Garden pond

A big refurbishment programme

When asked what he’s been doing recently, Malcolm’s answer has very often been “chipping concrete”. This is because his old pond plumbing system had become brittle and broken in some places and the temporary rearrangements were impractical for long term use. A major refurbishment was in order.

On the left we see the dismantled pump and control system in the garden shed. Outside was the old filter which sat on a thick slab of concrete alongside the shed and housed within a matching wooden box. The concrete slab has now gone and a new one has been installed alongside the boundary fence. The plastic basin and the large diameter pipe are merely to catch and deflect water which dribbles from the pond through valves which no longer seal as well as they should.

The input and output pipes plus an overflow and electrical cable ran under a garden path and was foolishly heavily concreted in during construction. It was necessary to remove the concrete in order to join and extend the pipes to the new filter. Removing the last vestiges of concrete now seems likely to be impractical in any reasonable timescale but enough has now gone to enable the pipe extensions to be put in place.

This is the replacement fibreglass filter which is working via temporary flexible pipes and a makeshift pump. Even in this ‘bodged’ situation it is working surprisingly well and the water is clear and the fish seem happy as you can see below.

Some later developments may be seen here.

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