I've been searching this forum for months as I am going to build my first pond. Over the course of the last year, I've evolved from thinking about hiring someone to build the pond, to being pretty confident I can do it myself (all thanks to this forum!!).
I live in south Jersey and work full-time so the pond would be constructed on the weekends and in the evenings. My plan is to dig a 7 ft. wide by 14 ft. long, side yard pond. Now here is the question....I am building this pond mostly for my 2 labs to cool off in and was wondering if it would still be ok to post the construction on here since it is definitely not for Koi? I might put a few feeder goldfish in but that depends on how my dogs act in the pond.
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I wanted to be sure I construct it correctly so it can stay fairly clean. My plan is to start the pond at about 1 1/2' ft.-1 3/4 ft. deep with steps on one side and a skimmer on the other side of the shallow end. I'd gradually take the pond to about 2 foot at the opposite end and have a bog acting as a waterfall back into the pond. There would be a bottom drain in the middle of the deeper 1/3 of the pond and the 2 ft. sides would slope down toward a deeper area of 2 1/2 ft. where the bottom drain will be located. The entire pond would then be sloping toward that drain.
The bottom drain along with the skimmer would go to a Settlement Chamber, next to Birdman's sand and gravel filter, then to a bog that drops the water back into the pond at the deeper end. It is very sandy soil here so some kind of retaining wall will also be required. Was thinking 3 courses of concrete block all the way around mortared together with rebar knocked down into the sand every so often. I am a woman and am well into my 50's so I can't see me mixing concrete...I think those days are over for me, LOL!! Maybe pre-mix? What do you think? A footer would also be an issue so was thinking about laying the block down large square (16"??), flat concrete pavers and mortaring the fist row of block to that for more stability. The rows of blocks with the rebar in them would be filled. Any opinions on that setup would be greatly appreciated.