Hi everyone.

Yup, I am. My pond is a month old, and I already rebuild my upper pond once. Thank goodness I know you guys will not point your fingers at me, cuz everyone else is :-D

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My small preform is only 132 gallons and 20" deep.

I have 4 goldies, comets I think, and theyre now 4,7" each. Still quite shy of the camera.

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I think it will be ok to overwinter them in this pond, as we rarely get bad freezes, but I dont think they will be very comfy.

Ive decided to do it now as I have spare time in Sept to finish it. That way they will have the bigger one for winter, and it will be ready for spring when I hope they will get some babies :-)

Im way too busy in the garden in spring to find time to make a new pond too, but this way it will be nice and ready.

I would appreciate any advice, as hopefully this new one will last a little longer :-D

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I will remake the upper pond exactly like it is now as I really like it. The birds use the part with the rocks to bathe in and sit on the branch to dry.

I might leave out the stream as I made that originally for the birds. Im thinking a small waterfall will ariate the water more than this stream, am I right in thinking that?

The upper pond will be where the three rocks are on the lawn and to the white stick by the solar lamp.

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The pond itself will have the shape of the preform AND the old upper pond, more or less... just all dug into the ground of course.

I dont know if it makes sense when I explain it like this.

This drawing shows the measures in inches. Im not good at feet and inches, as we are metric so I hope this makes sense too.

I will more or less use the shape of the preform in that part and dig the new part with a part that is 1 metre/3,3'. How big should the part being 3,3' be. I only have mini water lilies.

Ive used an online calculater and it says I will have roughly 454 gallons. Fortunately my pump is 687g/h so that should be ok, right?

I really need advice on the shelves. I will probably line lots of the edges with those bricks that Ive used in the upper pond as I have hundreds of them. Have anybody used bricks for edging? Im planning to do all the side against the lawn with turfs and straight sides, and sit a few pots of plants on two bricks with a slab on so my fishies get hide-outs that way, so no shelves here.

I dont think I will do a bottom drain. I have a submergeble pump and a pressure bio-filter. Am I right in understanding that I cant run a bottom drain on this set-up? I also think that this pond will still be so small that I can clean it by net and renting a vacuum occasionally. I will only have goldies btw.

I have a rainbarrel that is 53 gallons, its tall and narrow though. I also have a barrel that is 23 gallons and more like a trough. Where would the goldies be best while I do the rebuild? I think theyd need to be in there for about a week at least. I will put the pump in with them if thats ok, and of course cover them with a net.

Ive read almost all the posts on here in the archives, but I must admit my head is beginning to spin as Im still so new to this.

So please chime in if you have any advice. I will run most of the project by you on here if that is ok. I plan to begin sometimes next week.

Thanks for listening.

Hanne