Do you know how to repair HDPE geomembranes?

 

Whether you live in the country, city or suburbs, there’s plenty of scope for self-building a traditional pond.

 

 POND POWER

You can put a conventional pond anywhere that you can access it on all sides that are not truly boggy. Can you reach the spot with the necessary power for aerating pumps, filters, UV filters or lighting? Larger waterfalls moving 1000s of litres per hour may require a soil filter. Some waterfalls will turn over their entire capacity of water every hour. For less elaborate setups, wireless solar-powered pumps and small (50cm) fountains, alone or matched to a battery to take them through the night, can remove the need for any mains help.

SITE AND SHAPE

To lay out the pond before slipping disc, use a garden hose or trickling white sand to site the pond in semi-shade (too much sun will just crank up your algae count). If you’re looking for something urbane; a straight-sided pond, set into the ground or more typically with raised walls can form part of stunning, hard landscaping. Generally, if you want to indicate natural features, rambling curves are key. Be wary of areas where there may be any undesirable run-off into your pond.

SIZING

The size and depth of the pond will be dictated first by the types and number of any fish you might include. Dedicated wildlife ponds are best left fish-free. If you’re determined on specimen koi carp (my father has some scaly old pets as long as my leg) a pond of 1.5m-2m will be predetermined to allow them to go deep enough to keep warm and semi-hibernate in winter. Don’t over-populate. Once they grow to specimen size and start breeding, apart from unpleasant crowding, the pump and filters will be thrumming loudly to keep the water clean.

DIGGING OUT

A flat spade and a strong back will suffice for a simple pond without blockwork. You will want to keep the sod and soil to create surrounding features, perhaps a site for a waterfall, a bank around the pond or shelving at the water’s edge. Ensure there are no utility lines set under the lawn or drainage pipes in your way before cleaving the ground. Remove stones that could pierce the liner once heavy with water. Use a long piece of wood and a spirit level to check the pond is level, side to side on completion. Another solution to raise the sides? Consider creosote-free timber sleepers bolted together and fully lined.

LINERS

With the site dug out correctly, and presuming we’re using a flexible quality butyl liner you will need: soft underlay, a quantity of soft sand, edging material and as much familiar support as you can beg for.
The most recommended liner to create your pond is the HDRPE material. A thick, durable, HDRPE liner, is a versatile material that is used widely across all applications. HDRPE can also be used in a multitude of secondary containments, pond linings, and water containment projects. HDRPE is best used as an exposed lining material and has the UV resistance required for many years of outstanding service.

PLANTING

Together with pumps and filters to move, oxygenate and crucially, clean the water, the right plants offer a passive solution that not only look great but that will save you work. Perennial marginals can really help to pull damaging nitrates out of the water. Don’t overstock or it can unbalance the ecology of the pond. They can be introduced in multiple ways suited to their natural level in the water, set into low walled planting pockets and even segue onto a bog garden with graceful sentries like Lobelia cardinalis and flag iris/Iris pseudacorus. Baskets filled with aquatic compost allow plants to be neatly contained and moved when required.

Proper ways of feeding fish

 

Feeds are an important component of fish farming as they constitute more than 70 percent of the total operational costs..

As a result, the key to any commercial fish farmer is always to use the best feeds but also maximize on all fronts and keep the ‘wastage taps’ at minimum.

Right feeds

Sourcing for the right feeds, record keeping of the trend in feeding, maintaining hygiene around and inside the pond are some of the best practices that farmers are advised to observe by experts in order to reap big from the trade.
Another paramount exercise that farmers are advised to observe is embrace best fish feeding method.
According to Susan Nakimu from Ugachick, Uganda’s biggest fish feed producer, the best fish feed method is Feed by Response where fishes are fed according and when they are hungry. This ensures that the feeds go directly to the fish and not the predators as well as maintaining hygiene in the pond since the feed is given to the fish and the fish eats it instantly and therefore eliminating any remains that could dissolve and pollute the water.

 

Feed by response

To feed by response, fish need to be trained to come and eat from the same place at the same time at the water surface. In order to achieve this, a farmer should initiate it by calling the fish at a designated fixed time and place. He can call on the fish for instance by making a sound or stump the ground before feeding. The farmer then pours in the pond at the specific point a handful of feed first. If the fish come, add more, if they do not come do not any feed.

The following day, do the same until the fish eventually learn that if they do not come to feed on time, there will be nothing left for them. It is important to note that this may take several days for the fish to adapt.
In the first week, one should not give more than half the estimated required ration according to what is given to you by the extension worker or expert.
This will help train the fish to feed intensively and rapidly. In order to keep the rapid feeding pattern, one should a container to broadcast the feeds in the pond rather than trickling them in.
After adaptation, the fish should finish all the food given in 15 minutes. If this is not possible, then reduce the ration.

However, if they finish it all in less than five minutes, add more and record daily how much has been consumed.

Do you know how to repair HDPE geomembranes?

 

With the massive fall of leaves and species beginning to dry up, the spaces housing water and plants in the garden now require certain tasks to see them splendorous again in spring.

When autumn arrives, the main care for the health of the pond and the aquatic plants that inhabit it is to avoid the incorporation of large amounts of organic matter, either by the fall of leaves characteristic of this time, or by the species palustres, floating and rooted that dry up with the first frosts.
The decomposition of all this material in the water body generates a double problem. On the one hand, the gases caused by fermentation, dissolved in water, can affect fish; on the other hand, the nutrients caused in this process serve as food for algae, especially at the beginning of spring, when they proliferate.

To avoid these problems, the most effective option is to cover the water with a net that prevents the entry of leaves or, if possible, with a transparent nylon. This not only serves the same function, but also acts as a greenhouse, prolonging the growth and flowering of some species, allowing us to continue enjoying the pond. If it is not possible to cover it, remove the leaves on the surface with a flake or net and clean the mulch that accumulates on the bottom.

Also at this time it is necessary to prune all the dry or burnt material by the cold, especially that of the palustres and floating, which is the most voluminous.

Solutions start at the very moment we plan the construction of the pond, looking for places that are away from deciduous trees. This will not only prevent a massive fall of leaves in the water, but also the possible breakage of the pond by the action of the roots.

Another topic to keep in mind about the care of ponds in autumn is to know which wind predominates in the area and which is its main direction. In this way, it is avoided to drag the fallen material towards the pond. One solution is to place high marsh species as a barrier.