Building a 10,000-13,000gallon pond

Number one rule please dont post anything untill the last post says DONE.ok thankyou.

ok well this is the first year of construction, I hope to hace it finished next year and befor you ask its sofar costed me about $8000 give or take a grand.

Befor i begin I'am 21 years old and i dont spell well and i dont hide this fact so im sorry.
Ok here are some pics taken last year durring the planning stages. and im am verry lucky to be living where i do because i have the biggest oddly shaped lot there is in my naboughood. and thats not grass its trimmed weeds and the reason for the pond is A) my live for all fish and B) its imposable to cut the weed so any shed if grass must go.










this house is about 8yeas old and we had to cut the hill down to make room for whats going to be the shop/garage, the pond is going to be behind it where the dirt ball is now.

ok here are some shots of the property, you can tell which ones are a year old and which ones are current by the tree sizes.

me looking over the site, to the right you can see the wees have been scrapped down and the weed proof liner set and the holes dug.


this is a pic of the front yard the pillers where made from stuckoed sonotubed reinforced concreet there will be wrot iron in-between them.




here is a pic of the garden infront of the house from the house looking out onto the street this is what the wrot irn will look like on the hill. compleat with a fountain(on sale from homedepot for $150)





here are the two pumps i got they are 7500gallons per hour 1HP pumps, i got two just for fun eaven though i will only need one I got a good deal on them too each was about $300 off of ebay (brent661 he is a good man, if you need a pump ask him first)
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and here is a shot from obove from about late march, that redish car is mine i just got it in that pic, the silver one was mine but i sold it, that was a nice car.


more pic to come...

here is the hill taken back further and the dranage ditch, bah who need permits., you can realy see the clay and shail that will explane the heavy equipment,BTW this was about 20 truck loads of dirt(clay and rocks, and this hill is a engeneered hill ment as a sound barrier for the train on the other side that i never here.)



here is a view of the waterfall, dont let it fool you the drop off is 6 feet tall, and its about 20-30' long, this took about 2 days or chipping with a picks, and shovles, about 300 wheel barral loads and a crap load of blisters later, on the right you can see the 4"pipes and the ditch we(my brother and I) dug through the SOLID ROCK for the pipes



here is a pic of the filter basin, its NOW after widening and depening 4'X5'X6'deep, and this is only the filter...(that pipe is 8'long)



and the down view of the waterfall and the site along with my dads lovly 1950's boat.lol.it floats



this is a close up of the steps at 2AM when we finished, and it leveled, linged with soft dirt and each step is about 3-4' wide.(I got granite emrold blue-green flag-stone to cover it.)




this is a down shot of the edge of the pond with where the concreet poarch will be and the shed my brother and i built(desing stolen from rona, )



and here is a shot of the fron poarch being pored(going to be inclosed with glass and pressed concreet.)


more to come...

this is me on the first day of the dig, we rented a miniexcavator, and it was too small at 200 a day we had no choice but to keep it for two days.



and a wide angle view of the sight, the limestone piles are for the top of the hill, after the first day my brother and i tood turns wheelbarowing the entire backyard full. i had to drive the miniex. on top of the pile twice to het it higher and we ended up with a pile of dirt 9'tall by 40'long and thats only for the waterfall, its all clay and rocks and shale.



this is the liner and felt underlayment in the back of my dads pickup, the best 1500 i spent. 500lb by the way.



And this is the real backup a nice size back ho and out contractor playing with the little peice of crap.



this is him spreading the limestone onto the hill, its going to be covered by cedar mulch later on, its only for stability and weed controle.



this is a view at night with the led's we installe don the fence, its house siding stood up to provide a white fence.

BACKUP NU-FEES, man the can sling a wheel barrow this is saterday two days after digging started.



And this is the real backup a nice size back ho and out contractor playing with the little peice of crap.
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this is him spreading the limestone onto the hill, its going to be covered by cedar mulch later on, its only for stability and weed controle.
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all i can say is NINE FOOT TALL LADDER, 3-4 feet below the water line and 6 above thats, big, the fourm beside it is for the stairs, infront of the stais in a straight line will be a back pourch and in between that and the drivewat will be a you guessed it. A F@#$ING HUGE SHOP that can house 5-6 cars.
it dosent look almost 5 feet deep dose it, its the clay without shadows its hard to see it.
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this is a side shot of the length of the pond and the scale if it all, the concreet sofa looking this is (presently, pics comming) a pressed concreet sitting area with colums and a roof comming.
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this is at the edge of the pond on looking the groomed second teir of the patio
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finished plumbing for the water outlet
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and the finished inlet (at the back and the finished outlet at the front) keep in mind that this is going to be inside the shop, in the furthest back corner
btw the 5" tube is for a barrier against shifting in the foundation.
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ok i couldnt wait plus i wanted to see how the camera works at night.
this is the front pourch finished the current encloced one will be torn down and expanded with colums and large frosted glass inbetween colums. the edges are finished, the middle will be tiled so its not stamped.
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well this is the faterfall, concreet, 20"thisk with loads of rebar reinforcements.
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more comming

this is the compleated "sofa like resting area" there is going to be a curved brigge going from one side to the other, allowing some shade for the fish a a nice accent peice ok imagine Four pillard going straight up suppirting a roof, thats what its going to look like.



and some finished day shots of the stairs and the waterfall area. compleat with some juniper bushed and other plants, and cedar multch.




and the funny part is that in my neabourhood i have the biggest plat of land, heres everyone elses land. ha. tiny. easy to care for managable land, that must take them like 10 min, to cut the grass, not like it used to take mo like an hour. wsit do i envy them or pitty them. ok im confused.

OK DONE FOR NOW

put the liner up, and got to work:

My shipment of rocks for the waterfallarrived, i decided to play it safe and go with granite, i got emrald blue. its like a blueish greenish gray colour, i got about 4 tons of it 4000KG not 4000lb. my brother and i got about 3/4 the way up and it A) got a bit too cold to work and 2) i got a bit tired running up and down the steps with 30-100lb back and forth 200 times and C) we ran out of bigger peices. it looks realy good so far i will have pics soon.

BTW. looks like plan A and B are out the window as far as the face of the waterfall is concerned, originaly i was going to go for a patterned concreet or a cultured rock sealed and starting about 4"-6" from the surface of the water. now i see this is im posable, i will have to go with a patterned brick like effect using rock and mortor, i sure hope i dont have to use granite for that too. you have no idea how expensive this stuff is.

ALSO the reason i used granite(you could also use marble) is because its a totaly stable stome it wont seep or relice its minerals into the water, i have to use so much over such a span, if i used some kind of limestone the acidity in the pond would get to a dangerous level quickly, I also thought of using sandstone infortunetly the sone is poures and contains alot to iron, cobalt, copper and everyother thing that would kill my fish although its alot cheaper and comes in bigger chunks. also it would erode qiucky with 1400gph flowing over it and i might have ro replace it in a couple of years. food for thought if your doing a waterfall like mine.

if anyone has any ideas for the waterfall fase I'm all ears.

OK this is going to be it for now, all i have is some pis of the stones covering the waterfall rivein thing, and the rest will be don next year. if you have acces to some nice rocks you dont hant, i live in mississauga ontario, let me know...

thanks i hope i inspired you to start your own project.