a poor mans pond...

[sumthingfishy]

from what i'm hearing, i lucked out... can't believe how much a pond costs...
mine only cost a little over $2000

i built this pond by hand all by myself(nobody at all helped me in any part of this pond)(the bulk of the hole, i used a back hoe i borrowed from work over the 4th of july weekend in 2004 and never used a backhoe before)
never did any kind of construction...
all done with:
a wheel barrel
pick axe
shovel, flat and spade
couble of straight levels
string level
string
rake
plus i had no clue to what i was doing... i just wanted a pond. finally bought a house and got started. (house needs work, but i got the ich to build a pond)

costs:
ultraguard liner 20mil 35'x50'@$.36sqft $630

fiber underlayment $324

freight shipped to nearest warehouse $156

sump pump, 3500gph 2"in/outlet around $400 + $20month

filter/skimmer, $399+tx (what a rip-off)

all plumbing, electical wiring, outlets, etc. less than $100

$2009:WTF:
---------------------------------------- ----
things i didn't pay for:
back hoe, to dig the bulk of hole

concrete truck, to speed up water filling(i drive a concrete truck)

boulders (i have NO boulders any where on my property or surrounding properties)

tri-axle dump truck, to haul boulders

loader, to load dump truck

van, to pick up liner/underlayment

my countless hours

sweat

blood

back

personal live(aah who am i kidding? i have no personal live...
---------------------------------------- ----
the 'almost' completed pond. summer of 2007. ***33' long 23' wide 6' deep*** and according to pondmarket.com 34000gal adjusted for ledges 30000gal. i had no idea.

this is from july 2004 to feb. 07
updated: it's a little deeper since adding the simmer(have measured yet)

it's in picture form
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyHkXoh1Wco

does anybody like???

 

[Nic]

how about some pics??

 

[Mystus Redtail]

Nice, did you post pics up already? I think I remember seeing some, but there's a lot of pics on here...

Must feel good to be near the end of the project.

 

[bearsher]

wow! you did a good job!

 

[NilePufferFanatic]

Very nice. When you think about it, you paid very little per gallon overall. I am looking at about $1040 for a 210gallon tank including everything DIY from scratch. If I made a 30k gallon at this cost it would be $150K.

 

[Ross3]

You might to add a DB (bottom drain) to that set up. It will do you more good than harms.

 

[Devol]

That is sweet. Bought a house last year, needs work... My itch is for a pond too. Priorities, man. Thanks for some ideas. Beautiful job.

 

[MrPonder]

so, how is your maintenence on this pond? with no bottom drain how do you keep it clean? also is it just liner on bottom? or rocks? curious why you did not want/do bottom drain? i really like your pond

i dont have one either so really just curious


doug

 

[sumthingfishy]

so, how is your maintenence on this pond? with no bottom drain how do you keep it clean? also is it just liner on bottom? or rocks? curious why you did not want/do bottom drain? i really like your pond

like i said, i didn't know what i was doing... that's probably 1 of the reason i have an algae problem. i just thought you put a hole in the ground and fill it with water... if i can go back i'd put one in...

just liner on bottom. once i can see the bottom, i'll put rocks(i think)
i'll try getting some pix together and posting them...

 

[sumthingfishy]

outlined with stone and cut and removed sod

dug with backhoe

leveled with string and line level

raked out the dirt to form steps