New Pond build-Finally Got Some Fish In!

Jon W · Post by **Jon W** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:21 pm

Stuart

I've wondered about that myself. I was thinking more along the lining with Kingspan approach, but from what I can see the gap between my inner and outer walls have not been backfilled. In Andy's case he could go for either approach. Does anyone have any idea which is more energy efficient?

Regards

Jon

Thorny · Post by **Thorny** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:49 pm

Stuart what do You mean by cavity wall? If You mean a conventional cavity wall, then I would say that is a massive NO! NO! on a Koi pond. As basically all You will have is a 100mm skin of blockwork holding You water in.
Justin

StuW · Post by **StuW** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 11:22 pm

But we are only talking the top 3 ft of the pond here and if u used wall ties surely there is enough strenghth there after all many portable show vats and quarantine tanks are this high and made out of much flimsier materials. Lets face it we over engineer every aspect of koi ponds. I agree if it was the whole depth of the pond .

emmaandaj · Post by **emmaandaj** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 8:52 am

Hi,

Think im going to use kingspan inside as insulation as the walls wil be solid-i cant afford to heat so will just help to keep in the suns heat

Andy

Post by **B.Scott** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 10:10 am

Andy,
I don't heat either and have insulated the walls of my pond with 10 cm (4") of polyurethane foam. I did however expressly NOT insulate the bottom of the pond. The underside of my pond is 6 foot and beneath the water table. This acts as a heat sink in the winter and while the ground at the surface may freeze, 6' deep the temperature is quite a bit higher. I feel this stabilizes the fluctuations in temperatures in both winter and summer.

B.Scott

Bob Hart · Post by **Bob Hart** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 10:37 am

So is the 'best' thing to do, fully insluate the walls and then render the floor???

Easy for the hobbyist as well as rendering walls is usually a specialist job and that means paying someone. Rendering the floor is easier than walls and easier to get it flat.

Fibreglassing should be easier as well, as the floor is solid and no worries about denting the floor by walking on it.

Sounds the way to go.

You can also make the window frame from the inslation, you just cut it a couple of inches back from the opening you have and put a nice shamfer onto it. Fibreglass into and around it, fir the glass afterwards into the frame.

emmaandaj · Post by **emmaandaj** » Sun Apr 06, 2008 7:28 pm

Hi,

Will probably just insulate the side walls as the base is nice and flat already.Plus if it may axct as a heat sink-all the better! Hopefully i can fit the kingspan a bit better than my atempt at rendering-i know Bob was very impressed will how unflat i got it

Only thing that worried me is if i will be able to cut it so that it follows the curved face neatly? Would be good if i could use it to save on a window frame as well

Have back filled the hole this weekend and started to dig out filter bay. Big thanks to Stu and Amanda for all the help yesterday. We struggled all day-only had to remove about 6-10inches on a area about 3metres square, unfortunately we encountered thousands of massive routes. Ended up with two wheel barrow fulls of roots up to about 8inch diameter! Hopefully should sort the last little bit out after work this week , ready for footings on sat. Just hope its not snowing next weekend!

Andy

Andy

Bob Hart · Post by **Bob Hart** » Sun Apr 06, 2008 8:14 pm

Andy,

Check this out - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQ9QSjZTiHo&feature=user

Matt from GRP lining services demonstrates how to put the foam up and on a curve!

dave a · Post by **dave a** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 7:59 am

the foam that matt uses is made by polyfibre and is damm expensive and is only 12mm thick

Bob Hart · Post by **Bob Hart** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 5:01 pm

Hi Dave,

Is there a better place to purchase something similar that would do the same job?

The video clip just shows how to put it up and hopefully will guide Andy in doing this as one option. Are there other options for securing the foam? I think I heard/read somewhere about using large clout nails and hammering them into the mortar joints?????

Gazza · Post by **Gazza** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 5:16 pm

How about sticking it on with No Nails

emmaandaj · Post by **emmaandaj** » Sun Apr 13, 2008 6:54 pm

Hi All,

Sorry for delay in reply! Thanks for that link-dont they make that look easy

Im sure its not that easy! Im going to give the kingspan a test run on a qt tank im going to build into the filter house and see how it goes

As for progress, again a very big thanks to Stu for helping out over the weekend-im sure he is suffering as much as me today! I dug out most of the roots from the filter bay area that were left over the week. Stu helped remove the final ones yesterday morning(The roots were about 12inch diameter in places and had all joined up into a huge net of roots!)

We then fitted a drainage gully to help stop the filter bay from flooding, along with the waste, water feed pipe, electric cable and a small bottom drain. Then the fun began

I had no idea how hard it would be to concrete the filter base with such a tiny mixer! Stu did a grand job at getting it nice and level

Will post some pics a bit later.

I also decided to build a small qt tank into the filter bay, i had originally planned to use my growing on pond if i have any probs but because its heated and the main pond wont be there will be a huge difference in temperature making it hard to move fish into it. So ive put a small bottom drain in which will feed a small seive and then some fluidised k1. The idea being that i wont have the pond running (to save costs of running another pond) If needed i can simply pump some water straight from the pond into the qt, move some mature media from the pond over and away it should go!

Just need some nice weather to get the footings in for a retaining wall and im ready for the next section of brickwork!

Andy

emmaandaj · Post by **emmaandaj** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 7:27 pm

Hi,

I managed to get the footings in today for the two retaining walls at the back of the pond

Can now get the blockwork going again and start looking at the filter pipework etc!#

A few pics

Backfilling complete, filter bay dug out

[img]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a340/emma ... rty003.jpg[/img]

Filter bay base laid

[img]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a340/emma ... rty014.jpg[/img]

Footings for retaining walls complete

[img]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a340/emma ... rty017.jpg[/img]

Cheers Andy

jason-m · Post by **jason-m** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:11 pm

Thats coming along nicely Andy...

No doubt you will be finished before me.....

Gazza · Post by **Gazza** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:21 am

Coming along nicely and hop to see some walls up son and a bit more pipe work