The Dunkel Pond

[dunkel]

Hello Everyone!
I finally figured out how to get my pictures on the web! I had trouble trying to post all these pictures on the forum.

Here goes!

Our gunite pond measures 34' long x 18' wide and is kidney shaped. Combined with filtration, approximately 25,000 gallons. The pond is 8'3" deep end to end.

It has 3 - 17" bottom drains that go down to 4", and 3/4" air diffusers machined in to the sidewall with bulkheads. I used schedule 80 throughout the pond itself.

The filter room measures 17'wide x 28' long and is 9' deep and is underground. It is covered by a deck that is built on I-beams and gets lifted approximately 3 feet high via hydraulic system in order to service settling chambers.

All bottom drains are fed to filter room independently, and I used schedule 40 throughout.

The two end bottom drains feed into two 7' wide 650 gallon settling chambers.

The center drain feeds into a 4' wide 300 gallon settling chamber.

All three settling chambers then flow into additional prefilters of 4' wide 300 gallons, for a total of 6 settling chambers.

Each of the 3 independent systems have a 20,000 gallon Ultima ll Bio-Filter.

Three Aqua UV 160's are used when necessary.

The filtered water is returned to the pond via 4 quarter horse Sequence 1000 pumps, at 4900 gallons per hour each.
(I hate the PG&E bill when it comes! ! - $$$ cha-ching)

They are fed back in to the pond via 10 adjustable manifolds to control flow throughout the pond.

A fourth 20,000 gallon Ultima II Bio-Filter draws off 2 no nich skimmers located at each end of the pond, and is returned with a bypass via manifold to the waterfall. There are ball valves throughout the entire system for control purposes.

This pond has another feature such as fun jets for the fish to play in.

OK guys....bring it on!!

We hope you enjoy the pictures. Just click on to:
http://www.msnusers.com/DunkelPondPictures
and click on to "pictures"

Jeff & Joelan Dunkel
Hydroman & Geishakoi

[B.Scott]

Ok Jeff I'm impressed.

Tell me, How do you raise and lower the dek? How high will it go and what precautions have you taken to keep Joelan from from closing it with you inside should you spend too much time with the fish (is this possible?).

B.Scott

[dunkel]

Hello B. Scott,

There is a 24" x 36" hatch and a ladder that I use to go down in to the "dungeon" as my wife calls it. I have a coffee maker and telephone to call for help just in case she nails the hatch shut.

My wife wanted to say Hi as well:

Mijn hollands is niet zo goed. Ik mis croquettjes, patat met, en sausijse broodjes van julie, en oh ja, het lekker koffie smorgens vroeg.

Mijn man ken neit so goed typen, so ik moet het doen.

Groetjes....Joelan

[aquitori]

B. Scott, I have seen the pond personally and it is an amazing site. I think it is probably the 9th wonder of the earth....j/k...It's still a very well planned out pond....A must for anyone to see if they come up to Northern Cali...The Dunkels are truely "KoiKichi"

[erwinsan]

FINALLY !!!...

Jeff - where's the pic with you swimming with the fish . Great job! It's awesome that you're sharing your pond with everyone. Keep goin koikichi!!

- erwinsan -

[Tom C]

Jeff, what a work of art. I love how the deck works for the filter house. How long did the pond take to build?

Nothing better than seeing the whole yard as a pond.

Tom

[B.Scott]

LOL Jeff en Joelan gaan naar de States om Engels te spreken en ik kom hier en leer nederlands! Omgekeerde werld zeg!

Tof yo!
B.Scott

[dunkel]

Thanks everyone! Hope you enjoy the pics.

The pond took about 6 months to build, and it is our 2nd pond.

The hydraulic deck sits on 4 - 8' upright steel sleeves, and is remotely controlled from under the deck and rises 3 feet.

After building our first pond and basically doing everything you are not supposed to do, I drove all the Koi Gurus nuts picking their brains, and wanting to know everything they learned in 20 years in 1 month.

What I did learn was that for every action there is a reaction. (duh) The pond and deck pretty much takes up the entire back yard that measures
35' wide and 90' long.

The permit guy from the city thought I had too much water in my brain......he thought I was building my own water treatment plant. Then I asked him about getting plans to put a viewing glass in the filtration room. I think he lost it then, because he said he had to go. He signed my permit and took off have'nt seen him since.

In building this pond, I took into consideration any and all advice I could get, and reading articles from JR, Tom Lansing, Peter Waddington, Grant Fujita, Bert Ballou, Ken Grey etc.....I incorporated old school and new technology with a little Dunkel twist.

I am going to try to get some more technical info posted soon, and some more pics of the build.

I have to bribe my wife because she is the one who types in the family. They really need to make these things voice activated...but then we would be here all day, and all night, going koi-kichi.

Jeff & Joelan Dunkel
Hydroman & Geishakoi

[Koi-Schmid-Linden]

Hi Jeff & Joelan,

I like your pond very much. Nice design in the whole garden. The idea of building such a pond deck, with an useful characteristic is very impressing for me.
I had seen ponds, which has their filters under a wooden footbridge, but never under such a deck. Great idea !!!

Regards Nico

[aquitori]

Jeff what I want to know is when is the BBQ? J/K....If I go to Erwin's house I need to stop by and checkout the new fish you bought.