Indianapolis IN, Pond Build with a Blue Eco RDF

Postby **Russell Peters** » December 12th, 2016, 5:38 pm

The booster pump and the main pump are installed on the RDF. The Showers won't be installed right away so that is it for now. Hopefully Jim will post when he does that.

Postby **Russell Peters** » December 12th, 2016, 5:39 pm

The bottom drain covers are ready so I removed them from the forms. The pond paint has still not arrived so I am not sure when they will go in.

Postby **Russell Peters** » December 12th, 2016, 5:40 pm

Today was my last day working on the pond and the pond paint has still not shown up. It is very easy to apply so Jim will do it if it ever gets here. I installed the Levolor autofill unit today, which is mounted on the 2" standpipe, and put in a T just above the water line that will be the over flow pipe. The control panel is not mounted but I put the plug on and set it up so the wires get connected once a location for the control is set. The second picture show the valve for the autofill.

Postby **Russell Peters** » December 12th, 2016, 5:41 pm

I also cut the 3/4" pvc legs on the bottom drain covers and put caps on them. That is it for now but Jim will post updates when the stonework is being done and the Shower is hooked up.

Postby **Russell Peters** » December 12th, 2016, 5:42 pm

2-3 inches of rain expected Saturday...

So, paint may need to wait until Sunday. Also, in order to avoid losing the trench, the discharge line to the shower was placed in the trench. Electrical supply to the filter area was run beneath the pipe, along with wiring from the auto-fill. Cement blocks (not shown) were positioned on the pipes in order to keep the pipes from shifting if we get any rain between now and when I fill the pipes with water tomorrow.

Postby **Russell Peters** » December 12th, 2016, 5:44 pm

Things go a bit slower without Russell around, but I managed to get two coats of paint on the pond today. The plan is to get the electrical hooked up this weekend, and fill the pond to see if it holds water! The bottom drain covers were also painted- you can see them in the second shot.

Postby **Russell Peters** » December 12th, 2016, 5:54 pm

Seventeen hours later- the pond is FULL. Looks to be about 12,000 gallons. The air diffusers are working great! Once the limestone caps are on, there will be another 3 inches of freeboard. Till then I will have to tone down the air supply!

One miscalculation- the port to the auto-fill is too close to the air diffuser, so the water in the sense tube is bubbling too much. I will experiment with a couple ideas tomorrow to see if I can eliminate that issue. Worst case I can put a sanitary fitting on to divert the air bubbles.

The electrical all seems to be wired correctly. I used the auto-fill to verify since it has a nice power-on light so I could see it from the breaker box. I briefly tried to put the pump on to see how much water will be moving through, but got a "Low Voltage" error message. I will look into fixing that tomorrow. Tomorrow I will also be building a spillway for the showers.

Postby **Russell Peters** » December 12th, 2016, 5:59 pm

Time to make a DIY spillway. I am going with 36", time will tell if that was a wise choice. I had a plastics shop cut the pieces from 1/2 inch grey PVC. (Pic 1) I used corner clamps to set the back piece at 90 degrees (Pic 2), glued the pieces using heavy duty PVC glue, and clamped the back to the bottom. (Pic 3)

Postby **Russell Peters** » December 12th, 2016, 6:00 pm

After letting the back set for 20 minutes, I glued and clamped the rest of the pieces (Pic 1). Pic 2 shows the final product. I went with 1/2 inch PVC because I will be using the spillway to support the shower unit.

Postby **Russell Peters** » December 12th, 2016, 6:01 pm

I am in the process of building the pit area-I'll post some pictures later this week. I am making a small enclosure that will allow for insulation to keep from freezing in the winter. The enclosure will end up keeping the area dry, and also protected from direct sunlight. The controller is on the south facing side of the pond in direct sunlight, so overheating would be a concern.
A few updates. I am starting to look at how to secure the shower unit to the pond. I will be building either a screen or a stone veneer to hide it. The grey fixtures on the bottom will be removed. They are used to connect elbows, but I will dump the water straight into the spillway. I have re-cut the patio around the fire pit to match the pond circle. A foundation drain extends around the pond to drain water away since the patio is low close to the pond. This area will be filled with dirt and we will grow ground cover to break up the harshness of the stone. We are going to go with real stone veneer, which you can see stacked against the post by the pond.