Well it took along time to finally get some water into it, but my ray is in her new home.
I want to share with all of you the good things and the bad things that I did with the project. All in all, I leaned a heck of a lot of stuff about building a pond.
The concept for the entire idea was to keep it bright and looking sharp. My wife really did not want an eye sore in the house. I wanted to hide all of the plumping and not have any wires hanging around over the side of the tank.
The first thing I bought was the Glass. I did not feel comfortable building the frames so I got the local glass shop to do it. That was a big waste of money, because they built them wrong. I also paid for them entirely upfront which was not the smartest thing either, because they had no insentive to finish it. it took 3 times longer than they said. I had not time to send them back and get them redone
The glass was ordered first so I could build the frame around the glass. I used 3/4 inch plywood cut into 6" strips as the verticles so I could drill a 2" hole for the pipe to go through the walls. I did this because contrary to belief engineered wood is much stronger than dimensional wood.
the walls had to be perfectly flat and could not flex. I was using tile and it is unforgiving with flex.
after the walls were done the local tile shop said to use the orange kerdi mat to waterproof it. This was a big waste of money because the way the bulk head was set up. The bulk head only sealed on the front side of the tile and the kerdi mat was behind the tile this caused my system to leak at the hole in the wall that was drilled for the bulk head.
When the tile went on I used epoxy grout. I was told that this would never let water through, which is fine. it was not really that bad to work with like I was told by many people.
A break down in the tile system for holding the water was the corners between the floor and the wall. as the water filled the tank the floor sunk a hair, but the epoxy grout has zero flex so it cracked letting the water out through the bulkhead area
At this time I was starting up school again so I really started to rush the project which did not help fixing the leak. I drained the water and siliconed the corners. should have done this to start, but I got over confident in my design.
the silicon did not bond to the grout lines (along the floor) that were perpendicular to the walls as the pressure build up the system broke down and leaked again.
at this point I took some time because I was rushing too much. I was working and going to school at the same time.
I did some research on the internet and found "west system epoxy" it is wonderful but expensive product. I bought 2 gallons and put 7 coats over my tile. besure to go with the clear hardener so the tile patern does not get covered up. I expected this product to really stink up the house so I had the mask all set up. The product did not really smell at all. Just use a roller and follow the directions.
I have four lights behind little peices of glass at the bottom of the pond. I did not think they would light it up very well, but the lights really surprised me. it looks fantastic in the dark.
Something I would add if I did it again: I would put another bulk head at the bottom of the pond and a snorkle from outside the pond to feed wires through. as lond as the snorkle is above the height of the pond it will not leak water. this could be used for additional lights and airator hose. it is a nice way to keep the sides of the pond clean from clutter.
The pond is insulated with R22 to limit heat loss.
Filtration and Heating
I have an inline bag filter with a 10 micron bag. any advice about what type of bag to use would be appriciated.
I chose the 2000 ultra for 3 reasons:
Size. it was rated for double what my pond/tank is. my pond is 1000 gallons and the bio filter is rated for 2000 gallons.
The 4000 Ultra is huge. my wife said for this project that she did not want an eye swore in the basement. I am going to put a mini bar with a fride and a sink alone the wall of the filter. so the filter has to fit under the counter.
Pump. I wanted a quiet pump. so I got a two stage pump that runs pretty quiet. I still want to look at insulating it. if I would have went with the 4000 ultra I would have needed a bigger pump to push through the bio media.
Heater
I used a 1.5 Kw inline bath/hot tub heater. The heater has a built in aquastat and pressure switch. the pressure switch I did not know about when I bought it but am very happy to have it. it is designed to stop heating when the pump is not running. a nice safty feature. the aqua stat a this point is keeping my system at a steady 81 degrees F while outside it is -25 celcius.
An external aquastat is ready to be wired when my friend gets back into town on tuesday. he is an electrician and I don't want to overload the circut board by wireing it wrong.
there is a probe that sits into the two inch line infront of the heater leading into the fishpond. the heaters power will connect to the aquastat and from there the aquastat connects to the main power. the aqua stat is rated good to 1 degree.
This is a preventative messure for the not so accurate for the aqua stat built into the heater.
I tried to find info on the boards but people just recommended wand heaters and I think wand heaters are super ugly. the pond was designed to not have wires hanging over the sides. Not to mention wand heaters are not very efficient.
I still have to finish the outside of the pond. I am going to do it in cultured stone. most likely rundle ledge. it will go on the wall above the fishpond and on the ouside of the pond. I also have to put on the doors that gove over the lights.
I want to share with all of you the good things and the bad things that I did with the project. All in all, I leaned a heck of a lot of stuff about building a pond.
The concept for the entire idea was to keep it bright and looking sharp. My wife really did not want an eye sore in the house. I wanted to hide all of the plumping and not have any wires hanging around over the side of the tank.
The first thing I bought was the Glass. I did not feel comfortable building the frames so I got the local glass shop to do it. That was a big waste of money, because they built them wrong. I also paid for them entirely upfront which was not the smartest thing either, because they had no insentive to finish it. it took 3 times longer than they said. I had not time to send them back and get them redone
The glass was ordered first so I could build the frame around the glass. I used 3/4 inch plywood cut into 6" strips as the verticles so I could drill a 2" hole for the pipe to go through the walls. I did this because contrary to belief engineered wood is much stronger than dimensional wood.
the walls had to be perfectly flat and could not flex. I was using tile and it is unforgiving with flex.
after the walls were done the local tile shop said to use the orange kerdi mat to waterproof it. This was a big waste of money because the way the bulk head was set up. The bulk head only sealed on the front side of the tile and the kerdi mat was behind the tile this caused my system to leak at the hole in the wall that was drilled for the bulk head.
When the tile went on I used epoxy grout. I was told that this would never let water through, which is fine. it was not really that bad to work with like I was told by many people.
A break down in the tile system for holding the water was the corners between the floor and the wall. as the water filled the tank the floor sunk a hair, but the epoxy grout has zero flex so it cracked letting the water out through the bulkhead area
At this time I was starting up school again so I really started to rush the project which did not help fixing the leak. I drained the water and siliconed the corners. should have done this to start, but I got over confident in my design.
the silicon did not bond to the grout lines (along the floor) that were perpendicular to the walls as the pressure build up the system broke down and leaked again.
at this point I took some time because I was rushing too much. I was working and going to school at the same time.
I did some research on the internet and found "west system epoxy" it is wonderful but expensive product. I bought 2 gallons and put 7 coats over my tile. besure to go with the clear hardener so the tile patern does not get covered up. I expected this product to really stink up the house so I had the mask all set up. The product did not really smell at all. Just use a roller and follow the directions.
I have four lights behind little peices of glass at the bottom of the pond. I did not think they would light it up very well, but the lights really surprised me. it looks fantastic in the dark.
Something I would add if I did it again: I would put another bulk head at the bottom of the pond and a snorkle from outside the pond to feed wires through. as lond as the snorkle is above the height of the pond it will not leak water. this could be used for additional lights and airator hose. it is a nice way to keep the sides of the pond clean from clutter.
The pond is insulated with R22 to limit heat loss.
Filtration and Heating
I have an inline bag filter with a 10 micron bag. any advice about what type of bag to use would be appriciated.
I chose the 2000 ultra for 3 reasons:
Size. it was rated for double what my pond/tank is. my pond is 1000 gallons and the bio filter is rated for 2000 gallons.
The 4000 Ultra is huge. my wife said for this project that she did not want an eye swore in the basement. I am going to put a mini bar with a fride and a sink alone the wall of the filter. so the filter has to fit under the counter.
Pump. I wanted a quiet pump. so I got a two stage pump that runs pretty quiet. I still want to look at insulating it. if I would have went with the 4000 ultra I would have needed a bigger pump to push through the bio media.
Heater
I used a 1.5 Kw inline bath/hot tub heater. The heater has a built in aquastat and pressure switch. the pressure switch I did not know about when I bought it but am very happy to have it. it is designed to stop heating when the pump is not running. a nice safty feature. the aqua stat a this point is keeping my system at a steady 81 degrees F while outside it is -25 celcius.
An external aquastat is ready to be wired when my friend gets back into town on tuesday. he is an electrician and I don't want to overload the circut board by wireing it wrong.
there is a probe that sits into the two inch line infront of the heater leading into the fishpond. the heaters power will connect to the aquastat and from there the aquastat connects to the main power. the aqua stat is rated good to 1 degree.
This is a preventative messure for the not so accurate for the aqua stat built into the heater.
I tried to find info on the boards but people just recommended wand heaters and I think wand heaters are super ugly. the pond was designed to not have wires hanging over the sides. Not to mention wand heaters are not very efficient.
I still have to finish the outside of the pond. I am going to do it in cultured stone. most likely rundle ledge. it will go on the wall above the fishpond and on the ouside of the pond. I also have to put on the doors that gove over the lights.
