Pond construction begins

[koifishgirl]

YOur right, and if I have any questions I know I can count on you guys to help out. I would really be nice if you and steve lived close by so I could drag you guys along with me. Its alway better to have someone that has been through what I am going through and let them lead the way. Good advice is cheap and you cant beat that.

I am going to go with the 1 and a half inch water pipe and put the elbow on the 4 inch pipe and go from their. Since I was missing something in the pipe construction process I got a Jack to read the post and he understands what you guys are talking about so he can show me what to do. When you start talking manifold your talking above my head. Also the second line of pipes so I can tranfer water from one pond to the other. Im not sure but I dont think any of my pipes are put in right. They are just straight accross and look level to me. I have been known to move a little to fast when doing something and have to slow myself down. One reason why I have to be very carefull I can waist a lot of money that I did not need to spend because I jump. Anyways the ponds with the pipes if I used them to circulate my water I would be in trouble, he was told to put the pipes end to end and he left and his son put one in end to end and the others in the middle across the ponds, giving me dead area and could cause problems

Steve, since I am going to keep each pond seperate, would I need a 5hp blower for each pond? Also what size sump pump and outlet do you think I should get. I dont want to have to wait all day to pump one of my ponds down. I have a generator in case of power outage that should run the blowers.

[Maurice]

5hp blower for each pond, you're in a dream world and not listening.

I'm using 2hp for 14 ponds.

Maurice.

[Maurice]

You don't need to keep blowers separate for ponds.

Blowers are just delivering air, not water. Don't mix water unless you are happy with the condition of koi and water.
BUT YOU CAN'T MIX AIR BETWEEN PONDS FROM A BLOWER.

Sorry I struggle more than the other guys.
Maurice.

[ranskye]

haha nah maurice, i struggle a lot too mate.. im pretty sure she means a half horspower blower. 5 per hectare is more like it.

also i used my super human understanding to get that she meant she wanted to run air through to the furthest ponds via the water flow carrying the air to them through her pipes using a pump to fill and gravity through pipes.


lay four straws flat on your kitchen table.
cut a straw into quarters and T them off from where the straws join, on of them you will stick it on the end of one straw cause at 90 degrees cause you will only have 3 points where they butt together. use some playdough to join all these. these bits of playdough will really be three four inch Ts and one 4 inch 90 degree elbow
the open ended long straw falls to harvest or waste pond.

so now you have a pipe that is for run to waste/harvest box and little bitty straws that go into your pond at sump level. imagine the little bitty ones will sit through your pond wall at inside pond ground level or a tad lower.
this should be in the lower harvest end of the pond, hence why we said to use a slight taper from pond end to end.
take those little straws and push on lumpy pretend little 90 degree playdough elbows on the ends. then cut some more little straws and jam it in the playdough so that those new straws are vertical into the air. all other straws are lying flat.


thats a system like steves talking. you can pull out the vertical staw entirely to drop a pond dry or you can tilt it over to lower it.
otherwise you can do the same thing with just pipes through the wall and elbows and verticles on the outside of the pond.
you just lift vertical out or lower it on its elbow down towrd your ditch channel that runs to waste just like the long straws do.

you want a pump that will fill within a day or two at most. 1/2 day makes you happier. go see a second hand pump shop and tell him well water depth and pond height and lenght of pipe you will need to push to outside pond.

[koifishgirl]

Yep 0.5 hp sweetwater air blower, Ok. Maurice, how am I going to get air from pond to pond if I dont have a blower for each pond, since I wont be using the flow through system. I might turn to this latter on after I have a little time to make sure I know what I am doing. If I start out with my water going from pond to pond and I have a pond that is in trouble, what then. I cant take that chance right now. If I had the ponds going for several years and had it all down pat, well then I might not be so fearfull of recirculating water from pond to pond. I am new at this and untill I can go with this at ease I think I need to be listening to the ones who have the experience. Im not saying that you dont have the experience but I am saying that I have been following this thread all along since I posted, but I may be misunderstand some of what is said because it is all so new to me. I am used to small lined ponds with big filters that can take care of the water for me, just a little mantaince and Im done. But when it comes to a mud pond and the water coming from a well and not a natural spring, Im in a whole new ball park, if you can give me any more insite on what would help me, have a shot at it. believe me I have a great deal to learn. Thanks to you guys I have learned a lot more... I got to hand it to Steve and ranskye they have really helped me, If they were not helping me I would have been completely lost. When it comes to lime and ferterlize and air they have went to the trouble of telling me how much to use and how much to feed. If I follow what they are telling me as close as I can maybe I wont get in trouble with my ponds.

ranskye, sorry to get you so mind boggled but you super human understanding did work for you. If only my simple minded brain could take in everthing that you guys
tell me all at once I would be doing good. Dont get me wrong I am a far cry form being stupid, I just cant go to fast or I will get to mind boggled and really mess things up. Just understanding how a mud pond works with well water is a major in itself for me. Im sure that I will make some mistakes, over feeding is one that could be a problem for me. I like to feed my koi

I know how to do what you and steve are telling me with the 90 degree elbow and I am going to do that so I can control the amount of water in my ponds, and I understand how to run my water pipes to put water in each pond and I understand that the other links of pipe need to be in the ground along with the water inlet pipes so I can transfer water from pond to pond if need be, just dry pipes under the ground. I also understand that the water needs to be going in at the deep end of the pond so I can use it at harvest time. I also understand that I need 20lbs of lime for all four of my ponds. I also understand that I can take care of a least 3 spawns with the four pond.

Ok. Here is one of my concerns, after I put the water inlet pipes in how am I going to stop them from frezzing in the winter? I wont have to use them much at all then as it rains a lot. I realize running water does not freeze but since it wont be running all the time I need to know what Im to do. Even with water pipes under the ground the pipe sticking out of the ground will freeze. What then.

[Maurice]

Sorry my information is of no use.



But I’ll restate what I posted above. Perhaps my wording was wrong.



You only need ONE blower. You can not contaminate from pond to pond with a blower. The blower draws air in and blowers it out the other end.



So having got that, if we were to connect some pipe to the blower, we could send this air a long way. If the pipe was long enough to reach from first to last pond, we could put a tee in the pipe at each pond and bubble some air in.



Perhaps that’s complicated, so I’ll sketch!

[bekko]

The pond drains are not under pressure so you will not have to worry about freezing. Pipes break when they freeze because the water expands as it freezes. Empty as much water as you can from the drain pipes if you are worried about a really hard freeze. With the open ends, your are very unlikely to have a problem.

Air distribution
http://www.raingarden.us/kfg%20air.gif
In the cut away view you see these adapting the flex tubing to the 2" pipe:
http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/.../iid/8589/cid/
http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/.../iid/4193/cid/

I forgot to add a cheap valve on each of the 15 flex air tubing. If one pond is empty, you do not want the five air lines gushing air or it will throw off the flow in the other ponds. Also, you can use diffuser stones if you want but they are expensive in the larger sizes. See earlier discussion about eliminating stones. You should get about 1 cubic foot per minute of air from each of the 15 lines.

Keep an eye on the 2 inch pipe between the air blower and the first tee. If the pipe stays hot or starts to turn a pinkish color, you will need to replace that section with a piece of 3-inch pipe. The air rushing through the pipe can generate a lot of heat and the heat will weaken the pipe and blow out a fitting connection. The 3 inch pipe will reduce the air velocity and the larger circumference will help dissipate heat.

-steve hopkins

[ranskye]

haha, thats heaps funny... i noticed something off skew but i didnt know there was a problem splitting a blower off!
i spose its like the first person that knew what fire was and showing a person that never saw it before.
remarkable for all.
kfg, please go and visit a few more farms and see what is being done as standard and work from there. the more farms the better.

print out all the sketches and stuff and read it again and see what it means for your farm and your situation. often youll work it out if you see it twice after it was a problem in the middle.

[ranskye]

i didnt realise it gets that cold over there. the worst we EVER get is a frozen film on a half full bathtub. that must be hard. i saw maurices farm under snow and my nut sought warmth from my belly.

if your into the breeding season, youd be best to leave that drainage pipework until winter, after growth slows and your not so busy brreding and feeding and watching things close.. this way youll get some fish in now as opposed to having your ponds out of action.

when you do it, youd run a trench along outside the front of your ponds by digging with a backhoe, you might be at a stage where youll bulldoze a long area and use the dirt elswhere, atleast then use the backhoe to cut a line into the pond wall and set a pipe horizontal into there. put back the dirt and pack it down good.

if you did do such piping i dont think it would freeze up, most unlikely you would have them full of water enough to expand to do harm.
unless you were doing a recirc system then you would only be using them intermitant. in a recirc flowing water would be warmer than freezing, as is groundwater.
remember that one low end will be open so most will flow out.

same for the concern on your inlet feed from the pump. itll rise up from the pump and then be level with a t off into the pond, that t shouldnt run up higher than the main run. this way itll always be empty when the pump stops.

arent you about to breed right now?

[bekko]

Sorry Maurice. We both had the same reaction, but you were posting while I was still drawing.

-steve hopkins