Pond Project Day 2

Well, day 2 of the pond project took place last weekend between the spring rain, a birthday party and finishing my taxes.  Day 2 consisted almost entirely of digging the hole for the preformed pond, leveling it and filling it with water as I back filled the hole with sand and dirt.  Leveling a 65 gallon pond form is pretty simple compared to larger ones.  I used a 3 foot level mounted on a 6 foot 2 x 4.  I checked the level is each direction at the different sides of the pond around the perimeter.

I made sure to have the top rim of the pond ~2 inches above ground level so rainwater will not flow directly into the pond.  It also allows for me to landscape and mulch around the pond with clearance so everything does not end up in the water.  Within a 2 hour period I had the right shaped hole dug (including root removal!), a nice sand base laid down, everything leveled and the hole back filled.  By the end of the 2 hours the pond was filled with water and I threw the pump in to get the water swirling.

I have a self-imposed week long wait period at this point.  There is a really good chance I’ll need to drain and adjust the leveling after setteling occurs.  The simple act of backfilling one side quicker or tighter than the other can be enough to throw off the level.  I’m type A enough to know that if this happens it will drive me insane- so I wait for the major settling to happen before I go any further.

Soon I’ll adjust the level and move on to finishing the area around the pond with landscaping (plants, rocks, waterfall), add some fish and water plants I rescued from the old pool and hard install the pump system.