Terrie is a designer, and created our previous house using a specialty CAD program. The house is in a U shape, with the pond inside the U - the house roof goes across the U (two huge GluLam beams to span the opening) and the end of the U is closed with a wall of windows to make a greenhouse.
Gravel base, inside the "U" of the house, where the pond will be built
At the narrow end of the pond, near the bottom, output from one of the pump and filter combinations is split into "jets" that will be imbedded in the concrete wall, designed to push the fish waste to the other end of the pond where the bottom drain will suck the waste away
Closeup of the "SnapTies" used to connect the inner/outer forms - these SnapTies STAY inside the concrete, with only the part that extends beyond the forms being broken off after the forms are removed (for our pond, Terrie covered the concrete and the ends of the SnapTies with tile, some of it hand made in her studio)
The inner form with SnapTies in place, and the skimmer mounted and ready to be enclosed in concrete - the pictures don't show this very well, but the inner wall is raised about 6-8 inches off the gravel base, so when the concrete is pumped into the form it will FLOW down the walls and into the floor of the pond, making one SOLID piece of concrete
Another view of the inner form, from the other side - note the open face of the white skimmer in the lower right
The outer form is now in place - all the way to the ground so the concrete does not run to the outside, only to the inside where FAST work by the crew smooths the wet concrete into a flat floor
That's me "helping" the concrete crew
The bottom drain at the deep/wide end - the 2 inch PVC pipe going to the Left is connect to the skimmer in the wall, and the (hard to see) 4 inch Grey PVC drain line goes toward the Right and under the pond wall, eventually leading to the two pumps
Pouring the concrete with a pumper truck
Concrete is poured, and is beginning the curing process
Forms removed - note the ends of the SnapTies
Me again, measuring to be able to estimate gallons
Not very good (low light) picture of 2 Sequence pumps
One of the filters, note the clear PVC to see the waste water
Both filters - twice as much as factory specification, for a LOT of Koi
Basket off of the base of the filter valve, showing how having only one mounting screw allowed the basket to shift on the mounting bracket (black mounting bracket extends thru the center of the basket) which created a gap that allowed beads to wash away during a backflush
Basket that sits at the base of the filter valve, black plastic mounting ring to the left, single mounting screw hole to the right, plus 4 marks where the holes in the mounting ring locate
2nd (stainless steel) screw opposite the factory mounting screw, to fix problem I had where the force of water coming into the filter 24/7 caused the basket to twist to one side, thus allowing some filter beads to escape every time I did a backflush
Over the space of 1.5 years about 3/4 of the filter beads had washed away... basket now has 4 mounting screws to keep it straight and not leave a gap where beads may escape... the newer model Ultima II filter already has a multi-point mounting system, so will not have the problems I had with my original Predator filter
To make the pond "feel" outside, a street light
The WATER BOX sits on top of the pond, wedge shaped to fit on one end/corner (this is a concrete pond), with part of the output of the filter going into the box to feed the plants, and then from an overflow in the edge of the water box for the water to return to the main pond after going through the plants for the 3rd stage of the biological process, the Aqua UV bead filters are hidden behind the plant box (we use two model 5 filters, to eventually be able to support a LARGE fish load)
Some of the water plants in the water box... including Parrots Feather and Penny Wort
A closer view of the plants in the water box
Standing at the water box, looking toward the front of the house
Some of the 30+ Koi in our 6,000 gallon pond (even with two filters, we will someday need to make choices and "thin" our herd of fish)
Something different... our "spotted fish"
Select water plants for your pond from this list
Now, for something REALLY DIFFERENT!
Link to Floating Plant Information