New Levels

We'd been rather busy with one thing and another over the past few days so we decided to partake in a little R&R on Monday ... and what better way to relax than a trip to a Koi dealers.

We arrived at Dock Koi a little past 10.00 and were welcomed with a happy "hello" as usual from Neil & Harry. A quick look round the Koi for sale and it wasn't long before one or two (or three or four) fish started to grab our eye. However timing just isn't right and we had to use all our will power to refrain from purchasing, which was extremely difficult! We here to purchase a specific piece of equipment - an Econobead EB40 along with a by-pass, which was duly bought along with a couple of other items. But did we walk out without buying any fish .... nope! I'd tested the parameters of the quarantine system a number of times previously as i'd anticipated our visit and the distinct possibility that we'd want to purchase a couple of fish. In fact we came home with four little beauties - one for Keiran's pond and the other three to keep in the QT system not only to keep the filter system going but also to see what they turn out like when they get bigger. You never know!

Tuesday morning soon arrived and yet again we were up with the larks (actually i'll correct that as round here there not larks but pigeons) and once again raring to go but too early to do any real work. As a more reasonable time approached we managed to get in touch with Fairfax Plant Hire who we'd hired the digger etc from and they were happy to pick the equipment up later. Uniskip from Hull were also very helpful and would get another skip to us as soon as possible. Until another skip arrived there wasn't much we could with the excavated soil, therefore time to turn our attention to ensuring the base of the hole was level.

We positioned a number of stakes around the area and used a long piece of wood and spirit level to check the levels. We'd done a better job in the first place than we'd anticipated and we only had to do a little titivating to complete the task. Things really were going well for us. No sign of the new skip yet so on with the next task - checking the positioning of the filter equipment.

Into the hole came the vortex, Nexus 200 lid and Econobead EB40 body so that we could gauge where to position each piece of equipment within the filter house. It was during this process that the stark reality hit us that we'd excavated far too much out of this area. The tape measure, calculator, pen & paper came out and after some careful measurement and more careful contemplation it appears that our impromptu decision to take the filter house area to the same level as the pond base had backfired on us. We were 50cm too deep!

After weighing up the pro's & cons of different suggestions to rectify the problem we agreed that the best solution would be deal with area on a separate basis again, instead of trying to do it all in one go. Therefore to resolve the situation we'd have to install some shuttering to retain the concrete for the pond base. Remove the shuttering once the concrete has set and then build the walls of the pond up. Once we'd reached the correct wall depth between pond and filter house area, we'll then back fill the hole until we attain the right level to then add the concrete base for the filter house.

In the meantime of course we need to install the bottom drain and pipework and it also means the installation of the sump for the filter waste can be carried much easier as there's virtually no soil at the moment to dig it in to. Forever the optimist!

And what of the new arrivals ..... they're feeding and seem to be doing fine!