Finished Pond Renovation

[dweav44]

This is my third thread to post about this pond. The first two were for planning and questions. I am a landscaper in Memphis, TN and have had experience with water features, but this was my first attempt at building a true koi pond. I most certaintly couldn't have done it without this forum and the great people on here that love koi. Thank you all who have given advice and encouragement.

The pond is finished with the exception of plants and those should be done by the end of October. My only regret is that I didn't take enough pictures to show in detail each step as many of the experienced people on this site do. I'll try to do better next time on that.

Below you will see what the old layout was. It comprised of a lower pond which was filtered by a bog that was about 1' higher in elevation. The water would flow over a 5' wide weir into the lower pond. The lower pond was about 2 1/2' deep with 1 skimmer and a waterfall that was fed by a submersible pump.

Some Changes - turn the bog into a pond, make both ponds 5 1/2' - 6' deep, put 5 skimmers in lower pond, put 4 bottom drains in lower pond and 2 in upper, install returns, use nexus filter system, renovate waterfall, make weir from upper to lower pond wider.

I will add pictures and stories (good and bad ) as time rolls on.

[Ellie]

Very pretty country you got there! Will the other ponds be filled?

[dweav44]

Ellie, above are the pictures of the old setup. I will be showing the renovation of the ponds that are in those pictures. Sorry if I didn't explain well enough at the beginning.

Daniel

[dweav44]

After draining the bog, removing about 3 yards of pea gravel, and pulling up the liner it was time to dig. We took this pond from 2 1/2' to 5 1/2' deep. It was my first time installing pipe for a project like this and it was tough at first. I am using 2 koi toilets and 7 returns(3 are returned from the nexus filters and the other 4 are from the lower pond that will feed the falls from upper to lower pond) After fighting with the rigid pipe for the returns I finally decided to use flex pvc.(not pictured) I found that I wasn't as confident in the bond of flex pvc with rigid as I was with rigid to rigid, but no problems yet! I was glad to have the plumbing of the upper pond finished!

Next: the concrete collar.

[kdmatrix]

Looking good...

...After fighting with the rigid pipe for the returns I finally decided to use flex pvc.(not pictured)

You can use weed burner to bend the rigid pvc pipes....

[dweav44]

To sure up the walls around the upper pond we were advised to pour a concrete collar. We also poured the foundation for the new weir. I wasn't expecting concrete to be such hard work. We rented a concrete buggy to haul the concrete from the truck in the front of the house to the back. Highly recommended!! Some more advice for the first timers like myself - it is better to have too many supports for your concrete forms than have your forms give way. Also, have the concrete a little more wet than normal so you will have plenty of time to work with it. That's all for now.

[rctfan2]

Man that is going to be a super awesome pond when its renovated

[dweav44]

After taking down all of the concrete forms it was time for underlayment and liner. I made sure to have enough liner. I don't have any pictures of the holes being cut into the liner for the BDs or the returns, but I was sweating bullets. Everything turned out fine thanks to Kent's pl roof and flashing adhesive. Until next time.

DW

[Dwight]

Wait .....I just got past the idea of a landscaper learning how to build a proper koi pond .............

Anyway it's looking good !

[vipldy]

That is real pretty Love the back where plants will go

Marie

[majederr]

Thia is in pa?

[dweav44]

Majederr -

Memphis, TN

[dweav44]

After completing the upper pond it was time to get started on the lower pond. After moving 6 albino catfish up to the completed pond we drained the lower pond and had a serious cleanup of sludge just to get to the liner. After removing the liner we found 3 inches of concrete that needed to be busted out because we were going deeper. It was my first time to use a 90lb jackhammer and it was a workout. It went into the concrete fairly easily; it was the getting it back out that was tough.

With the concrete busted up in 3' x 5' sections it was time for the fun. The skid removed the concrete rather easily. I moved into the hole forward and backed out with the load. I tried to turn around one time and got stuck. It was quite soupy under the concrete in low areas. I was a male with a BIG machine- I could do anything.....right? The skid did most of the digging and we used shovels to get the finish grade.

[Nightstorm]

Very nice. Can't get enough construction photos.

One question - have you considered removing that one large tree on the left (as per pictures) of the lower pond? My experience is that trees like that don't ususally live very long when half of their root system is covered. I don't know how long the original pond was there - if its been there for years then that tree may have developed its roots in the other direction as it grew from a sapling, so it will be OK. Although even then, a huge tree right up against an expensive new pond that has an uneven root system... Personally, I'd consider removing that one.

[dweav44]

Nightstorm - Good eye! We ended up taking out the tree for those exact reasons. The tree was also not allowing us to create a smooth edge for the pond. It's outa there!!

Thanks.

[dweav44]

It was time once again to build forms for a concrete collar. I at least knew what I was getting myself into now that I've completed one collar(upper pond). Not really... this pond was twice the collar length and it also had areas that needed extra lap board to smooth out the wall. This was the form that we didn't have enough supports for and as we poured the concrete it pushed out the bottom. We quickly made more supports an fixed the problem before it was too late.

The other pictures are showing how we installed the skimmers. YES we concreted them in. I'm not sure that was the best, but we weren't planning on moving them any time soon. We were going to try to pour all at once, but we couldn't get the skimmer to line up flush with the form because of the form's curve. So we poured the collars and left space for the skimmer to be installed later. i guess if we have to move the skimmers we can bust up the concrete around the skimmer without disrupting the rest of the collar. We have a total of 5 skimmers in the lower pond. You can see our methods of installation of the skimmers in pictures 4 - 8.

[Dwight]

Five skimmers ????? Why so many ?

[dweav44]

Dwight - there are several reasons for five skimmers. The big one being that the ponds are directly under quite a few trees and the ponds catch alot of debris. There were several areas that were notorious for stagnant surface water and these skimmers take care of that. I'm also using three of the skimmers to feed the upper pond about 12,000gal./hr for the overflow from upper to lower. As they stand the skimmers have to be cleaned daily to keep up with the trash and we aren't even in Fall yet. Nets are ordered. Thanks for the question. What surface area will a skimmer with a 8.5" weir handle?

[dweav44]

These next pictures show the plumbing for the lower pond. We installed four 4" koitoilets with air, seven returns, and one midlevel pickup for the stand alone water fall. The filter pit was to be tucked away so it wouldn't be visible from the pond area. We ended up putting it around the other side of the pool house which put it about 150' away. Wow...a big trench and alot of damage!! The filter system is gravity fed and so far so good.

[davecais]

Looking good...

You can use weed burner to bend the rigid pvc pipes....

Also, they make extra deep couplers for flex PVC. Kent sells them and so does flexpvc.com (http://www.flexpvc.com/cart/agora.cg...ouples-Unusual they are at the bottom) but I would get them from Kent. I only like using flex for very short lengths where things either just aren't lining up correctly or space is too tight. I tend to use 16th turns and/or heat and bend. Be careful with the heating as it is easy to get the pipe seriously out of round.