Pond Progress!

Wow Brenda!! This is looking amazing so far...can't wait to see it when it's finished! Are you putting in liner or cement?

~Kim

Brenda, you realize you have just devoted a certain amount of "real estate" in your brain to becoming a Pond addict.

This will be a great thread to follow over time. I like the way you and Tony "think big"! As a novice, I may have started with a 4x5 kidney shaped. Its gonna be a beauty and I'm looking forward to seeing it during a Phoenix pond tour someday. I can't remember if there is shade nearby.

Thanks everyone! It will be a lined pond. Tony's out there adding some planting beds around the peripheral, and then he'll be "leveling" the ponds and making adjustments. There are still lots of steps to go... this is just the beginning.

Susie, one thing I've learned about Tony, is that once he's committed, he goes big! (You've seen my ring, right?! LOL!) I really didn't know it was going to be quite this big, but I'm thrilled that it is.

No, not a lot of shade in this spot, a couple of palo verde trees, do all my pond experts think we need to provide more shade over it somehow? Or will the pond plants and plantings around the edge do enough to shade it for the fish?

Thanks for your expert advice in advance!

I'm sure Tony is doing it deep enough that not having shade won't be a problem. Besides in order to get gorgeous water lily blooms like sunnyaz & JudyB they will need lots of sun :) What about filtration? How is he going to do it?

Wow! Great project! How exciting! It's going to be fantastic... but is the patio around it going to be big enough for all of us???

Don't worry Jen, we'll just bring our suits and join the koi and frogs! LOL!

Susie

Thanks for the input, Fishie. Regarding the filtration, once we get it lined, we are going to the pond store and picking brains. Maybe you and my panel of pond experts have some good advice on that, the top pond will flow over a waterfall into the lower pond. He is building them quite deep, although the bottom one will have to be dug out further. Any advice is welcome, we'd rather not make huge mistakes now, only to re-do later. Here's Tony leveling the top pond today...

One more to show his pride in workmanship (my hero!)...

Oh, and regarding the patio being big enough... the concrete slab behind it will become a patio, and the horse washing rack is going to become a bar! I'm serious! I'm thinking this may be my big mosaic project... or done with concrete with plant impressions like Susie's garden mirrors, anyway, I'm going to make a bar top for it with bar stools, and we're thinking a pergola or something, don't know exactly what yet, but it will be another party area. And remember, no one has to share the pond with the froggies... there's always the pool. I guess this means I'll have to have a party later in the year... dang. I *hate* parties... NOT!

It would be way cool to know what you're doing now for filtration as you're diggin it in case you want the plumbing, filter boxes, skimmers, and the multitude of other things you could have to be dug in as well.

bsavage- you might be interested in a program thru Arizona Game and Fish, believe that it is called safe harbor. A program where you can recieve native species of fish or amphibians...as long as you don't cohabitate with non-natives...may be other requirements. Essentially things like native leopard frogs or Gila topminnow (more efficient than introduced mosquitofish at controlling mosquitoes!) or other potentially threatened water critters. Guess the idea is that the more living populations spread around the better in case a catastrophe in the wild or human screw up eliminates a wild population there will be a "back-up" genepool.
WAY COOLER than goldfish and bullfrogs!

Well, I think so far we planned on putting the liner in, then the last couple of huge boulders in the highest area in a spot that has been left for them after liner goes down, then the pump will pump from that highest level. We had pretty much planned on a big pump (based on the pond's ultimate size) with filter. Do we need more?

What does Tony think the gallon size will be? Lynn has large drums for her filtraton, I have a cattle tank. Google Skippy filter, it's a do it yourself like I did :)

Now that's what I call a BIG project ! Can't wait to see pics when it's done.

So far, the plan is, take all the measurements (when heavy engineering is done) to the pond store at Scottsdale & Shea, whom so far, seem pretty knowledgeable, and ask them what we need for pump size and filtration needs, but still looking to you, my "Panel of Experts", my "Help", my "lifelines", my "phone-a-friends"...

Okay, we watch a lot of gameshows...

I like 123 ponds for equipment Brenda, great prices, usually free shipping, I've never had to wait more than a couple of days to receive anything.

As far as what you "need"....that's entirely up to you, there are soo many options available, you can go with very little that doesn't cost much or very much that costs very much. I know lots of poeple who wouldn't dare not use a skimmer or a UV and I know tons of poeple who don't use either. We just added an air pump to our pond, something DH has wanted for a long time.

Did you say the pump is going in the higher level? If the top falls into the bottom, the pump will need to be in the bottom or below the bottom level unless it's an exterior pump that has a priming pot and even that shouldn't be far above the level of water it's pulling.

The larger, more efficient pumps are generally exterior pumps that don't go in the pond and you'll want that plumbing buried outside the pond as much as possible. There are also a wide range of power usage among these pumps, some can cost as much as 2-4x as much to run in elelctricity as some others. I'll hunt up the formula for the cost.

You'll need to run electricity to the pond with gfci (is that right?).

Hmmmmmmmm, I hate to spill all this out so abruptly (but that's just me :o) but I see this going very quickly, not sitting unfinished for years like mine is LOL and would hate to see you have to tear it all apart to put something in that you could do beforehand.

((amps X volts X 744) ÷ 1000 kilowatts) X kilowatt cost (from your electric bill) = cost per month to run 24/7

watts=amps X volts

http://www.123ponds.com/index.html
123 ponds website

Thanks for all the good info, and the link! Maybe I said that wrong about the pump. The water is going to come out of the highest level over some boulders into the top pond and then ultimately run down into the lower pond. I don't know where the pump itself will be, but I'll tell Tony your recommendations. Thanks again!

I can't wait til it's done Brenda, please continue to keep us updated!

I have no pond advice to add since I know nothing about them, but your project looks amazing, Brenda! I'd say Tony is a "keeper."
Jane

Wow, that is going to be a neat pond. Can't wait to see it finished.

WOW what a pond. Send pictures when it is done.

Oh man, Brenda. You said it would be big - but Sheesh! You'll be able to swim in that thing! Looks great! Hey, put some fishies in there and you can Tony can literally "Swim with the fishes". Hehehe.

Can't wait to see the finished product. Kudo's to Tony. Big job!

wow that pond is so big it will have tides ;)

LOL. Surf's up!

Wow... that sure looks like it's going to be big... I love it... it's absolutely wonderful... yay... keep posting its progress...
Brittany

We want updates!!!!! I love watching a pond being built that doesn't involve any digging on my part :)

Those two are in Texas doing some kinda motorcyle thingy! Dang - this is like waiting for your favorite author to come out with a new book. (Anyone read Misery? Kathy Bates played the lead in the movie.)

Oh man, I remember waiting on Stephen King (odd coincidence that he wrote Misery lol) to finsh the Dark Tower series! By the time he was done I had a problem with my eyes that made reading at any length a real chore, so I have one waiting to be finished and the last 2 sitting there unopened :(

Pond updates please!!

Hi all... yes, we've been at a "Motorcycle thingy" on the far east side of Texas (almost to Lousiana)... so I've only had intermittent internet. Obviously, no progress this weekend, hopefully some next weekend. We are entering the competition/travel season, so we'll have to do what we can when we can (I really hope we can expedite completion so I can get fish in it while it's still reasonably cool...). I'll post pictures as soon as I have more to show!

WOW is right. That is some pond. Can't wait to see the finished product.