My new pond setup

[Bertie07]

I am building a half raised pond in my garden and wanted to start a thread to show my progress. It will be about 500 gallons as that’s the biggest I can go in the space that I have. It’s a L shaped pond with the small part of the L being a shallow area for plants and wildlife like frogs, the bigger part will be a deep end for the fish, I have not decided completely on the stocking but I will be moving over my 5 gold fish from my other pond. I thought about a group of weather loaches in there but don’t know how they would handle the winter, I live in the uk. I have only done the framework for the raised part so far but it gives you and idea of the size. I wanted to know if it was strong enough, there are braces on each corner and lots of screws. The hole pond depth will be about 2.5-3 feet so it will go about 2 feet in the ground and the frame work will be above ground so it should be 3 feet. Let me know what you think.

 

[Itsadeepbluesea]

I look forward to seeing your progress!

 

[davemal]

Looks good hope all goes well

 

[davemal]

If you want to keep weather loaches try insulating the pond heavily. Kingspan or polystyrene in before the liner, then in the winter get some polycarb off an old conservatory or something to cover the top. This will stop the pond from freezing.

 

[Bertie07]

I have put the frame in and started to dig the down, the liner should come tomorrow so hopefully I can have it up and running by then. I just had a question on stocking, would dojo loaches work with the goldfish all year round and what other fish could I put in, I would like a centrepiece fish for it but not a big goldfish. It will only be about 300-350 gallons now as I couldn’t dig down to far because of pipes and wires. Any suggestions??

 

[Bertie07]

If you want to keep weather loaches try insulating the pond heavily. Kingspan or polystyrene in before the liner, then in the winter get some polycarb off an old conservatory or something to cover the top. This will stop the pond from freezing.

I can make sure the pond doesn’t freeze over but won’t the polystyrene just break down over time, some people say that you should provide a thick layer of sand or mud for the loaches to burrow down in to stay warm. Would this work

 

[davemal]

sand and mud can smell as it goes stagnant. Does polystyrene break down … I put it under concreate floors its meant to last forever. Winter time I like to cover my pond so it does not freeze, I live in Wales so same winters. My new pond will be insulated as much as possible, also my filters will all be kept in a heated shed so it will warm the pond a bit so I hope I can keep stuff that wont survive here.

 

[davemal]

If you cant dig down raise it up more a 3ft depth will help you a lot. Fish for a center piece are hard to chose what about crusian carp ? I have made a pond that size for my twins I want to stock it with stickle backs or fathead minnows.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

You might be able to add paradise fish as well

 

[Bertie07]

I like the crucian carp and I’ll try and get some polystyrene for the pond