Ive been wanting to do this for a while now and Ive finally pulled my finger out and got started on my ray pond

The dimensions of the pond will 6x4x18" and will be filtered with a homemade trickle filter and an FX5,
i'll be using a butyl pond liner and it'll be constructed from 18mm plywood and lined with polystyrene to help with insulation.

Ive got the wood sorted and hopefully i'll be putting that together this weekend,
the breeze blocks for the stand are in place and the trickle filter is almost done (just waiting on more media)

i'll keep this updated as i go on but this is where I'm up to


basic plans
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plywood
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base for the pond
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trickle filter
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1st draw will have sponge, filter wool and bio balls
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2nd draw will be full of plastic pot scrubbers
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3rd draw will be full of more scrubbers, stainless and plastic
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Go mate.... and it will have a beach.... Wicked mate....as I have said before... your on a winner

Great idea mate.Must be a first having a ray pond.

cheers lads

looking forward to getting it up and running

Thats some project you got going there got to be the one and only in the uk.
Should give your local news a shout if you get it up and running.

Cool idea Alex, is it going to be indoors or outdoors? How you going to heat it?

cheers lads ,

not sure about it being a uk first, i think there's quite a few tropical ponds out there.... not sure how many are indoor tho.... thanks for the comments

rasdaz,
its gonna be indoor, in one of the rooms in my cellar... and it will be heated by a couple of normal 300watt heaters (should be enough)
i'll be covering the top of the pond eventually to help cut down on evaporation and heat loss... a big piece of perspex should do it

That is excellent Alex, cant wait to see it finished. Great idea.

Blimey Alex you have been busy. Great idea , i saw a ray pond somewhere and they were hand tame

Love the filter Alex. Does that plastic frame support all the water? Are you going to brace the ply so it doesn't bow out? I have a tank that I made out of 18mm ply, 8x2x2. I painted it with pond seal. If you went this way, you could have a glass viewing panel, just a thought.

Cool idea Alex.
Nice step by step so far, keep up the good work.

That's going to be great, yeah 600 watt should heat it ok indoors.

I used to use perspex lids on my discus tanks and they bowed with heat, dunno if thats because their water was at 30 thou, might have to make a frame for the lid to stop that.

Really looking forward to seeing pics of this underway

Polycarbonate roofing sheet would make a good lid and it will hold the heat as well, plus it wont bow.

cheers den
yeah the frame for the filter should be fine (i hope ), cant see it being an issue really,
yeah gonna brace the sides, just been out to get some more wood for that actually,
im using the pond liner to keep costs down, i contemplated pond seal and a viewing window but again it would seriously increase the cost of this build



cheers paul



cheers daz,
not too sure what to use for a lid yet, but ive got plenty of time to get that sorted


if thats the corrugated stuff, then thats a possibility...ive just seen some in B&Q and wicks and its fairly cheap
... rich uses it on his tanks and his haven't bowed at all so that could be the way to go

Its not that corrugated stuff, its flat and got multi walls. Wicks do do it though, its used on conservatories. Your right about the glass, got my piece trade 20mm thick and that was £125.

Sorry wrong forum. Should be on MFK.




































































Looking good Alex. Dead jealous of you.

good one curly, i was waiting for something like that..... it is very MFK tho isn't it



Den , i know what stuff you mean, saw that too, quite pricey tho if i remember right.... will have to look into it abit more
cheers mate

Have you decided what exactlys going in there Alex?

I'm pretty set on a pair of motoros.... Ive had retics in the past so fancy something different
.... but if there's something else that catches my eye when i'm ready to buy i could change my mind

Love Motoro's. Not too expensive, lovely colouration, active and a great shape. Will look awesome in there.
Whats the timescale for it to be finished?

yeah me too mate, love motoros , ive wanted some for a while now

timescale!!!.... good question, ive not really given myself a deadline, im just gonna get it finished as a when i can,
luckily there's not a great deal to do so hopefully early January it should be up and running

UPDATE

got quite alot done today and managed to get the pond in place (had some help from a friend)

i'll post pics later, going out for a curry now

Excellent.

Just looking at the curry menu now myself, getting it delivered though.

curry was sooooo nice


pics



my mate (who just happends to be a joiner) was a star today and really helped me out
we spent about 2 hours on it this morning and this is as far as we got.... looking good so far


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and thats where im at .... next job is to fix the centre brace in place and then find a decent price for the pond liner

Looking great alex. Cant wait to see it finished.

Yeah You aint messing about are you

cheers boys

wish i could have got the liner today.... cant wait to get some water in there

Thats coming along quickly and nicely. Top job!

cheers curly... having a joiner there helped alot

Thats an excellent project you got going there Alex, looks like a top job and i can't wait to see it full of water!

Only thing I don't get is why your using metal scrubbies? I don't see any obvious benefits of using metal ones instead of all plastic ones, but potentially some negatives?

Keep up the good work, hope you find a nice deal for liner

thanks pete

stainless steal pot scrubbers have a better surface area to grow bacteria on (see link below) than the plastic ones so i thought id mix it up abit and get both.... what potential negatives do you see with me using them?

read this ... http://www.wernerswatergardens.com/biofiltermedia.htm

I'm scared of putting anything metal into my tank as I'm scared of nasty toxins leaching out or any rusting after long periods of exposure to water. (i'm not saying this is factual, i'm just mega paranoid...lol)

Would also imagine metal scrubbies would be much harder to clean?

cool article, thanks for the link

Looks very nice mate, looking forward to seeing more photos.

i used to think the same thing, but from what ive read there shouldnt be a problem
you just have to make sure you get the rust free stainless steel ones and not the galvanised steal ones which will rust
... i will be keeping a close eye on it anyway, and if i see anything suspect they will be taken out

and i should never have to clean the media because i'll have sponge and filter floss in the top draw so no crap will find its way onto the media





cheers matt... nice to see you back on mate, i thought youd left us

Been using my stainless scrubbers for a year, never touched them or cleaned them, got foam as mechanical filter 1st so no crap gets to them. the benifit over plastic ones is they have nearly twice as much surface area i believe. Stainless doesn't rust so no probs there.

looks brill so far when u get it done can i come for a swim

cause you can mate... im sure the rays would love some company

Nice job alex, funny enough i,ve been busy on my own 6x4x2.5 in my shed/tankhouse, its a brick build wiv 2 portals but i,l probably post a topic later when i get some pics, so say no more of mine at the mo, hope you sort your liner out ok, cheapest i,ve seen are always on line or you couldtry the back pages of gardeners world magazine, they usually have some good deals on pond liners and equipment.

Lookin good mate Better than you gettin the hammer out , give you a shout sat, with what I've picked up, to let you know whether its good for the job or not

nice one rich

and cheers tony, i'll have to check that magazine out

Bradshaws, they're pretty good for liners. Trouble with your setup Alex, is you are going to get a lot of folded up liner in those corners. What would be good is a box liner, not cheap though. You give them the sizes and they make one that drops straight into the framework, but as I said, not cheap.

yeah im a little concerned about how the liner will lay tbh, cos i dont want loads of folds everywhere
but i'll just have to be on the ball when im filling it up and try and uncrease it the best i can

box liner sounds good den but i really dont wanna spend that sort of money

I worried about the folds, but sand the corners and get the right liner, the water will sort it out

Have a look at Bradshaws Direct, they make box liners to your spec and also ordinary liners. I think it depends on how permanent you want it to be. Personally I would get some damp proof membrane that is used in building work. Get a couple of layers in it and form it into the corners with a heat gun or hair dryer, gotta be the cheapest way to go. If later on, money permitting, you want to make it more permanent, you could go for the box liner. Either way, get a good bed of silicon in the corners of the plywood, it all helps.

Not sure I would go for DPM. Its quite thick and not sure it would fold very well in the corners.

silicon in the corners??... but ive already rounded the corners off with sand!!

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...lookin at bradshaws now

Sorry Alex forgot that.
I made a 8x2x2 and waterproofed it with G4 pond seal then I sealed all the corners with silicon.
The DPM is a bit thick but if you warm it with a heat gun it gets nice and flexi. We are talking budget here.
The other thing to consider is, with the folds in the corners you are going to have a lot of nooks and crannies for muck to collect in. Thats why a box liner is so good.

is this the stuff your talking about.... http://www.bradshawsdirect.co.uk/Bradshaws...roduct/GLFS.htm

and for any folds in the corners i will be doing my best to cover with sand so no crap can get caught up
... hopefully with the corners rounded off as they are the liner should lay relatively flat... i hope

Yeh, thats the one I used on my pond, good stuff, really flexi.
The liner will lay flat on the bottom, its the vertical corners where you have to fold a load of liner in on itself.

looks the business that stuff, not badly priced too

thanks for the help den, appreciate it