Before we went away to Greece we had spoken to John (The Fibreglasser) to arrange this to start, but then shock horror on our return it turned out his van had broken down and it would take until next week for the part needed to be fitted (big sad face!).
The pond, empty and ready for fibreglassing
But as luck would have it the van was fixed and we got a call on Tuesday night that John would be over on Wednesday to get started (big happy face! - can you see how easily pleased we are?)John got started on Wednesday and we should be finished by the weekend (hurrah!).
John and his assistant starting the work.
Initial layer of fibreglass, the final finish will be black.
Round the surface skimmer
So is that the beginning of the end or rather the end of the beginning? Well actually its a bit of both, structurally the pond will be water tight, and then the only remaining works on the pond itself will be to fit the window and set the coping stones on top of the walls (plus one or two minor jobs like touch up the paint and hide the post brackets). So in that sense we are near the end of that part of the project.
Once that's all done we can get the filters set up and then finish off the landscaping - decking, greenhouses pathways etc. Thinking of those parts of the project make me think we are much more at the end of the beginning, with the pond phase nearly over we can move onto the remaining phases. These will not have the same level of manual labour, nor the same complexity (who am I kidding - the filters may be complex!).
Anyway, to reflect on the fiberglass, once that's finished we need to let it cure before we can wash it down, although the type of chemicals used will be safe for fish (John has been doing this for many years, so knows exactly what he is doing), there can be some residue left at first. Then the pond can be filled with water, at this stage we have to decide whether to add pond water treatment to the water. Treatments can be used to help reduce chlorine and some fish keepers always use treat when adding new water.
In our current pond we don't add anything when conducting a water change, and have noticed no ill effects to the fish, we tend to only treat when we are aware of a problem, for example if the fish are reacting to a parasite or have injured themselves through boisterous play or jumping up against the coping stones on the pond. We also like to treat blanket-weed, this soon can become a pain in the pond, we have tried an electronic controller in the past, but have found this isn't as effective as adding a specific treatment to clear it.
Our current Koi Pond
Current fish waiting for their new home to be ready
However we cant add the water until the window and filters are connected, so we still have some time to think about that...Gaz
