Having had a pond of around 2,500-3000 Gallons the customer wanted to take it to the next level with a big formal pond.
The new pond was going to be much larger than the original, about 6 times bigger!
Once we had the original pond dismantled we could see the space we had to work with and started to get an idea of size that the pond would be.
Then the digging commenced!
We removed 190+ tonnes of clay from this garden to build the pond. As the pond requirements were to be 6ft deep and only 12-18" out the ground there was a lot to remove. The digger was very much on its limit as we couldn't get a bigger one in the garden.
Once we had the dig completed it was time to set the 4 bottom drains and pipework. Then came the concrete. A solid 8" concrete base was pumped in and finished smooth and level giving us a great foundation to build off. 16m cube of concrete all in and smoothed off in around 1.5 hours.
Blockwork was then started. We used around 700 blocks to build the pond alone. H blocks all back filled with 16mm reinforcing bar and concrete. This was no easy task! Around 6 tonnes of concrete went into the walls alone.
Pipework and skimmers into the walls was next. Once these were in place the pond was then fibreglassed and we could get on with the filtration area.
Another 4 tonne of concrete went into the filter base and blocked up and finished to tie into the pond walls. Then came the fun bit of piping everything in! Filtration wise was a Combi unit the customers had from their old set up and a big drum and bio set up.
Then it was onto the final stages of the build. The brickwork and copings were complete along with power and water supplies being connected up. Then it was a case of getting it filling up! If memory serves me well it was around 4-5 days of filling until it was brimmed full.
2 bakki showers were installed on two of the return lines. The return line from the bio ran through a Duratech heat pump returning underwater as well as two more underwater returns at opposite ends of the pond. Auto top up and a large dechlorination unit were installed to replace water that the drums were using to clean.
The customer had fish in their previous pond which were kept in a large swimming pool whilst the works were being carried out. After the system was complete and had been running for a short while we made sure the temps were the same and moved over all the mature K1 media into the combi. We could then introduce the fish to their new surroundings and with mature media the system had a head start. Happy in their new home all that was left to do was the filtration area cover. The client was taking this task on themselves and have made a great job of it.
Full pond spec:
- 15,000 Gallons
- 4 x bottom drains 2 x skimmer lines
- QK65 Drum
- QK450 Bio
- Combi drum
- 3 x 16,000 Evolution Aqua Pro Pumps
- 1 x 15,000 Vario EA pump
- 2 x Bakki showers
- Duratech 10+ Air Source Heat Pump
- 2 x Evolution Aqua air pumps
- 40w and 80w UV submersible
- 220kg BHM shower media
- 600l K1
- Turn over of around 1.25 hours
- 40+ koi upto 75cm
