As mentioned in the previous post, the backyard pond turned into a major construction project this year. I expect to pour concrete this weekend, so that biggest and most difficult portion is now almost done. Welding rebar on my hands & knees for 4 hours yesterday afternoon really wore me out! I believe a tentative finishing date should be somewhere within the next couple of weeks. As opposed to the old 5-gallon pail, the new sump is a significant upgrade, now holding probably around 40 gallons. The big blue thing in there is the top 3rd of a 50-gallon poly-drum. It’s 16 inches below the water line, forming the lower pump compartment, with an access panel. Proper filter media goes on top of the pump compartment, covered with landscape rock forming a small pool under the outlet:
Water level will come up at least a full 6 inches, with alot of digging still left to do. The other 2/3 of the blue poly barrel will form the bottom of the pond itself, making it around 4 feet deep in the middle. I’d estimate total capacity to end up being in the 500 gallon range.
A concrete slab all the way around the edge will make it easy to seal. I got the largest liner Home Depot had – hope it’s big enough. We’ll be using red flagstone around the edges for finishing once again, and also to form a tall pyramid on top of the fountain pedestal. The pedestal will be finished with a polished surface color matching the flagstone. It should end up standing about eye-level at the top with LED lights under a small clear poly-carbonate dome where the water comes out. Two underwater LED’s will illuminate around the bottom.
The fountain is an interesting bit to me, from a design standpoint. It was the part that started the whole project after I decided the old store-bought item was not exactly what I wanted. This one is fairly solid, with 3-inch steel pipe support roots welded into a re-bar base going out 3 feet at a 45-degree angle. Standing back looking at it after that little concrete experiment inspired me to just tear it all apart a re-do the whole thing.
