Building a Fish Pond

Building a fish pond The first thing that you have to decide is what type of pond you are going to build, a pond for Koi, or a pond more suited to plants and perhaps the odd goldfish, if you are interested in keeping koi then you should steer clear of planting your pond to heavily if at all as Koi eat many types of plants and there curious nature makes them very destructive when kept amongst plants.

Requirements of a Koi Pond

The pond should be large enough to house the fish remembering that koi do have a quick growth rate, any pond smaller than 1000 gallons is simply not suitable, so make sure you have the room. The pond must be adequately filtered and the filtration should be the best that you can afford (see article ’filtering your pond’). The pond should be of adequate depth, a bare minimum of 3 feet preferably 4 feet should be achieved.

Requirements of a Natural Pond

This type of pond is much cheaper and easier to construct, you should have a minimum depth of 2 feet to prevent the pond freezing and if you are keeping fish in the pond I would always recommend a small filter which will help with the clarity of the pond as well as keeping your pond water fresh and dieses free.

Position of your Pond

This greatly depends on the size of your garden, firstly try to locate the pond as close to your house as possible for obvious viewing reasons as well as its not much fun in the wind and rain maintaining a pond that is at the bottom of your garden at the top of a steep hill. It is important that you keep your pond away from any large trees especially if you intend to use a liner as the roots from the trees can pierce it quite easily, another good reason to keep it away from large trees is during autumn you will constantly be removing dead leaves from your pond waters surface which can be quite a chore. Ideally try to situate your pond in a position where it is not in direct sunlight all day but also not in full shade, a position where the pond is in sunlight fro 4-5hours a day is perfect, remember to much sunlight greatly increases the growth of algae, it will only take a week or so of strong sunlight to turn your pond completely green.

Building a Pond Using A Liner

If using a liner I recommend using a thick butyl rubber liner with a thickness of of between 0.75 to 1.00mm ensure that the liner comes with a guarantee.

Step One

Mark out the perimeter of the pond using a hose or string/rope, make sure that you leave plenty of room at the rear of the pond for filteration etc

Step Two

The fun part....Start digging, I usually start in the centre of the pond and work outwards, if you are having shelves in your fish pond mark these out using the same method. Remember to have somewhere to put the soil once it has been removed and bear in mind you will probably be quite surprised at the amount of soil that comes out of the smallest of holes.

Step Three

Once you have removed all of the soil from your pond make sure that you are happy with the shape, depth and walls of the pond. level the edges of the pond using a spirit level, there is nothing worse on the eye than an un-level water surface. Ensure that there are no sharp stones or any object in the pond that could tear the liner, remember that water is incredibly heavy, the pressure that it puts on the liner at the bottom of the pond means that even the smallest sharp object is enough to puncture the pond liner.

Step Four

Next spread a layer of soft builders sand around 1.5 to 2.5 inches thick all over the base of the pond, this will help protect the butyl liner being punctured. You could also line the pond with a soft specially made cushioned liner or even an old carpet.

Step Five

Next it is time to line the pond with your pond liner, this will probably require two people. Carefully unfold the liner over the hole lying it flat until the pond liner is fully unfolded. then carefully start positioning the liner in the hole removing as many creases as possible. once you are reasonably happy with its position start to fill the pond with water, as the pond is filling carefully stand in the pond pushing out any folds and creases as it fills.NOTE - I would recommend the use of a good butyl liner tape, which is used to tape up any pockets in the pond where harmful bacteria can grow and harm pond life.

Step Six

Once the pond is full you should then edge the pond, with a suitable material of your choice, remembering that any material that comes into contact with the waters surface should be suitably sealed using a product like G4, as some minerals and chemicals in stone, wood etc can be harmful to pond life.

Step Seven

Enjoy!