Pond construction begins

[koifishgirl]

Im going to get me a couple of water meter boxes and put them in the middle of my rows and put the cut offs at that point and put my water pipes at a slight angle to make sure they are empty of all water. When I really got to thinking about what It was going to be like in my mind I did not think about it freezeing until later. I was going to put the cut offs at the end of the pipes going into my ponds. Now I wont have to worry because pipes holding the water will be 12 inches underground.

Ok here is my water and soil sample, I have a 8.0 reading after putting down lime. I only put 15 pounds of lime per pond. How much more do you think I will need. Im thinking maybe 50 lbs per pond, am I close.

[koifishgirl]

Oh yes, Maurice, Thanks a lot, I showed this to Jack and he loves this. What size is the pipe and why the flex pipe into the ponds. What type of blower are you using? Not bad Maurice, when you can see what you are talking about it makes it simple. All the pipe work is layed in the ground right. If so I need a cut off to each pond for air and water, and then just the transfer pipes. I sure am glad I got u guys to help me with this, it sure will make my time on the farm more effecient.
Im thinking about running electricty to the deepend of each pond. Who knows one day I may want to put greenhouses over the ponds. To I am thinking about when I have to pump water from one pond to the other I want a pump set in each pond so I wont have to drag pumps around from pond to pond. thinking about a pillow and braceing the pump on this and running the flex hose to the empty pipes and just let it stay in like that so when I get ready to move water I can just plug it in.

[ranskye]

pH of 8?
thats fine, re-read the posts on alkalinty and buffering.
if your source water is holding calcium in a good enough amount its not really needed at 50lb per pond. though thats about what id use.
seeing as its for new ponds you can add more lime to the water later to get a high enough reading. notice how maurice said he uses it to kill bugs and not really to bring up buffering. often ground water will contain calcium and magnesium in high amounts, depends on geology of the area but rainwater dont.

as for the flexy air pipe its so itll bend over into the pond as opposed to needing elbows, your line is likely along the bank wall or with in the top of the bank.
you could set in straight rigid ones if you get all the push in joiners in the right spot on the circumference of your feed but thats a pain. i like the black 4 or 6mm irrigation line.

my chocie would be a seimens blower, it runs a circle of fan blades. they last very well but arent cheap, over time youll be very happy with it.
often the cheapest ones will break down and the higher priced ones give you many years of worry free running. i spose sweetwater must be a good model.
they all make extra noise from backpressure if run too deep.
though i dont know what a sweetwater is, i thought it was a diapram air pump but I must be wrong going by the power ratings.

in diaprams pumps i like sakuragawa, they seem to last a long time.

im thinking 25 ml black irrigation pipe for the main feeds. the larger diameter the better i believe. the less elbows the better also.

also ive seen hail totally wreck a hothouse. a lot of money spent.
i think maurices must be pretty strong stuff to deal with the weight of snow.

[ranskye]

do take care around power and water, check leads. they can wear easy, rats can chew em bare. having four around the place permanant might cause you trouble unless you do it within conduits.
ive been zapped twice and lived to tell the tale but was very lucky.

i dont know what the pillow is for, cushioning maybe?
youll need to set the pump in a screen. maybe enclose the pump in a big 300mm pvc pipe close ended removable caps..with small grinder slices in the main pipe or many drill holes. thats more heavy duty than mesh, tie a rope to it and dont pull on the electric cord.
you should check out buying a roving water pump-one that you carry around and set up when you need it, one that deals in grey water and will pump fines and muck and stringy organic material out without jamming, id say buy one pump thats worth the cost of four cheap ones. one of between 1 and 1.5 kw. for now you could run a very heavy duty extension cord only when you need it and roll it up when your finished but better if you run them into the pond wall whn you dig your water channel in..and set em up in water tight above ground outlests.
you can use this power later for hooking up a small paddlewheel.
i sure wish i had 11 good pumps i could leave around but thats expensive.

im thinking if you are gonna hook a pump up to the inlet to pump out.. are you gonna pump that water back into your well or run it to waste? i know sometimes youll run it into other ponds but not normally and sometimes theyll be full. id be doing it in two inch pipe.

also later, be careful around open sucking pipes that are deep under water, they can grab you and hold you there.

[koifishgirl]

Im thinking about leaveing on pond empty all the time and not running my water to this pond so I can pump down if need be and then pump the water back into the main pond so that I dont waist my water.

I checked out the blower and the prices but a concern of mine is the noise. The property is out in the country but their are house around and I have to think about noise level. If they are loud I need to be prepaired to house this blower so not to make it hard on others that live in the area. I dont want something that is going to sound like a lawn mover running all the time.

Any electirc wires that are run on the property will be put in conduit so I dont think I will have a problem in that area. Any mantinance done on the blower I wont be doing it because I dont mess with anything electric. If it is a filter or something like that I will, but other than that I will call in someone else to handle the job. I wont mess with anything like that, I dont know what I am doing but thank you for careing enough to call this to my attention.

[ranskye]

check out the noise level, it should be in decibels on the specs.
im thinkinhg about 50db.
i dont think youll have a problem, you can sheild it in the direction of someone else if you need to but on rural its not like one half a kilowatt would disturb you too much. maybe build a little house for it from the waether, with open side facing away form neighbours as simple as a few bits of sheeting and some wood frame or if your serious use straw bales with a big lid.
i have one running in the shed and it dont bother anyone though if it were in the open outsdide you would hear it for a while away at night time for sure.

[koifishgirl]

Thats good news, I was afaired that the noise would cause me some problems.

[koifishgirl]

I have a problem, my pump is 8.2 amps and my psi pressure on the gauge goes up to 100. my problem is I put the 1 and a half inch pipe in and I still am not getting enough water to get my ponds full. It does fine for 40 mins. then it drop off to the amount of a small hose pipe. Is their anything I can do to get more water out of the well. I have it on a timer to run 4 hrs and off three around the clock. The water has been running in the pond for three weeks now and it is still not full.

[MikeM2]

I probably shouldn't butt into this, but .... is there a reason you are not pumping 24/7 until the pond is full?

[koifishgirl]

What do you mean you should not butt into this, butt all you like. I felt like it would be better on my pump and to let the well refill with water.