Cosmo
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
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Why didnt you fit the liner between the inner wall and the glass so you get a perfect seal all around?
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drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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Because the glass is triple layered (2 layers of reinforced glass and an inner layer of some special plastic) and no water is supposed to come into contact with the edges where the 3 layers are visible. It may be possible to do it your way though and just seal all 4 edges of the glass, but we have a perfect seal with the liner pressed against the sealant against the glass at the moment. I've never seen a liner pond before with a window as they are usually done with frames which are only suitable for fibreglassed ones, so it has been a bit of a learning experience in doing this project too!
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Cosmo
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
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Ah right, didnt realise the glass was built in that way - makes sense how you've done it then and will certainly hold (the sealer + water pressure will keep it water tight!).
Only other way would be to do a mix of both, put the glass on top and then fold the lining over the edges of the glass and seal it.
Its looking great though 
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drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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Well, I have now moved out of my house in Aberystywyth completely and am back at my mum's place for a few weeks while I start looking for jobs etc, so the progress on the pond has started again...
The outer walls are now 100% finished, along with the lintels above the two windows
We started on the coping today too by using a layer of the 12" bricks laid on their sides. Looks good but very time consuming!
(I was working on my own today so I couldn't do the mortar all the way because I didn't want cement to drop into the pond. I will be finishing it over the weekend hopefully when my mate can hold back the liner for me!)
We also got some L shaped bits of metal that we are using to hold the net in place eventually, and cemetned them in under the coping to tidy it up. I will upload more pics again when there is more progress, and more of the new fish with they arrive 
[Edited on 25-07-2009 by drunkenfool]
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Simon
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Registered: 24th Apr 03
Location: Oxfordshire
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Is the ground level around the pond staying as it is? I always thought the nice thing about ponds is sitting in a chair and looking down into water. Apart from the glass window, at the moment you've got to be stood over the pond to see admire it. Would be good to have some raised decking or something around it at a higher level that could happen
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drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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That's what I said, but part of the reason for making it quite high was because my sister has 2 young children and another one on the way, so at least it will keep them safe. I think it would have been awful without the windows cos there is just so much brickwork, so at least its broken up a bit. Maybe a raised area will come in the future, but at the moment it's not really on the agenda!
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MarkM
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Registered: 11th Apr 01
Location: Liverpool
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Keep it safe whilst there a young children in the family.
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drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
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Coping 2/3 finished and I''ve started to tidy up the liner and net, not long left now till its all done!
Just got to finish off the coping and then decide what to do about the waterfall. We've got one of these...
So I am gonan have to build up a bit of a back wall to put it in, and then it should look something like this when its done...
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ste_p23
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Registered: 29th Dec 08
Location: Hindley,Wigan
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What a fanstastic build you certainly have impressed me with that its ace!
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C2RL R
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Registered: 28th Mar 02
Location: Redcliffe, QLD
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do you know how to make the waterfall look like that? i mean the water coming off evenly spread if that makes sense...
took us a few attempts before we got it right.
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drunkenfool
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quote:
Originally posted by C2RL R
do you know how to make the waterfall look like that? i mean the water coming off evenly spread if that makes sense...
took us a few attempts before we got it right.
My idea is to put in a ball valve onto each of the two inputs to the waterfall (one on each side) so we can control the flow to each side, but if you have any better ideas then please let me know
I;'ve been very busy again today on the project but not with the pond itself The fish that I mentioned before that I was being given have started moving in
I went to the pond where they are at the moment and removed one of the huge filters that they are also giving me ( ) and then carried that to my parents house in a wheelbarrow with 3 other people helping! Got that into the greenhouse and hooked up the inlet and outlet to the current system, I still have to do the waste connection but its up and running for now. Then it was time to start bringing some of the fish
There's one more new fish that I didn't get the chance to take a photo of, but he's by far the biggest in the pond. I will get a pic later or tomorrow though
...and a quick photo of the filtration system in the greenhouse. We still have a bubble bead filter and a protein skimmer to come on top of all this lot too!
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Simon
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Registered: 24th Apr 03
Location: Oxfordshire
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Filters bigger than most peoples ponds! Hope you didn't use the greenhouse for actually growing an plants! Guess running something like that will have a significant effect on elec bill
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drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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It is a bit on the large side  Aside from the obvious initial setup costs, the running of the thing actually isn't too bad. The two main filters are powered by the same 10,000 litre per hour pump (gravity fed from pond to Nexus 300, then pumped out of there, through the big green one, then through the UV and back to pond), and that is a special low energy one that only uses 97w. The pump that draws water from the surface skimmer is only 25w, and that goes through the filter that you can see behind the green one in the pic above. Aside from the two pumps, the UV clarifier has to be on all the time and that uses 55w, then lastly there is air pump which is also on 24/7 (normal operation it airates the outer chamber of the main filter, then it's diverted to clean the central chamber and/or the filter on the skimmer line), so that makes about 230w. I know it adds up over time, but I think it's worth it!
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Simon
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Registered: 24th Apr 03
Location: Oxfordshire
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Definitely, not knocking it at all, looks great
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Jamie-C
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Registered: 3rd Jun 08
Location: Ballycastle
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What a pond! Love it!
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Hammer
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Registered: 11th Feb 04
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First time I've seen this thread, awesome pond and a great read
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C2RL R
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Registered: 28th Mar 02
Location: Redcliffe, QLD
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quote:
Originally posted by drunkenfool
quote:
Originally posted by C2RL R
do you know how to make the waterfall look like that? i mean the water coming off evenly spread if that makes sense...
took us a few attempts before we got it right.
My idea is to put in a ball valve onto each of the two inputs to the waterfall (one on each side) so we can control the flow to each side, but if you have any better ideas then please let me know
That might work but we found that it still splits into separate bits when we tried something similar. the way we solved it was to have the pump outlet hose going into a sqaure plastic bucket and basically let it fill till it overflows. you will have to cut one side lower so that it doesn't overflow from all the sides. you use this overflow as the waterfall. i can't really explain it too well here without pics and i cant draw any cause i've only got the crappy mousepad thing on my laptop.
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drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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Out of interest Carl, what size waterfall did you have and what was the flow rate going through it?
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C2RL R
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Registered: 28th Mar 02
Location: Redcliffe, QLD
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i'd have to ask my old man mate. when you say size, do you mean height or width?
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drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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the width. Ours is 90cm and we will have about 12,000l/h going through it. I'll let you know how I get on anywy! Sorry about the lack of progress pics but I broke my phone last week. I'll update it again at the end of the month when its all 100% finished
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drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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Well, time for another quick update but not much visual progress im afraid 
Basically when we were building the pond, instead of putting in the usual 4" bottom drain that most large ponds have, we decided to put in 3 1.5" outlets instead which all fed into the same 4" pipe. I figured that one 1.5" pipe can pump out 10,000 lph under pressure, so 3 should be enough to flow back out under gravity. Sound in theory, but, due to my ebay bargain of getting the larger filter than we paid for, the water level in the filter was already a bit lower than it should have been so with the head loss of the 1.5" pipes as well, we had to face the music and consider putting in a proper 4" pipe The main reason why we didnt in the first place was because of just how much extra work was involved, digging channels, smashing up the concrete base of the greenhouse, reconcreting etc etc, but here we are anyway!
We had to get a 1500 gallon quarantine tank set up by the house, take the door off the greenhouse, take out all the filters, set them up again in the quarantine tank, then empty the pond of water, take out the liner and start digging again.
All that effort just for this one f*cking pipe
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drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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On a plus note though, the custom made surround for the waterfall turned up yesterday so we have bonded the waterfall to that and put it in place
I don't have any pics of it on here with the protective cover off but I think I will leave the progress thread now until it is 100% finished
I spent 5 hours today rewiring all of the electrics. We have now changed the filtration system so there are now two completely separate systems. The main bottom drain goes to the big filter by gravity, and is then pumped out through the Ultrabead, then through the UV and to the waterfall (via a Y valve so the return can be directed straight to the pond bypassing the waterfall in the winter). The 2nd pump draws water from the skimmer through the smaller filter, and that then goes back into the pond via 2 1.5" feeds, one at just under water level and one nearish the bottom. This helps to get a good flow going round the pond and make sure all of the waste gets removed properly to be filtered out. All that is left to do now is cut out the liner for the windows (we have left it setting overnight) then move the filters back to the greenhouse and get it all going again!
Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed reading the progress thread. The next update will hopefully be the finished product
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M2RTY
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Registered: 25th May 01
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has it added value onto the hose out of interest?
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Cosmo
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
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Why didnt you just limit the flow on the output of the filters back to the pond?
I know it would of decreased the actual water turnover but it would of increased the time the water spent in the filter so the difference *shouldnt* of been too much.
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drunkenfool
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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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quote:
Originally posted by Cosmo
Why didnt you just limit the flow on the output of the filters back to the pond?
I know it would of decreased the actual water turnover but it would of increased the time the water spent in the filter so the difference *shouldnt* of been too much.
The pond is 19,000 litres and we were running a 10,000 lph 'efficient' pump which would have been fine, but the bubble bead filters create a lot of friction loss and should be run with more powerful pumps (even at the same flow rate) so our 10,000 lph was probably more like 7500 in reality. An ideal pond turnover rate is every 1-2 hours, so with the friction loss from the Ultrabead we werent achieving that so restricting the flow even more wasnt an option unfortunately
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