My backyard overhaul journal

[Dez]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

hey Des, looks amazing so far, I have been trying to figure out what to do with my back yard as we have 1/2 an acre with a few fruit trees and the rest is grass. I was thinking a waterfall that turns into a river and a smaller pond area then you have. this gives me some ideas how things look in a befor /after perspective.

one question though, are you sure 1/2" glass is going to be strong enough for the size of holes you left there? what if some one fat comes to visit and see the oaisis you have created like me most of the walking panes I have seen are more like 1" thick.

somthing that big you could almost stock it with rainbow trout and go fishing haha

Steve

There is a glass company that rents some warehouse space I have. They said that for that size, 6mm tempered will do. There are pictures of a person standing on a 48" x 48" piece of 6mm tempered only supported from 2 edges in one of his glass magazines. So we went double the thickness and tempered. It's only 11" wide so I'm not too concerned. I looked into what Mindy suggessted (rock guard 3M stuff), but that stuff is more expensive than my glass, so I'll just replace it every couple of years. The glass is costing me less than $200 for all 4 sheets, so quite reasonable.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Dez

It's only 11" wide so I'm not too concerned. I looked into what Mindy suggessted (rock guard 3M stuff), but that stuff is more expensive than my glass, so I'll just replace it every couple of years. The glass is costing me less than $200 for all 4 sheets, so quite reasonable.

11" ok looked way bigger to me. makes sence.

Steve

[Myka]

Those fish look great! So does the glass.

Originally Posted by Dez

I looked into what Mindy suggested (rock guard 3M stuff), but that stuff is more expensive than my glass, so I'll just replace it every couple of years. The glass is costing me less than $200 for all 4 sheets, so quite reasonable.

Really? Wow, didn't think it would be that much...it isn't too bad to coat the front of the car and headlights.

[Dez]

Originally Posted by kien

Ya that glass is a brilliant idea love it! I may try to adopt that for my pond next year :-)

Believe it or not, it was a spontaneous idea I had while framing the deck and then I prompty called my glass guy to check on cost/strength (of course after consulting my wife for the OK)

[kien]

Originally Posted by Dez

Believe it or not, it was a spontaneous idea I had while framing the deck and then I prompty called my glass guy to check on cost/strength (of course after consulting my wife for the OK)

Nice :-) Speaking of the Ok, I just got the OK from the wife to renovate our pond next year! We are going to tear down our house and build an extension to the pond in its place. We are not sure yet where we are going to sleep but the pond will be kick a$$. Go big or go home!

[Coleus]

Originally Posted by kien

Nice :-) Speaking of the Ok, I just got the OK from the wife to renovate our pond next year! We are going to tear down our house and build an extension to the pond in its place. We are not sure yet where we are going to sleep but the pond will be kick ass. Go big or go home!

What is your SECRET to make your wife say YES to anything?

[phi delt reefer]

Originally Posted by Coleus

What is your SECRET to make your wife say YES to anything?

yes Dez, please share... does she have a sister? Looking to trade my current "No way in HELL!" model in

[Dez]

My secret is that both the reef and the pond were her ideas. I am just the executor of said projects. I prefer to do things once only.

[Dez]

Okay, the guts. It's quite simple. Here is the skimmer where the 2 pumps are housed. The net is there to catch leaves, so you just pull it out and dump. Then you see a set of brushes that catches fine media. Just pull it out and hose.


Here is a picture of one of the waterfalls. Where you see all that gravel, you can plant stuff in there. There is a trough so that it's always wet at the bottom. You can plant stuff like creeping jenny etc so that it climbs and hides the plastic and the open portions. You can see the media in there. This falls unit holds about 100 gallons alone and it it packed with this media for surface area for the bacteria to colonize. Around the falls unit I will have to fill with topsoil and we'l l be planting shrubs and ground covers all around.


Moved some fish and got some more That big one is 2 feet.


And a FTS with fish. For perspective, the biggest fish you see there is 24"


The pond company will be coming back today to add some feature boulders around the pond and make a cave in the pond for the fish and tidy up things a bit.

[mr_alberta]

Cool pond Des, but I think you should have done a SPS pond...