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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

POND BUILD ADVISE

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30 Apr 2010 08:01 - 30 Apr 2010 08:06 #1 by lampeye (lampeye)
POND BUILD ADVISE was created by lampeye (lampeye)
Hi everyone,
Im planning a raised pond out my back, and need some advise. The size will be around 2.5m x 1.5m x depth? . the depth will either be 60cm or closer to 3 foot. the plan is to pour a concrete base, then build the pond using solid concrete blocks (flat). Then render the inside and paint
with liquid liner / fibre glass stuff. The outside of the pond will be 70cm above ground level but it may be 100m deep on the inside.

will this be strong enough? are there any rules like aquarium building....ie if the tank is x high you need glass thats x mm thick?
Flitration. in pond/outside pond/ bottom drain???? I want to keep fish and some plants. if i go for the deeper pond maybe some koi.
Ive done some googling but havent found any local info really so i was hoping there might be some experienced pond keepers out there.
Thanks in advance.

heres a rough design in google sketch up:

File Attachment:


File Attachment:
lampeye
Last edit: 30 Apr 2010 08:06 by lampeye (lampeye).

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30 Apr 2010 09:27 #2 by mossy (gavin blanchfield)
Replied by mossy (gavin blanchfield) on topic Re:POND BUILD ADVISE
sounds to me you know what u are doin
tha blocks on the flat will be more than strong enough
when you are rendering the inside make sure you put waterproofer in the mix
you can get it in alot of aquarium shops
the deeper the pond the better as our winters are gettin alot colder
try put in a bottom drain as it will be very handy when you go to drain the pond
you could try an under gravel filter(works the same way as in a tank)and a external uv filter
if the under gravel works well for you and you dont like looking at box filter you could take it away
sketch looks great
best of luck mate

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30 Apr 2010 09:40 #3 by JohnH (John)
Replied by JohnH (John) on topic Re:POND BUILD ADVISE
I once built a pond in a similar manner as this but where I lived at the time the ground was a little prone to moving (only minimally) but it was enough that the 'movenent' of the blocks was enough to crack the concrete between them and also the surface rendering. I was constantly re-rendering this and eventually took out the whole lot, replaced the blocks 'inside out', lined the whole lot with polystyrene sheeting and then heavy gauge polythene sheeting...this lasted a couple of years but then the sheeting started to deteriorate above water level so eventually had to be replaced by pukka pond lining material - which was good for the remainder of the lifetime of the pond.

Several years after that I visited a friend's to see his pond - which was built in the way you plan yours but it was fully 'rendered' internally with fibreglass - expensive initially, but dead sound.

All his filtration was housed in a shed behind the pond, the whole set up was very impressive too.

John
Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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03 May 2010 09:57 #4 by lampeye (lampeye)
Replied by lampeye (lampeye) on topic Re:POND BUILD ADVISE
Thanks lads, ive contacted DUB_DAVE and he's kindly offered me to visit his pond and get some info on filration etc.
im now thinking of making it 2ft deep instead of 3. i havre a 3 year old and at least in the unlikely event she fell in she could standup in 2 ft.
it will make consruction easier too, but im sure the fish would prefer the extra foot. decisions decisions!!
im thinking bottom drain for filtration. any opinions on this or the depth are welcome.

gerry, dont take this the wrong way but it would be better if you start a different thread so theres not anwers to two seperate projects on the one thread.
lampeye

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03 May 2010 10:11 #5 by wolfsburg (wolfsburg)
Replied by wolfsburg (wolfsburg) on topic Re:POND BUILD ADVISE
Hi Lampeye,
One thing that I always remember from my childhood is how paranoid my mother was about any of us being near water. A small child can drown in 6 inches of the stuff (PERISH THE THOUGHT!!!), so I would say you might as well go the 3 feet and be extra careful about the baba! Maybe some kind of "child-guard" fencing around the perimeter for a couple of years and extra careful supervision.

Don't mean to put a downer on things but you can never be too careful!

Your sketches look sweet by the way... I could barely manage a simple cube on Sketch Up.

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03 May 2010 10:15 #6 by mickdeja (Mick Whelan)
Replied by mickdeja (Mick Whelan) on topic Re:POND BUILD ADVISE
it really is the month for sortin out the new ponds. Me da's pond was out of action there for a year because of a savage heron ate all his stock. I have convinced him to start it up again. I have three kids runnin around his garden. He made a steel grate to fit over the top so as the kids cant get near the water and when they get older the grate can be removed. It also stops the herons from stickin their greedy beaks in to give the fish a kiss. His pond is 4ft deep, so if you can make it 3ft you wont regret it. Wait till you see Dub Dave's pond and i am sure all the questions that you want answered will be talked out with someone that keeps a successful pond, best of luck.........:) :)
Follow me up to Carlow

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03 May 2010 10:20 #7 by JohnH (John)
Replied by JohnH (John) on topic Re:POND BUILD ADVISE
Gerry's question now deleted as he has actually started a different thread on the subject of his pond elsewhere.

A bottom drain is an excellent idea - every pond should have one!

I remember reading that 2ft is an acceptable depth (as a minimum) since winters here are not generally so severe that the water would freeze to anything like that depth - but to be on the safe side I have mine sloping down to 3ft.

I really hate to add this note of caution, but I once had to rescue a 2-year-old child in a paddling pool which had only nine inches of water in it, she fell over and was unable to stand up (this was probably due to the 'slippery' nature of the pool's bottom) but it was very scary nonetheless as she had swallowed quite a lot of water very quickly. Mercifully everything ended up OK, but it makes me shudder to think what might have happened had I not been putting up a fence in her parent's garden!

John
Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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03 May 2010 10:54 #8 by dar (darren curry)
Replied by dar (darren curry) on topic Re:POND BUILD ADVISE
ok i know it's a rough drawing but are them trees actually there? if so wat kind of trees are they? if seen first hand how trees and their roots can smash concrete and destroy walls.
Check out the angling section, it is fantastic

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