Hope you like Dewey's New Pond!
Dewey has grown and it was time to update his enclosure from his old 260L pond to the new 1700L pond. It was a really enjoyable christmas holiday project. Special thanks to Micah for his help creating this pond.
The purpose of the website is a gallery and a brief outline of the steps to create this pond.
Step 1
This is Deweys original pond (Stage 1). We won't go into details of how we created the original pond, but if you have any questions feel free to email me.
The first thing we needed to do was to strip down the original pond back to the basics (see far right). The lid, turf and rocks were all removed. The left wall was rebuilt as the barrel in the original pond needed to be removed. Many of the other walls were also rebuilt as they needed to be leveled and strengthened. 170mm Baton Screws were used to hold all the walls together.
Step 2
The height of the walls were increased by two logs (200mm).
At this point the turtle and the fish were removed and the pond was drained. The substrate in the base of the pond was removed.
River sand was used to shape the pond and provide a soft barrier between the liner and the ground.
We then added foam walls to help insulate and maintain a steady temperature and create a flat surface for the liner to sit.
Step 3
At this point the liner is layed in. 100mm of river sand is added to the bottom of the liner and some water is added to clean the sand.
In the next photo, we straightened out the liner to get it as neat as possible. It is an impossible task to get perfect.
The pond is then filled 100mm just below the top of the maximum water line.
Step 4
Sorry, I forgot to take development photos during this next step so there is a big jump in the ponds development.
After the liner was filled with water, we increased the height of the pine logs by 200mm (2 logs). The pine logs were carefully screwed into the logs underneath to hold them and the liner securely in place.
A decorative 140mm x 25mm Murbeu Decking was screwed onto the top. It had a number of purposes...one of which was a platform to sit on but also an overlap underneath to make it more difficult for Dewey to climb out.
Last of all, we then added numerous aquatic plants, rocks and gravel to finish it off and cut off the excess pond liner.