My pond

[s1chris]

Howdy, just a quick post to show my pond. Built by my fair hands and approx 6000 litres. It he water stays crystal clear thanks to an allpondsoloutions all in one pump/filter/UV. No flora other than two water iris. Lightly stocked with six Israeli Koi.

cheers Chris

 

[Dan Crawford]

Nice work, Chris! I bet those Israeli Koi are lovely

do you have any photoif of the build?

 

[Gary Nelson]

Really nice that! I am hopping to self build a pond this summer (if we get a summer) did you use railway sleepers?

 

[s1chris]

Hello all, thanks for the kind comments. believe it or not it took me and my usual mate I rope in for any DIY five hours to build on a saturday.
Dead simple build, we built a frame using treated 2x3 and simply clad the outside with decking from Wicks (usually on offer for multiple purchase) And matches the decking out the back of the house. Once built I used allpondsoloutions underlay and liner ( bargins from ebay) then used the same decking on top to trap and cap the Liner.
The koi are all happy and the water stays absolutely crystal, which is a first for any pond ive had. Just glad I gave Israeli koi another chance as the colours, body shape and patterns have improved massively over the years and to be honest I would challenge anybody to tell the difference between these and Japanese.
I would say all in including fish and all equipment it cost no more than £200. Just worth mentioning is that I had to choose a raised pond as I have a 4 year old who no doubt would have been swimming in it if it was a sunken pond.

Cheers Chris

 

[Ady34]

Hi Chris,
nice pond, love the decking/raised pond solution to kids!..... i did pretty much exactly the same thing a few years ago now. I used a black plastic laguna pre formed pond, free standing though rather than a liner, 6' x 3' x 2' deep. I cut out a portion of my existing decking, seated some paving slabs to stand it on and constructed a frame of 4 x 4" wood, met posted into the ground. I then insulated the sides with polystyrene sheets, covered in black visqueen so you couldnt see the white polystyrene and then then screwed decking to it. I made a seperate filter chamber in the same way on the side to put in a laguna pressurisd uv filter much the same as yours.
Its a great way af enjoying an outdoor water feature when you have young kids, although now they are a little older they do try to climb onto the sides!
Ours just houses 7 fish, just goldfish and shubunkins as i thought koi would soon outgrow it and need rehoming. The heron has been down twice this year, once just recently but i think with the sheer sides it cant get in to catch the fish.....hopefully!
Heres my oldest doing a bit of topping up this summer:

Cheerio,
Ady.

 

[s1chris]

Hello Ady, Your ponds really good and i like the way you have the filter return set up. It looks like you nippers having fun as well.

What plants have you got in yours as i fancy a change from the two Iris i have in the corners. They are dead easy to remove as well as i made a type of hanging mesh plant pot on wires which attaches to hooks inside the frame work. Makes removing them for winter easy and also gives the fish somwhere to hide under in the summer.

The only other thing i have done to mine is to put a black net over the top which attaches by hooks to the inside of the capping. That way its not visibly hanging over the top of the woodwork but also adds protection from Herons. I just take it off on nice summer days or if we have friends around for BBQ's etc.

The plan for me this year is to do the same as you have and extend the decking upto and around the pond. Lets hope that Wickes get the decking on multibuy again soon.

Cheers Chris