important in the winter, especially if you turn off any circulation you may have. Koi get much larger than goldfish, and have a higher oxygen demand. Also, if you raise Koi, you really should have a filtration system. It doesn't have to be expensive, it just has to work, and preferably be easy to maintain. I hope this helps, and feel free to come back and ask more questions (and do ignore the trolls). Good luck. Thanks George, I will speak to the local Uni - my Mother works there...and btw it was this ng that taught me about killfiles - lol - have been monitoring for 3 months plus - learnt more than I ever wanted to about things I never wanted to think about....IMO the more "pond related" questions we all ask the better even if from beginners....lets flood it with fish questions.....but that is another topic.... I'm looking into filtration systems....at the moment I quite fancy the idea of including the filtration in an upper level which will eventually become a waterfall type of thing into the main pond....this will almost certainly need to be custom I think....on the majority of my large tropical tanks I have external filters with a variety of media which work very well and certainly external filtration is an option...but my thought is maybe I feed through this on the upper level, filter it there and then cascade the water down is an alternative.....now obviously the cascade will be central so on the other side I'm looking at heavily planting Gill |
#15
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"George" wrote in message news:gAQhe.80318$r53.12639@attbi_s21... "Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message .. . "~Roy~" wrote in message ... Gill What part of the country are you in? Folks routinely get by with ponds of 2 1/2 to 3 feet deep up in Rhode Island and Pennnsylvania during winter months, and not all of them use a heater, but do maintain an opening in the ice. A simple air pump will work in most cases to keep a hole in the ice........but an external temporary shelter made out of PVC pipe framework covered in plastic sheeting does a lot of good as well. It doe snot matter if your pond is 4 feet deep and it only freezes to 3 feet the fish will still be ok..............with or without a heater. Running a heater is not cheap....... ============================================== Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked! ~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o I'm in the South East of England...I have seen frost freeze at least 18 inches of stagnent water (in a wheelbarrow). Plus I had a pond here once that was around 30inches and the ice didn't seem to kill the fish - the location did :-( ....under trees - a lesson hard learnt that has put me off for a good 5 years from trying again...this time I think we have the location right... Running a heater is not a cheap option but when we already run 6 on the tropicals I guess one more won't hurt.....I did the ball thing the first year of my original pond and it seemed to work.... If I get coerced, (which seems quite likely) into the Koi, from what I've read they would actually appreciate the extra depth....what do you think? BTW if I gardened naked the colour I would go is blue - LOL Gill Why should having your pond under your trees kill your fish? Are they poisonous? Did they fall into the pond? Of course, you will get debris falling off them, and leaves in the fall, but you can always pull it out. Regular maintenance should take care of that problem. In fact, having to regularly remove debris from the pond has actually made me a better ponder, since I pay more attention to details. My pond is located partially under a neighbors' large pin oak tree (it partially grows over the fenceline and shades the part of my property where the pond is located). I have actually found it to be beneficial for the pond since it provides shade for the entire morning, so that the only time the pond is in direct sunlight (all day sun is will usually help create a real algae monster) is in the afternoon. By evening, the sun is on the other side of the house, so the pond goes back in shade. As for Koi, as I said in another post, Koi are wonderful, but can be destructive of plants when they get large. But they are a lot of fun to raise. I've raised several large species (I also have a 10 lbs albino channel catfish in the pond), and I have yet to find a large fish that I like raising better than the Koi (well, I am partial to the one big cat - he does have quite a personality). But Koi truly are remarkable fish. Here is an small movie (in .mov format) of my pond from last year: http://home.insightbb.com/~jryates/catfish_eating.MOV The trees in question are sycamores....I spend almost a daily battle identifying them and pulling them out of my garden right now....even over 150 feet from the source....When we had the pond up there I struggled pulling out the dead leaves 2-4 times a week from the pond til it became to dark for me to do this after work......never, ever again will I put a pond up there. I know, now, that I could have done a lot more....but if there are easier places in the garden to site a pond I'm all for it.....BTW that lawn needs to go in a few years...we all hate mowing....great place for a natural pond ......lol |
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