my Zen Water Garden and Koi Pond

[FishyFishy!]

Good to know where to get some plants this summer then! haha.

I'm thinking of using a laguna pond pump that pumps up to a custom rubbermaid filter that spits it out onto a rock waterfall. I'll probably just T the piping so that it can pump right into my swail with the turn of a couple valves.

[Delphinus]

Well out of interest I started poking around the bylaws. Not surprisingly it's rather ambiguous...

Although not mentioned here in the FAQ:
http://www.calgary.ca/UEP/Water/Page...omeowners.aspx

The bylaw itself (http://www.calgary.ca/CA/city-clerks...5-Drainage.pdf) does seem to state that you can drain from a decorative pond so long as it is less than 3000 litres.

However, elsewhere, it mentions that a decorative pond is defined as "an artificial body of water for ornamental purposes but does not include fish ponds". But then.... nowhere does it say that fish ponds are allowed to be drained into a swale, but neither does it state "do not".

It does list that fish themselves can't be put into the drainage. But I can't find anything about water that has touched fish while in your custody.

Confused as ever as to whether the city feels they can fine you for draining a pond into the swales or not. I know they will gleefully fine you if you don't keep it clean enough or if you dare put anything close to it or over top of it. That's a rant for another day though.

[andestang]

If you need some help digging I could send over some eff'ing moles I have here . Think gophers are bad, at least you can see them to get them. I am worried about them damaging my pond liner.

[Seriak]

My pond digging experience wasn't too bad. I did give up after my shovel was bouncing back at me every time I hit the ground because the ground was so hard, but no too many rocks. Lots of clay though. I filled it in last year and have decided to go with 3 level above ground pond this year.

In this climate I would not worry about a bottom drain. It's no worth it as we usually do not go deep enough to get under the frostline. A good pond vac is great.

Algae is not much of a problem if you keep enough plants in the pond and even better if you have a marsh area to plant even more plants. The trick is to keep the soil out of the pond as this adds lots of nutrients. I used a mixture of barley straw in my filter and concentrated barley and never had any problems with algae. I also used a UV to get rid of the green water when it got really bad.

I miss my pond and hopefully my multilevel design will help keep my plants apart from the fish and apart from the turtles. One thing kept eating the others. They don't do well together I find.

[FishyFishy!]

I have a questions for you pond goers...

How important is the fabric underlay underneath the pond liner itself? I really don't want to buy one. lol.

[kien]

Originally Posted by FishyFishy!

I have a questions for you pond goers...

How important is the fabric underlay underneath the pond liner itself? I really don't want to buy one. lol.

That depends how smooth the dirt is going to be under your liner. I didn't use an underlay under mine either because like you, i was too cheap LOL. Instead, I made sure to get as many pointy rocks out as I could and laid down a significant layer of newspaper. I collected like 4 weeks worth of flyers from my house and my parents house. use duct tape to tape them together when you lay them down otherwise they will fly and shift all over the place! The newspaper was probably as thick as the underlay that you could buy and that cushioned the liner well. Also, I don't have any large trees with roots anywhere near my pond so I didn't have to worry about that, but if you do then you need to take those roots into consideration.

Mind you, I did look up what the underlay cost at Burnco just a few days ago and it's actually not that expensive there. for a 300sqft sheet that I would need I think it would only cost me like $60 ? That seems pretty cheap to me but honestly I think the thick layer of newspapers provided more cushioning.

With my reno I was going to do the same and lay down news papers/flyers again but this time I also have the added advantage of having my old pond liner that I will also use to lay down underneath the new liner.

Bottom line is, you should put something that you trust, in between the pond and the ground. You WILL need to walk inside the pond and you will probably lay down heavy pond plants/baskets, etc, so it's good to have that cushioning to prevent puncture.

[Seriak]

Originally Posted by FishyFishy!

I have a questions for you pond goers...

How important is the fabric underlay underneath the pond liner itself? I really don't want to buy one. lol.

I had a friend who was removing there old shag carpet and I took it off their hands and used it , but I agree with Kien you should have something because if you miss that one rock, the weight of the water pushing against it could cause a tear in your liner which is a lot bigger pain then buying some cheap underlayment at .25 per square foot.

Hey Kien, where did you buy that autofeeder. That is the exact one I want to buy but I was going to have it shipped as local prices were insane. Was the price similar to online vendors?

[FishyFishy!]

Would carpet work? I have a ton of that lying around! haaha

[kien]

Originally Posted by FishyFishy!

Would carpet work? I have a ton of that lying around! haaha

yes :-) A few years back a friend of mine and I went dumpster diving at construction sites for old carpet and underlay to use in his pond LOL.

[kien]

Originally Posted by Seriak

I had a friend who was removing there old shag carpet and I took it off their hands and used it , but I agree with Kien you should have something because if you miss that one rock, the weight of the water pushing against it could cause a tear in your liner which is a lot bigger pain then buying some cheap underlayment at .25 per square foot.

Hey Kien, where did you buy that autofeeder. That is the exact one I want to buy but I was going to have it shipped as local prices were insane. Was the price similar to online vendors?

I got it at Pisces up north. It was the same price as online (but without the cost of shipping). This was last year though. Not sure what the retail would be this year.

Ya, I've seen people use all sorts of stuff as underlay. Carpet, carpet underlay, thick vapour barrier. Even a combination of all of the above. Had a friend that put carpet on all the horizontal spots and newspaper on all the vertical walls. Looked funny but worked great.