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Pond Plants
Pond Life
Parts and wiring guide
January 2022
The pond build has officialy been started.
I am getting too old to do the labor so I got my contractor to get it going.
He is not a pond builder specificly but has made them before.
I spent time with him explaining exactly what I wanted and he is great at making it come true.
The pond is dug and the small waterfall and plant bog are getting started.
Plans have changed a few times since it started. My work schedule is partly to blame.
I took a chainsaw to the grape vine stand. The solar panels will replace it.
I decided even though it will be more expensive I will replace the idea of sloping around the bog area with dirt and instead cover the sides with flagstone
and top it with white caps to match what we had done a few years ago.
The contractor stated that it would be much more cost effective in our area to line the inside of the pond walls with flagstone as
well instead of stacked stone.
You can see here where the bog area will look much better matching the wall behind it.
Feb 20, 2020
I spent Saturday extending all wiring where needed and ran them thru 1" PVC piping. I also extended the wiring for the LED lights and ran the wires
to the battery box. I also completed the plumbing for all four pumps from the boxes to the waterfall and the bog filter. I spent Sunday sealing and sandwitching the liner
to the two filter boxes / pump housings. It took a lot longer than antisipated but I got it done.
Next I will run pipes with holes to distribute the water into the bottom of the bog filter and install the 2 - 100W solar panels on a pole.
Feb 26, 2022
It is almost complete. I filled up the main pond. There is wet grout on the waterfall and the white caps were just installed on the bog area so it is still wet.
4 truck loads of DG and lots of random flagstone were put in place so no more grass.
The grout should be dry by tomorrow at noon so I can finish up the bog, mount the solar panels on the pole and get all the pumps going.
Nope gotta leak in the bog area. Installing more flagstone around the inside of the bog with cement should seal it up and look better.
The supplier is out of stock so waiting on a delivery.
Baloo says the new lights are looking great.
Feb 27, 2022
I tested the solar powered pumps for the waterfall. I lost about 100 gallons in an hour with a large amount of water going under the lip and behind the edge of the waterfall tank.
I shut it down and siliconed up the area and stuck DG to the surface of the silicone to hide it.
There is also a leak on the right side filter I will need to address.
Baloo is searching for the source of the leak.
March 4, 2022
While we are waiting on the delivery of more Arizona Gold flagstone to finish the inside of the pond, two large pieces to cover the filter boxes
and a very large one to make a hiding shelf for the future Koi we made a trip to Sunland Water Gardens and picked up some plants for the tanks.
Here is the start for the bog. A few of plants were purchased locally.
This large lilly will soon have white flowers. There is also some water lettice and more floaters.
Notice how clear the pond has become.
There is a lotus with a nice purple flower here and a freebee lilly that will have a huge beautiful dark purple flower.
I will update the names later. More floaters as well. They will eventualy be in the bog filter.
March 5, 2022
I installed the solar panels on the pole.
March 6, 2022
The second marine battery was delivered so I could finish with the wiring of the system. I made some changes.
Now each panel has it's own charger/controller, it's own marine battery, it's own fuse panel and a seperate timer for each large pump.
I added a third timer for the lights. This is temporary until a new cover arrives.
I was also getting a leak at the bottom of this picture when the pond was near full the liner would fold back and let the water pour out on the side of the filter/pump housing.
I used a couple rocks to prop the liner back up then pumped a whole tube of silicone in there to keep the liner in place.
The other pump/filter housing. I will clean this all up once the constuction part is done.
March 12, 2022
too much water was splashing off to the side and leaking where the light cord goes thru the edge.
I stacked some flagstone around the edge of the second level to make a pool and made it higher on the side.
I then siliconed it all up and placed DG on top to cover and stick to the silicone.
March 13, 2020
I used 4 tubes of silicone to attempt to seal up the bog area where it meets the falls and around the waterfall. It was stil leaking near the corner of the two.
I partially drained it and used another tube of silicone in the corner. The corner of the falls was still leaking a lot so I used more silicone and DG on top to seal it better.
My idea of creating a pool worked great at reducing the splashing out of the pond.
I ran into another problem where if you only ran one pump it would hit the T connection and just go down the other hose and thru the shut off pump.
Compare the pic above with the one below. Two check valves and different plumbing should correct this.
It will also make it easier to burry the hoses and hide this connection. I used glue that works with ABS and PVC.
March 17, 2020
It was time to replace the small ugly tub with a large outdoor storage unit to hold the electronics plus more space to contain all the pond stuff.
I also replaced the 1" piping from it to the solar panels with 1 1/2" pipe to allow for future growth.
It looks much better with the pipes burried.
I was able to mount the electronics on the wall. I will move the batteries closer after wiring it all up to make more room for storage.
This also make it more waterproof since the wiring comes up from above.
Wiring was completed.
It's a little ugly and needs to be cleaned up.
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