A Koi Pond is Born!
Follow Along from Conception
to Completion as The Pond Doc Builds a State-of-the-Art, Low-Maintenance Doc's
Dream System Koi Pond in His Own Back Yard.
Pond Construction Stage
Installing the Plumbing
Beginning Date: August 8, 2006
Before laying the first line careful planning and hours of contemplation is necessary to insure that the correct sizes and layout is done. Seasoned professionals like us are not immune to screw-ups. Even the most thought-out plans can have their problems and we expect a few to pop up. Hopefully, there will be no insurmountable challenges ahead.
This page was last updated 09/26/2006
Click on the Thumbnails for Full-Size Pictures
| August 8, 2006 | ||
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A trench was dug to join into the main trench for the other 3" bottom drain line. A 45 degree elbow allowed proper positioning of the PVC so that our bottom drain could be at the spot we wanted. The two bottom drains were positioned 6 ft. from each side and 4 ft. from the end. | |
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We decided to position our fountain in the middle of the pond. We will use a fountain foam nozzle that will fit onto the 1 1/2" PVC that we used. 1 1/2" hard PVC was laid in the trench alongside the two lines from the bottom drains. We glued an elbow onto the end of the line (which was positioned in the middle of the pond in the trench), leveled the vertical piece that will hold the nozzle and cemented the elbow base so that it could not move. A brace was made to hold it in place while the cement dried. | |
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Once the bottom drains and fountain base was secured into place we poured cement into the trench to keep the lines from moving. | |
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Then we back-filled the trench with dirt. We did not completely backfill the part where the drain bases were located because we still had to finish installing them. | |
| August 9, 2006 | ||
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Holes were knocked into the cement walls of the pond and 1 1/2" PVC was run through the holes for the skimmers and jets. Cement secured the PVC pieces. Notice that the ends of the PVC were protected from stray cement. | |
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Fittings were placed on the PVC lines on the inside of the pond for the skimmers. These created female threads that we can easily screw male-threaded fittings into. | |
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On the outside of the pond wall 1 1/2" PVC elbows were glued to the PVC that was jutting out through the holes. Then we ran flexible PVC from the elbows and around the outside wall of the pond to meet up at the corner where bottom drain and fountains lines are running. We also ran our electrical wires through flexible conduit to protect it from moisture. The space around the outside of this wall will be back-filled with dirt, hiding all the lines and the plumbing coming out from the wall. The holes for the two skimmers were placed approximately 20" down from the top of the pond wall and 7 feet from either side of the pond. | |
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The jets were located on the back wall of the pond. There are 3 jets. The middle one was placed higher than the two on the sides - at about 28" off the floor. This will create water movement in the middle layer of water and that creates perfect flow conditions and thus keeps it cleaner and healthier. The jets on the sides were placed about 14" from the floor of the pond so they will continually "sweep" the floor of the pond and any debris to the bottom drains. The lines from the jets are 1 1/2" flexible PVC and, just like the plumbing to the skimmers, will be hidden when the back of the wall is back-filled with dirt. | |
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The lines from the skimmers and the jets were all run around the outside walls of the pond and meet in the back corner with the lines from the bottom drain and fountain. | |
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All the plumbing will end up down a few feet on the terrace below and behind the fence. | |
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This is the area where all the equipment will be set up. | |
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The Doc labels all the lines with permanent markers so he'll know what they are later when he is installing the valves and equipment. | |
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These lines from the skimmers, jets and fountain will be joined by the bottom drain lines and the electrical soon. | |
| August 10, 2006 | ||
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Although the lines to the bottom drains had been previously laid the bottom drain and its base (which is a 3" PVC elbow) had not been installed. The Doc had to allow room for 4" of cement flooring so he propped the line up until it was the right height and placed a level on the bottom drain to make sure it would be level when it was installed permanently. Notice the purple mark. This was done so he would know how to line it up level when he glued it in. | |
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Here the Doc is gluing the 3" PVC elbow that serves as the base to the bottom drain to the PVC line. He spreads glue on the inside of the line and also on the inside of the connecting part of the elbow base. When he pushes the elbow back onto the line he will line up the two purple marks. | |
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He then glues the actual bottom drain component to the elbow base, also spreading the glue over both connecting pieces. | |
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To complete the installation, he pushes the bottom drain onto the elbow base, taking care not to alter the level of the drain. | |
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Once again, he places the level on the drain and, after a few adjustments, the drain is in level again and we're ready for the next step. | |
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Once the cement floor was poured you can see that the bottom drain was perfectly aligned. | |
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The tier is stubbed with a 2" hard PVC line that feeds both the tier water (to continuously fill the tier so it overflows into the big pond) and a line that goes to the spitting lions. The gate valve shown in this picture is to control the amount of water the lions will receive. It's purposely installed into the line that feeds the tier with water so that the more it's closed, the less water is fed into the tier and the more water that's forced to the lions. | |
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Here's the inside plumbing for the tier. The 3" bottom drain is where the water comes in (not out unless we're draining the tier). It is fed with 2" hard PVC. The line to the spitting lions starts at 1 1/2" hard PVC on the outside wall but is reduced at the tee to 1" for each lion. Later, each lion will have it's own valve so we can further control the flow from each. | |
| September 12, 2006 - Installing the Intake to Pump #1 | ||
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The first piece of equipment to be installed
is the #1 Pump. This pump will pull water from Skimmer #1 and
Drain #1 (on the right if facing the waterfall). Only the intake
lines are installed today. This pump will eventually return the
water through a UV and bead filter then back to the pond but I'm not sure
if it will be tied into the tier or the fountain and jets in the main
pond. The Doc will decide that later. A 3" Gate Valve is glued into the 3" hard PVC line from Drain #1 then immediately reduced to 2", which is the port opening size of the pump. This 3" Gate Valve allows us to cut off some or all of the flow from the bottom drain which is perfect in winter when we only want to pull water off the top through the skimmer. The line is then connected to a 2" tee before the pump to join up with the line from Skimmer #1. The line from the skimmer is 1 1/2" and a 1 1/2" Gate Valve is installed just before the tee so that we can control how much water is coming from the skimmer or turn it "off" altogether. Then a reducer is used to bring the 1 1/2" PVC to 2" so that it can tie into the tee. A 2" Union (or Quick Disconnect) is installed and screwed onto the intake port on the pump. This allows us the ability to remove the pump whenever necessary by simply unscrewing the union. |
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| September 13, 2006 - Installing the Filter, UV and Return Plumbing of System #1 | ||
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The rest of the plumbing and equipment for System #1 was installed using 2" hard PVC for the rest of the water's journey. A 2" quick-disconnect (union) was screwed onto the outlet side of the pump. Step #1: The line from the pump connected to the port of the filter's 6-way valve that is marked "PUMP". Step #2: From the port marked "RETURN" the line then goes to our UV and was installed with 2" Unions that are specially designed to fit this model. Step #3: From the bottom port of the UV 2" PVC was run back to the pond. It did not matter which port on the UV we used as the inlet or outlet. In our case, it made more sense to run the return plumbing from the bottom to meet up with the plumbing already there that ran along the ground. | |
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Once the water goes through the UV it is headed back to the pond - actually the tier - to run the water sheet falling from the tier into the pond and the spitting lion fountains. This is the place where the Doc installed a 3-way valve to give this line double-duty. Remember when we plumbed the line outside the tier wall? There was only a single line. This one line would have to serve as both a drain (to drain the tier for maintenance and cleaning) and as the route for the water to return to the tier. To accomplish that a 3-way valve was installed so that when the pump was turned off we can turn the 3-way valve so that the water from the tier will drain off into the drain line to go down the hill. During normal operation the valve is turned so that the water is being pushed by the pump through the filtering system and (see Step #1) back up to the tier. | |
| Proceed to "Pouring the Floor" |
The Project Schedule
(click on each step for pictures & details)
Though I tried to place each step in chronological order I am finding that as we progressed I often have to go back and revise what I've already completed. The color codes are as follows: BLACK is "Not Started", GREY is "In Process", PURPLE is "Completed" and RED is "Recently Revised"
Have a question about the construction of our dream pond (or any other question for that matter)? Click HERE!
To get to each section of our project so that you can see pictures and follow along with our progress, simply click on the stage in which you are interested.
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Finishing Up |
Practical Information | |||||
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