Bottom's Up!

Or should I say bottom's down as we have finally installed the two bottom drains and the soil pipes at the base of our new pond.

These bottom drains are much, much larger than the standard ones available in specialist shops as they are custom made by one of the members of our Koi club. Both the lid and the bottom part are moulded fibreglass, to be connected on to 4 inch soil pipes upon installation. These large drains remind me of alien space crafts, or rather the props used in filming cheap, alien B-movies!

Say cheese! Me for scale (and yes I've gone platinum for autumn)

Off to a good start with some breakfast by the pond!

What appealed to me about the design of this bottom drain is that the lid are on hinges, which makes it easy to lift up and close back using a net whilst under water. And also the size and shape of the bottom part itself makes it easier to remove any sediment that may settle into it. Koi can be very inquisitive and has the tendency to occasionally dislodge the lid of ordinary bottom drains, and if this happens virtually the only way to put it back on is to dive in (or you can also drain most of the pond water, which isn't practical either). Bearing in mind that the pond will be 6 foot deep with 8000 gallons of water, diving and draining are neither practical options so we had to bear this in mind at the construction phase, and opted to go for this design as it eliminates this possibility (unless Koi learn how to use a screw driver!).

Knickers getting comfy in the drain before it got filled with water

Prior to the installation of the pipework, another thing we managed to accomplish was to lay the concrete base of the filtration house, which is adjacent to the pond. It was important that we get this done quite early on so we can start laying the blocks for the walls of the building, and gets it ready so that we can continue to work on it during milder spells in winter. 

So after marking their final positions, we had to dig a shallow hole where the drains will go as well as the trenches where the soil pipes will pass through. A bigger job that had to be done was to chip off one side of the pond, the one beside where the filtration house will be, so the soil pipes can jut out and be connected to the filters much later in the project. Once all the rubble and chalk was out, we glued the pipes together, put them into place, checked the levels, backfilled and concreted them in place. Well almost all of them. It was getting too dark so we only had to do the essentials and will do the rest in the next few days, but at least most if has been done.

Solvent welding the pipes

And once the concrete had dried, we have started to build the walls up on that side of the pond.

So three important project landmarks happened in the last week: the base of the filtration house has been laid, the bottom drains and pipes are put in place, and the pond finally has walls on all of its four sides. Phew!


Mark 

Posted in: Knickers , Pond build