• Amused
  • Angry
  • Annoyed
  • Awesome
  • Bemused
  • Cocky
  • Cool
  • Crazy
  • Crying
  • Depressed
  • Down
  • Drunk
  • Embarrased
  • Enraged
  • Friendly
  • Geeky
  • Godly
  • Happy
  • Hateful
  • Hungry
  • Innocent
  • Meh
  • Piratey
  • Poorly
  • Sad
  • Secret
  • Shy
  • Sneaky
  • Tired
  • Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast
    Results 21 to 40 of 52

    Thread: Back to the pond....

    1. #21
      OBB is offline Member
      This user has no status.
       
      Feeling:
      ----
       
      Join Date
      Jun 2015
      Location
      RFD
      Posts
      33
      Hi... on my last pond... I had similar vertical loops on my old pond and those ones never seemed to give me headaches while running... Other than when coming out of winter mode, which was when I found placing back checks as far as below the waterline as possible were far more easier to prime, remove 1 clean-out cap, fill with hose & flip the switch and blow everything wide open on charge... During all season it never ever lost prime. Even when down for maintenance, whether it an hour, a day or seven days even, ever trapped air and never saw bubbles or foaming anywhere (or I never noticed anyway)... other than one time when my son, very young at the time, dropped a bottle of blowing-bubble soap in it once...

      And I do agree odd ups & downs for flow control but, the raised garden beds sort of dictates it so I'm kind of stuck doing that....

      I suppose my biggest "whats" on this one is whether to keep with 3" plumbing end to end or maybe scale it back and drop to 2" end to end (other than out of the BD)... This setup is so small compared to my last one and that was all on 1.5" pipe and that never had issues, but now with 10X the pipe run in length and going 2X the pipe Diameter...? And I'm sort of confused as I see many builds all plumbed in 3 or 4 inch pipe yet when it comes to building the SG they're running 2" and even a few plumbed with 1.5" . So it makes me wonder if I should be using 2" end to end or keep with 3" but if I have to reduce somewhere or anywhere then whats the point?.... And most of the pond examples/builds I look at are much larger than what I have going on here.... I understand the basic needs but in the same token I'm not trying to not to turn it into rocket science either...

      I do have one other spot I can try to slip in the pump that is extremely close to the pond & below waterline it might even be possible... I'll update the drawing and see if it's better or fits there...
      Last edited by OBB; 08-02-2015 at 08:39 AM. Reason: just because

      • Remove Ads
        Advertising from Google
        Promoting Koi and Pond
        keeping since 2007

         

    2. #22
      OBB is offline Member
      This user has no status.
       
      Feeling:
      ----
       
      Join Date
      Jun 2015
      Location
      RFD
      Posts
      33
      Nope... no way, no how... pump can only go where shown... anywhere I move the pump to be nearer to the pond places it smack dab under the stone block garden walls and maintenance would become absolutely impossible... and filing 6 feet of space inside the beds would sort of defeat their purpose, aesthetically anyway...

      If going with vertical risers are going to have major issues, I can understand easing their slope helping (I only quick drew them with the 90's). But I can't seem to see why they would fill with air once the system is flowing as it'll be moving water at a pretty good clip in both directions, shouldn't any air in the system move along & out with the flow?... What other options could anyone suggest to control flow? ...I can't bury them & I can't push them through a stone wall and popping them up through the patio would just be hideous looking... I suppose maybe I could dump the risers and instead put valves inside the pond itself... or simply skip all valves (other than a main & backcheck somewhere) and just let it all run wide open?


      Maybe I should just use the sump & bio falls and call it done... *facepalm*

    3. #23
      OBB is offline Member
      This user has no status.
       
      Feeling:
      ----
       
      Join Date
      Jun 2015
      Location
      RFD
      Posts
      33
      I think this may work... still not sure how to place the pump under a brick wall though... Any thoughts?

      Name:  simple plumb 1.jpg
Views: 577
Size:  41.9 KB

      Name:  simple plumb 2.jpg
Views: 571
Size:  29.8 KB

    4. #24
      icu2's Avatar
      icu2 is offline Administrator ~ WWKC President
      ~ WWKC Treasurer
      is sorry otters exist
       
      Feeling:
      Annoyed
       
      Join Date
      Feb 2007
      Location
      Poulsbo, WA
      Posts
      32,942
      I know your design is clear why you need to do what you're doing to you, but sometimes it's hard
      for some of us to understand it all!

      The last picture makes it more understandable I think... so the dark grey part is not an option to dig
      in, is that right?

      The great part about this forum is after you get everyone's advice.... you get to do it the way you want!
      --Steve



      Koiphen 2021 Koi Person of the Year!

    5. #25
      OBB is offline Member
      This user has no status.
       
      Feeling:
      ----
       
      Join Date
      Jun 2015
      Location
      RFD
      Posts
      33
      Yeah... the gray area is where the bedding planters all lay, just invisible in the drawing (you can reference the platers in an earlier pic Pg. 1)... the small open void in the gray area is excavated to finish the plumbing there on the one side and the intention was to back fill once everything was in place... But even if I build a box there still really won't be anywhere near enough space to place a pump... safe & soundly in my opinion anyway... no way no how...

      and once the plumbing is all in its place, around the back edge of the pond all there will be is a tiny course of pavers, 1-3/4"" wide, and then those butt up aginst the raised beds block which are 7" wide... So if I were to attempt a wet setup in that tiny open spot in the drawing the only way I could do it would be to put the pump directly beneath the block wall... I'm not so much worried about water below there but more the fact that I wouldn't be able to really vent it, let alone maintain it... Unless I made a section of the planter removable which would be pretty difficult.... And if I did it across a 4 course wall section that would be 30# per block X 18-20 blocks = alot of weight sitting on top of a crucial connection...

      Well either way for now I'm taking the 3" pvc back and using 2" pvc for the long runs now... so I can at least dive under the last section of patio left to put in... This has been fumbling me up all weekend and is making me pretty crazy right now...

      ...And yeah I understand about trying & understanding how people sometimes have a hard time perceiving one persons project to another etc... This too can also be frustrating as well...
      Last edited by OBB; 08-02-2015 at 03:24 PM. Reason: Because I'm an idiot... ?

    6. #26
      OBB is offline Member
      This user has no status.
       
      Feeling:
      ----
       
      Join Date
      Jun 2015
      Location
      RFD
      Posts
      33
      Well since I'm waiting for a larger dry block blade... Figured out the push/pull water flow... it's now going to be a full wet sup, vented and fully accessible... and got rid of 50' of pipe... will make the drawing reflect what I did and this ought to flow like it should... no more ups (other than what dives under the one small dive under the walk)....

      In the meantime... I couldn't resist just having .02 cents of inspiriation to spur me forward as well... Kind of wanted to see how huch noise the the bio falls would make as the last niagra falls setup I had, while it was enjoying it was quite loud... almost irritating at sometimes... And just on dry fit and the small water sheet dropping nearly 4' was totally reasonable... and once the bio falls & it's weir are buried in the the raised beds, pushing it back 3 feet and dropping it down 6-8 inches the actual drop will only be between 12 & 18 inches to the finished pond and should be even quieter... if any noise at all.... I am happy... and again I will update the drawing showing the major plumbing re-route... much simpler & far shorter & simpler design...

      Name:  pond running.jpg
Views: 542
Size:  104.6 KB

    7. #27
      OBB is offline Member
      This user has no status.
       
      Feeling:
      ----
       
      Join Date
      Jun 2015
      Location
      RFD
      Posts
      33
      Moooooooving right along... phase one complete all of the foundation is done... Let the how you make it all jive phase begins...! Which is ok... as it will take me a few weeks while everything settles down for a bit.

      *scratches head*

      So now how to lengthen the spillway... So many options... Stone Slab? Polished stainless clad 2-by? 1" lexani & LED back-lit... Maybe some crazy tiered stone cascade... Scratch that... , no cascades, I want the fall of the water dead quiet...

      So far the only criteria in my gray-matter is the wider the spill way the better. Maybe I'll get lucky and have it spill way drip to a shower tray... Ideas abound... Hmmmmm....

      Think I'll call around for some quotes on a drop-in liner as well tomorrow... Price & lead time will be the dictator of that... Please chime in... Especially if you know any liner shops located in N. Illinois or S. Wisconsin...

      Name:  DSC03267.jpg
Views: 490
Size:  88.0 KB

      Name:  DSC03265.jpg
Views: 494
Size:  101.2 KB

      Name:  DSC03257.jpg
Views: 490
Size:  106.0 KB
      Last edited by OBB; 08-13-2015 at 10:05 PM. Reason: Just because I can...

    8. #28
      OBB is offline Member
      This user has no status.
       
      Feeling:
      ----
       
      Join Date
      Jun 2015
      Location
      RFD
      Posts
      33
      Found someone on Craigslist selling 60mil EPDM less than 2 hours from me... He had piles of it all indoors, salvaged from tear-offs, turned out they were commercial roofers... Found a nice clean 30x30 Firestone 60mil chunk dated 3/13, brought it home, spent last weekend cleaning the entire thing off and found a perfect 14' X 16' chunk I needed right between all the seams and never glued on the anywhere...

      They only socked me a whopping $25 for the 30x30 chunk... Not a bad deal at all...

      So... Lined it & time to filler'up & let it water test for a week....

      Think I'll look around on CL for a nice piece of granite (or something) for a nice looking spillway.... while I let it sit......



      Name:  DSC03521.jpg
Views: 471
Size:  98.8 KB

      Name:  DSC03522.jpg
Views: 466
Size:  98.3 KB

    9. #29
      icu2's Avatar
      icu2 is offline Administrator ~ WWKC President
      ~ WWKC Treasurer
      is sorry otters exist
       
      Feeling:
      Annoyed
       
      Join Date
      Feb 2007
      Location
      Poulsbo, WA
      Posts
      32,942
      Great job on the liner. And wow, great price!
      So did you cut and glued the liner to fit it?

      It really came out nice.
      --Steve



      Koiphen 2021 Koi Person of the Year!

    10. #30
      OBB is offline Member
      This user has no status.
       
      Feeling:
      ----
       
      Join Date
      Jun 2015
      Location
      RFD
      Posts
      33
      Quote Originally Posted by icu2 View Post
      Great job on the liner. And wow, great price!
      So did you cut and glued the liner to fit it?

      It really came out nice.
      Thanks icu!

      The original intent was to glue all the vertical surfaces & box-weld all folds but to be honest? it layed in so nice & flat and I folded all the corners backwards facing and are totally undetectable (not to mention, how flat are ya going to make 60mil material anyway) tomorrow I going to just return the 5 gallon bucket of contact cement... as it is absolutely not going to be needed at all here.

      In case anyone in the Midwest is interested in some good used EPDM here is the person I got it from... At .10 cents a sq.ft? I know I didn't mind spending a weekend cleaning it off and saving $600 at all! He has miles of good used material! And he only charges you for the actual size piece you are wanting... All of the material that was leftover on mine I cut it into pices to fit the bottom and used it all as underlayment... the bottom is literally nearly 5/8" thick of rubber... LOL!

      http://madison.craigslist.org/mat/5149724462.html

      I still need to draw up and share here what I did in pre-plumbing to switch over to the B/D & S/G (next season) and all of it now hidden under the patio bricks... It came out pretty slick & simple...
      Last edited by OBB; 08-29-2015 at 10:37 AM.

      • Remove Ads
        Advertising from Google
        Promoting Koi and Pond
        keeping since 2007

         

    11. #31
      OBB is offline Member
      This user has no status.
       
      Feeling:
      ----
       
      Join Date
      Jun 2015
      Location
      RFD
      Posts
      33
      Made use of some more scrap epdm and a few other materials laying in the garage and made the spillway. Yeah, I know, it looks kinda ugly but in the end it won't be seen... When I finished it the plan was to head over to Menards to pick up a piece of what I thought would be cheap plexi to make the actual falls edge. And of course $67 for a 12x48x1/4"... No way... Got back and hit Craigslist, again... and low & behold someone 30 mins from me has used, acrylic sheet cutoffs, 26"x18"x1/2" for $10 each, so I picked up 2 pcs..

      Found an old boot tray in the garbage pile and cut it off and simply moving it around and trying straight & convex shaped and I can get it falling pretty nice & smooth but no matter how I shape the edge it keeps dripping behind the wall curtain

      So a question I have now is what is the best edge shape off the edge of the falls so that it won't drip behind the water curtain while falling over the edge...? Simple 90 degree edge face? mitered..? if mitered, sharp edge up or down..? ...chamfered lightly on both edges? Any advice on this?

      Name:  DSC03548.jpg
Views: 417
Size:  88.6 KB

    12. #32
      richtoybox's Avatar
      richtoybox is offline Administrator
      This user has no status.
       
      Feeling:
      Awesome
       
      Join Date
      Feb 2005
      Location
      Sandston, VA
      Posts
      14,345
      The method that is used on our bridges is called a drip bead, forces the drips to occur close to the edge, rather than running back along the bottom of the deck to the steel beams. The drip bead is a v notch near the edge on the bottom. When I had new counter top installed, I had a drip bead put in the Corian, to prevent spills from running back under the counter top. Best done with a router and a v bit.
      Zone 7 A/B
      Keep your words sweet. You never know when you may have to eat them.
      Richard

    13. #33
      OBB is offline Member
      This user has no status.
       
      Feeling:
      ----
       
      Join Date
      Jun 2015
      Location
      RFD
      Posts
      33
      Is there a general rule of thumb to keep the groove setback from the edge? Just one groove, would two or three even be better? ...or will width & GPH over the surface play into it ...or is it just kind of trial & error to find a sweet spot, I have 2 pieces here to mess with anyway.

    14. #34
      OBB is offline Member
      This user has no status.
       
      Feeling:
      ----
       
      Join Date
      Jun 2015
      Location
      RFD
      Posts
      33
      Well the cover came out pretty well, used some old western red cedar I salvaged from the deck rail that I replaced last year, just need to run them thru the planer sometime next week & then stain it all to match the deck. The falls came out real well too, a full 3 feet wide perfectly smooth curtain of water... and makes nearly any noise what so ever, so really happy about that... So other than a little sanding & staining I guess it time to focus the work back to the raised garden beds... only another 196 30 pound blocks to go..! ... And a little welding.

      Name:  DSC03659.jpg
Views: 340
Size:  135.6 KB

      Name:  DSC03672.jpg
Views: 338
Size:  105.8 KB

      Found these $2 solar rope lights in the clearance bin 3 years ago, guess I finally have a use for them. : )
      Name:  DSC03700.jpg
Views: 337
Size:  88.6 KB

      ...So far, Tiki seems to approve the addition of the never ending water dish. : )

      Name:  DSC03687.jpg
Views: 330
Size:  88.0 KB
      Last edited by OBB; 09-08-2015 at 05:58 PM.

    15. #35
      houstonderk's Avatar
      houstonderk is offline Senior Member
      This user has no status.
       
      Feeling:
      ----
       
      Join Date
      Jan 2014
      Location
      clinton, md
      Posts
      565
      Looks really nice.

    16. #36
      icu2's Avatar
      icu2 is offline Administrator ~ WWKC President
      ~ WWKC Treasurer
      is sorry otters exist
       
      Feeling:
      Annoyed
       
      Join Date
      Feb 2007
      Location
      Poulsbo, WA
      Posts
      32,942
      That came out great! Nicely done!
      --Steve



      Koiphen 2021 Koi Person of the Year!

    17. #37
      OBB is offline Member
      This user has no status.
       
      Feeling:
      ----
       
      Join Date
      Jun 2015
      Location
      RFD
      Posts
      33
      Been awhile... Aint been sleeping on the pond... Just been insanely busy...

      The brunt of the blocks done, glued, plumbed & leveled, came out GREAT!... nothing left but the 2 small short ends that I need to do the miter cuts to finish fit them & glue, 10 bricks (I think)... and then I'll quickly glue some tar paper on the insides, weld in the 3/8" rebar struts that along the tops that will oppose each vertical wall, just to keep anything from ever tipping or leaning (they're in there, you just can't see em). And then shovel the 5 yards of dirt into them! (god yes, I'm hiring out for this)

      And today I decided to finally build the filter insert for the waterfall weir... only piece left to made will to be cut a chunk from an old 3'x3' fiberglass shower pan I found off CL for $20 to make a separator between the biologic lower and force it through the upper for the fines... will be getting some better fine materials later this summer... just thought I would start cheap on the filter medias to just get it going... and really tired of looking at green & brown water in it... Can't wait!

      Haven't decided whether I'm going to use Lava in the lower or use bio-balls... or maybe a mix... will need to wait & see how 'weighted' it is once the pump begins pushing into it.

      (and yeah don't cringe on whats going on so far... the end game is to still use barrel filtration, though scaled back to 3, 30 gallon drums... The plumbing & electric is all in place and waiting on that eventual pushout... probably next year)

      So, in pretty short order... I might have to go find some plants soon and then some native turtles... Right after I fill the planter boxes with 5 yards of pulverized... now sitting on the driveway tarped over & seriously pissing of the neighbors. : )















      Either way... more updates to come, that's for sure... LOL

    18. #38
      OBB is offline Member
      This user has no status.
       
      Feeling:
      ----
       
      Join Date
      Jun 2015
      Location
      RFD
      Posts
      33
      Not green anymore! Three days, 50% water change each day & cleaned the filter head 3 times and WOW! can see thought it again! Much, much much much, much better!




    19. #39
      icu2's Avatar
      icu2 is offline Administrator ~ WWKC President
      ~ WWKC Treasurer
      is sorry otters exist
       
      Feeling:
      Annoyed
       
      Join Date
      Feb 2007
      Location
      Poulsbo, WA
      Posts
      32,942
      Looks great!
      --Steve



      Koiphen 2021 Koi Person of the Year!

    20. #40
      OBB is offline Member
      This user has no status.
       
      Feeling:
      ----
       
      Join Date
      Jun 2015
      Location
      RFD
      Posts
      33
      Its been awhile but it was a productive summer none the less...

      The raised planter beds are complete. Added some 1/2" reabar around the entire perimeter & then welded struts to their opposing walls so this thing is never going anywhere other than down. And then lined all the inner of the planters with 30#felt, filled it to the top with clean pulverized & the main plants are now all planted... A friend of mine owns St. Aubin Nurseries here in N. IL. and wow he set me up! Purple Hibiscus behind the falls & flanked the falls with weeping Juniper and out of view are Tiger eye sumacs at the planter ends... Should be beautiful come next year and they all come out of shock.

      All of the underground electric is pulled, connected & running...
      Though is currently simply wired with a double male extension cord until I actually tie into the breaker box, the wire is right at the box but I have a recording studio downstairs that I just began building out & waiting until that wiring is complete and then I'll call the electrician to install the pair of breakers in the box in one call. I like doing electrical work but I will never touch anything inside the main box ever again in my life. I had a bad experience in a live loaded box once, lesson learned. So when the studio rough electric is run my electrician only has to make one trip to complete those connections for me.

      The filter that I made seems to be working great so far, but just ignore the green water, when I filled the raised planter beds with clean pulverized black dirt a few weeks ago? Three hours after planting everything we had a 6" gully washer... and guess where about a yard all washed into.. LOL so letting it do its thing until I close it down for this year (next year, this pond will run year round and will be easier to maintain as I won't have 12 projects going on at one time so I'll have more time to focus on cleaning rather than building all of this)

      And once all of the pond & patio stuff was more or less done this year? At the end I realized that I I still had 500+ Sq Ft of pavers & wall block so.... I decided to pull out my sidewalk and replace it with them so now the stone all matches from front entrance going through to the patio.. and came out quite nice...

      About the only piece I need to finish before the snow flies this year is where I opened up the deck rail so you can step right into the patio... Made the railings for the steps so just need to build the one swept step going down and remove the temporary step...














      • Remove Ads
        Advertising from Google
        Promoting Koi and Pond
        keeping since 2007

         

    Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast

    Posting Permissions

    • You may not post new threads
    • You may not post replies
    • You may not post attachments
    • You may not edit your posts
    •