Topic: pond enlargement questions

[tricia]

The enlarged pond will be for goldfish and any wildlife that likes to make it their home.

I've dug out to a depth of 70cm for most of the pond and would like to hear from anyone who has made their own pond if it would be a good idea to leave one third at say 60cm. I was thinking of my poor back!

Also, is it better to have vertical or slightly sloping sides? One end is sloping quite steeply up to a small beach area. On the two longest sides I've left ledges for plants in pots. The far ledge is about 8" down from the edge of the pond and 12" wide. The near side is about 9" wide and about 6" down. The pond is only about 4 metres from my patio doors, so I want to have the taller plants at the far side.

This afternoon I have a friend coming who will get the cable housing tunnelled under 140cm of patio paving so that I no longer have cables snaking across the paving.

Any advice will be more than welcome - in fact I need it!!

Many thanks in advance.

Tricia

[Deleted]

Would suggest sloping ans stepped (as you've done, I think). As for depth, the dpper the better. 70cm if you can (60 is minimum). How big is it overall?

[tricia]

Thanks Dawn for your response.

The pond will have a width of 1m 85cm, (73") including the ledges and 3m 25cm (128") long, including a beach area at one end of about 2 feet squarish.  The filter - a new Fishmate Powerclenz will be partially sunk behind a waterfall at the other end. It was delivered yesterday, along with a new Blagdon amphibious pump - which proved to have a broken housing and will have to be replaced! :(

I think I'll go along with the stepped idea, since you agree with me, which means 2/3rds will be about 70cm  and 1/3 about 60cm deep. The fish should love it as the small preformed pond I've removed was only 45cm deep!

The poor dears will have to make do with their temporary home for a bit longer than I had originally planned. The work is going rather slower than I hoped.

Any ideas on how to get rid of a mountain of surplus soil?

Regards

Tricia

[Anthony]

Hi Tricia,

Having been through a similiar experience to yourself recently i.e. Upsizing from a relatively small set of ponds to a much larger one) I'm well versed in all the questions/problems/thoughts you are having.  I think everybody has there own ideas on how they would like things to look/ be done and it sounds like you are well on your way.

As far as depth is concerned then .6m is ideal for keeping goldfish, and as you mentioned this does not need to be a uniform depth.  Mine ranges from approx .75 to 1.25m with a couple of planting shelves like your own.  In really cold weather the fish will go to the deeper part where the temp should never vary from around 5 degrees.  The only problem with ponds of a variable depth is that calculating volume is often quite difficult.  (remember if you ever need to treat the pond you will need to know the approx volume to be able to treat accurately)  Probably the best way to work out volume in an irregular shaped/depth pond is to time how long it takes for your hosepipe to fill a bucket to a certain level e.g. 10 litres - If it is 1 minute then you know that your hosepipe will deliver 10 litres per minute (600 per hour) If it then takes 5 hours to fill your pond you know it will be 3000 litres.

Always make sure you treat your tapwater before putting any wildlife into it - Chlorine/Floride present in tapwater is harmfull to fish and can kill them.  Most good internet based aquatics sites will stock treatment products.  I used "Waterlife" It might also be worth transferring some of the water from where the fish are now into the new pond.  You can use your pump for this! - This will not only help reduce stress to the fish but will also help the water become established more quickly.

Hope some of this helped.

Tony.

p.s. Sounds like it is going to be brilliant, you must post a picture.

[Deleted]

Hi Tricia,

Sounds good to me! As for surplus soil - I make a raised woodland/'rockery' style bed with some of mine, behind the pond. Although some just had to go elsewhere as it was so poor (builders were next door to me at the time, and made use of it).

Getting mine dug was a nightmare i never want to live through again! There had been no pond previously, so I was going from scratch. As soon as we dug part of it, we had heavy (and i mean REALLY heavy) rain. The soil underneath was solid clay (heavy going!!) so it just filled up with water. We had to Bail out all the water before we could carry on and this happened 3 times!!!

Look forward to seeing a pic.

Dawn