Decided I Needed a Pond

[wlecount]

Well I've always had a bit of a thing for fish and now that my wife and I have our own place I couldn't wait to get to digging a pond. Of course I couldn't just settle with a simple little pond, but instead I just started digging. My brother got an amazing deal on some OASE pond supplies last year and he owes me for some work I did for him, so I'm pretty confident I'll have the filtration for relatively cheap. My uncle also sells Firestone liners, so he should be able to help me out. I live in Indiana so I know that I had to go somewhat deep to give my soon to be fish a chance at life during the winter.

Thankfully I didn't run into much clay while digging, but soon after I took these pictures I did start to run into some clay at the 3' mark and I'm shooting for 4' at the deepest point. Currently the pond is about 22' long and 10' at the widest. The deep end will be about 4' and the shallower end around 2'. I plan to line the entire edge with a sandstone from southern Indiana and use some larger pieces to create a outcropping/waterfall just to the side of the air conditioner and then hide the air conditioner behind a basic rock wall.

Other than that I really haven't exactly done the planning that I probably should have done. As long as the sides don't cave in I think I shouldn't have any issues with the design. Also the pond has another 2+ hours of digging that are not shown in the pictures.

 

[Jkessler623]

nice man..keep the updates comin!

 

[mauricio yearwood]

Looks good

 

[Muske]

I like the shape. Are you planning on using a skimmer?
If so, I would move the falls a little to the left (in pic.1) of the AC. Ideally, the falls would be directly across from the skimmer for optimum circulation. What is the gph on the pump your bro has?

 

[wlecount]

I like the shape. Are you planning on using a skimmer?
If so, I would move the falls a little to the left (in pic.1) of the AC. Ideally, the falls would be directly across from the skimmer for optimum circulation. What is the gph on the pump your bro has?

If I take from what my brother has I will be using:
Pump - OASE Aquamax 3500
Filter - OASE Filtoclear 4000
UV - OASE Bitron 18 or 24

He also has a solar fountain, bubbler, and a waterfall pump. I'm pushing my luck by trying to get the first three things so I'll take what I can get. At the time we didn't know it, but he managed to get about $4000 of OASE products for $700 because the store was moving to a different brand. A steal if you ask me.

I 've cleaned up the edges of the pond, but rain and no bobcat to move my pile of dirt has slowed me down. I'm hoping to get the area around the pond cleaned up so I can really get a feel for where I'm going. I also have quite of bit on leveling the edges as the edge nearest the A/C is about 8" higher than the opposite side.I figure I'll just dig that edge lower and put my falls into it.

***No skimmer planned right now, I'm already pushing my budget, but I might just go with one of the OASE floating skimmer or atleast leave a spot on the edge where I can easily put a larger one in.

 

[Muske]

Push for the pump...

You can build your own filter and the UV isn't necessary, although it could be hide under the deck pretty easily.

 

[wlecount]

Got some more digging done, but I'm still waiting on the bobcat to clear all the excess of from the sides so I can really get a feel for where I stand. Pond is just under 3' deep on the big end, although I really wanted 4' I just don't feel safe making the edges and steeper/straighter. Still not sure on the accessories, but I'm more than confident I will be able to make everything come together. Once I get the final pond outline done and the hole itself cleaned up, I will get the liner because I still really don't know how large the thing is or will be. You can see on the side by the A/C that I had to dig down about 10" to get a somewhat level edge. The water line will be about 2-3" below the grass on the lowest side and I will set rocks down into the water on the edge I created. Not much else, just wanted to toss some pictures out.

 

[Gearhead]

Finally! Another pond builder in indy! Keep up the updates and hurry up and get it filled.

 

[D-WALT]

thats going to look great! keep up on the updates.. and the pink flops are pimpin.

 

[RedTailKinG]

looks good so far keep up the good work