Construction

A pond built by yourself sounds a daunting task, however it is not impossible and over time with good planning you can overcome any real issues, as long as you have planned out what you really want as a pond and from your pond. The ever popular hobby of keeping fish has made it possible to build a pond for alot less money than people may think, the huge amount of retail outlets available have really brought prices for equipment down as each company try to gain your custom.

This section really is of a choice for yourself to make, It is said that your pond should match the surrounding pattern of your garden, with rockery stones, matching timber decking, seating areas, paving and walk ways.
The style really depends on what garden style you have formal ( straight edged manicured shrubs and lawns), or informal ( curves, rockeries, overhanging plants and shrubs).
The style depends on what you really want, and is therefore of a personal choice, there are many products available such as pond lights illuminous fountains and water features that will look great in the right pond, but will stand out like a beacon for the local airport to land their planes on. Its a matter of what you like after all its your pond and your garden.
Reading up on gardening books can help you in the design of your pond, and if you have a bare wall to wall lawned garden the designs possible are endless. Materials can be sourced from a wide range of outlets and this sends us back to the planning and budget section, Its all a matter of what you want and can afford when building your pond.

One important aspect of pond style aslo reflects on the fish you wish to keep, for instance sturgeon do not do well in planted ponds as they cannot swim backwards they have often been found stuck and tangled up in waterlilies and oxygenating plants. Most koi ponds are left unplanted however many people plant them up if the style they chose to have is what they want. Also it is often for koi pond owners to have a vegetable filter incorporated to the system to allow vegitation around the pond and gain the extra benefits of using the plants to aid in the extra filtration process. More on vegetable filters can be found here.

Pond building and maintaining needs to continue to be a pleasure, any aspect of the work involved that you do not enjoy will only bring you more work and regrets, it is best to get it right first. Often people say the liner used is unsightly on a new pond build and the temptation to hide it as much as possible using stones ( common in America ) should be highly discouraged. The liner itself will mature over time and as you can see in the above fibreglassed pond photo the natural coating that has matured over time soon hides the man made look.

Having decided on your pond style the next task is to decide what shape you would like your pond to be. This section is very important as the shape of your pond needs to allow good continuous water flow so that there are no stagnant areas of water that will harbour waste build up to which will cause problems to the water quality and health of the fish stocks.

There is one golden rule to follow when deciding the on the surface area of your pond, irrespective of shape, always aim for as great a surface are as possible.
In so doing, you will obtain the maximum air to water interface and oxygen absorbtion, oxygen being the life source in any water ecosytem. As an exaple to explain water surface are we can look at two ponds both with a surface area of 10 meters square, one pond is is 2 meters deep ( 6.6ft ) and the second is 1 meter deep ( 3.3ft). The first pond contains twice as much water as the second pond however both ponds have exactly the same 10 meter squared surface area which means they both absorb the same amount of oxygen from the atmosphere through their surface area.

When it comes to the depth of your pond there are many differing opinions to what the correct depth should be. In reality it really depends on what fish you want to keep and in what country you live in.
Why country? Well temperature is an important factor, deeper water remains warmer for longer so northern regions have longer and harsher winters than southern regions, the longer the water is cold or freezing the cycle of bacteria needed to keep water quality at its peak condition is greatly reduced.

Along with the design of your pond you also need to consider the services you will need for it to run safely as well as being able to maintain the pond easily.
The layout and design of your pond should be done so to keep all pipe work, and services such as electric cables and mains water hidden from the nakid eye. The filter will need to have a reasonable amount of maintainence and this involves flushing out of bottom drains, the amount of waste produce cannot be just poured in to a gravel filled sump, it will soon clog up.
Ideally you will need to pipe your waste drains to a main sewer via the inspection hatch. With this in mind it is a good idea to situate your filter system as close to your inspection hatch as possible. If you have no mains sewer inspection hatch then it is possible to vacume the sediment out of the pond and filter and use it on your garden, it has a huge benefit to the garden plants, however the disadvantge of this is that it really smells during the summer.