Center block pond, what liner?

[luke frisbee]

OK KK,
But I am not the "source"/ First it is an admixture and is added to the cement mixture (stucco, concrete etc) in relation to the amount of cement in the mixture.
Second its main component is a SEED crystal. This "seed" when in the presence of BOTH water and free lime grows larger and longer. This growth lowers the porosity of the material they are a part of. This is done to the point where water can't reach the crystal and the crystal becomes somewhat dormant. but should the concrete cack or craze the crystal become active again and can reseal the cracks.
A personal observation: After I filled my lake the underwater windows developed two different films/growths that I attribute to the stucco and perhaps to the Xypex.
A hard cloudy film formed on the glass for a couple of months. This at a rate where I had to razor blade it off. And the other growth were i believe the free crystals themselves ..because small dots started forming. These were easily wiped off. they were soft and somewhat crystaline.
Please keep in mind that none of my koi have shown up with any malady, and that Xypex is an acceptable admixture for concrete by many countries (the US included) in potable water containers.

But here again this is information coming from a layman, such as yourself. So it would be best for anyone that is considering to make a koi pond of concrete to do the research and not what is said on this board. Very often on these boards people talk about something as if they have a clue without understanding the affect...I have done some reading and I decided to use Xypex. It has been a phenomenal product.

[luke frisbee]

and it is not the Mickey Mouse paint on crap. It is thoughout the cement mixture and that is an easily comprehended advantage.

[kingkong]

Xypex, a crystalline cementitious penetrating waterproofing product.

'When this product is applied or used in mixture additive to concrete or concrete surfaces, insoluble crystalline or crystals are formed and develop in the water bearing capillaries, effectively blocking the passage of water'.
Does this read familiar to you Luke?

That came from the tech sheet for Thoroseal 501.

I just coated a 20 thousand gallon pool with it to waterproof and color it. Thoro comes in 5 gal and 25 gal cans. Can be added to fresh mixes, rolled on with heavy nap, painted on with stiff bristle brush or trowled for fin to suite ones needs. I used 10 gal and a 1 lb. bag of jet black coloring and one more product mixed for that job.

[bekko]

Sure that was not FIR on your window?

My koi ponds are just mud holes with cheap polyethylene liner. However, here by the house we have two small concrete goldfish ponds which are about 20 years old. I renovated one about 6 years ago and renovated the second one last year. In the first one, we cut off the penetrating tree roots, slapped some hydraulic water-stop cement on the cracks, and painted with latex-based Drylock masonary waterproofer. The second pond only needed a new pipe penetration and painting. The Drylock is about $28/gallon (30 cents/sq.ft) at the local hardware store.

The first pond will probably have to be re-worked again in a year or so because a palm tree is pushng in on one side and the roots have grown into the pond again. However, the paint has not peeled and the pond does not leak (somehow). If the low-budget cheap-O paint will last for 8-10 years, I am pleased and willing to do the same thing all over again. After a decade, we're bound to want to modify the plumbing , expand the pond, abandon the pond or make some other major change.

-stevehop

[kingkong]

Good to hear about the paint. I am experimenting with Moore's Pool Paint just to see how chlorinated rubber holds up applied to concrete. It has a Xylene base so its a eye watering job to put down but looking good on old pool coat fin(cement) so far.

If you have the energy, a radical root prune on that palm root ball would be in order, but then... you know the pond will leak as soon as the last wheelbarrow full of roots leaves the area plus it will blow over on the house. Nix that idea, sorry.

Muddy ponds? I thought you have natural clear underground water to tap or have I been looking at too many post cards?


OGON CITY
KOI UNIT appreticeship SOUTHEAST CHAPTER

[bekko]

dig mud hole, add liner, fill with almost-clear water


But, back to paint......
The only surface preparation I did was to slosh some muriatic acid on the walls, hose off the walls, pump out the acidic water, and give it a once-over with the wet/dry vac. The concrete was still damp when the paint went on.

Putting a liner in a concrete/block pond is like getting the worst of both worlds. You have the expense of the concrete, and the folds of the liner. If money were no object, I would have it shot with polyurea.

Reader poll......
What do they call them in your part of the world:
- cinder block (actually, they have not been made with cinder in 40 years)
- concrete block
- hollow tile

-stevehop

[mitten]

The technical fellows say CMU, but we say block, usually we'd say 8" block, or 4" solids or , blankety 12"ers.

I do still say cinder block sometimes. Heck I still say cement when I mean concrete sometimes, too.

Count the region as saying "concrete block".

Also a big fat BTW is that Resource Technology (Maryland) builds box liners, I think from 30 mil PE. Lee is the owner and can help you. Am I in the right thread for this info? I think it was in the original set of questions that may have been answered a bit inaccuratrely.

Isn't it nice that a guy who is freezin his bunns off can type a communique to a guy in *hawaii* and not be snarly and viscious?

Mickey the windowman

[luke frisbee]

KK, Well Dang. I stand corrected, I remember that product now, but thoroseal makes a million things and That "501" is not the standard idea of what people think when you say "thoroseal". Most of the literature I see about "thoroseal" is a paint-type thoroseal.
I wonder how similar the two crystal-making products are...Xypex does a much better job of showing what their product does....?
I ain't sure they are the same, but I appreciate the ease and quality of the Xypex.