New Main Pond
When I built the first main pond I used 2 sheets of heavy grade black plastic designed for the job, I used 2 as I didn't really trust 1 by itself, these cost over $A100 (a point to note). My biggest disappointment with them was they were not big enough & only allowed a pond around 250 mm deep over the area I wanted. Within 12 months of completion the first sheet had holes in it, thanks to a night time visit from a local neighbourhood cat. This slowly allowed the ingress of water between the 2 sheets over the next 18 months to a point where I had to do something about it. I was not going to go with the plastic sheets again, there were also rubber sheets available but I had the same concern with these, they were also hellishly expensive around 3-4 times that of the plastic ones. I had found the results using fibreglass so far to be more than successful & decided to have a go at making the main pond myself. I also wanted a larger frog pond so I made up my mind to make several of them. I had a pre-existing shape that the new pond had to fit in, so I took a very accurate set of measurements. Now I didn't want to make this pond in place for several reasons, the main ones being, I didn't want to have the chemicals involved anywhere near my frogs living area & the idea of shutting the whole system down for the time needed to do it all was out of the question. The only answer was to make it somewhere else & fit it in place when finished.
Starting to build the new pond
Firstly I had to have somewhere to build it so I purchased 2 Mts. of low grade sand, I then took the measurements & marked out the same shape as the current pond I then dug the sand out until it was at the depth I wanted.
This was then lined with a clear plastic drop sheet, the type used for painting this was the lined with chicken wire. This was then lined with the first layer of fibreglass.
This was then coated with resin & then had the second layer of glass laid onto it, this was quickly followed by the third layer of glass. When laying up glass in multiple layers like this, it is very important to lay them all at the same time so that the consecutive layers of resin & glass actually bind together as 1 whole layer becoming much stronger.
Once the layers had gone off (hardened) the whole thing was then lifted out, the edges were then trimmed this was then sealed & coloured to my requirements.
Finished Product.
I was very pleased with the outcome, it took 5 days all up to produce from scratch & cost around $A100 ready to go in the ground. It holds around 700 Lt. of water & although it is a great size for what I want it creates it's own problem, how to get it into position. Although it is only relatively light it's size makes it less that easy to move, especially for 1 person. Time to put the thinking cap on.
09:00 the next morning
Firstly everything was removed from the pond, water, fish, plants & rocks. The babies tears around the edges was folded back like a carpet. The black plastic was then removed. I then rigged up a spare pump to keep the top half of the system going so the main waterfall was not effected should it take longer than I had estimated.
Removing everything.
Once everything was removed the hole was then dug out to a depth & size that would allowed the new pond to fit in at the same height as the old one. This was to allow the same water inlet & outlet to be used. Sufficient soil was removed to allow 100 mm gap around the outside. This was then leveled up using water in clear plastic tubing so I knew that it would sit flat with the lowest point at the overflow pipe. Once this was all finished it was time to put the pond in. For this I rigged up a small scaffold.
Going down. 11:00 am
Once the pond was sitting where it was supposed to the surrounding gap was back filled with soil at the same time the pond was filled with water, the babies tears were then folded back.
This is a rollover, by passing the cursor over it you will see before & after shots
Finished 01:00 PM