Pond Build with a Blue Eco Twist 10-12-2015

[Russell Peters]

The red line, sprayed on the bottom of the pond, is the center of the pond. Once I had this I centered each bottom drain in each half of the pond. That is all I got done today and tomorrow will be a rough plumbing day.

[Russell Peters]

Day 2
Today I started on the rough plumbing for the pond. Since both 4" bottom drain lines have to be set in front of the RDF, and they both need to be parallel to the front of the RDF, I decided to start right at the RDF location. These pictures show both 4" lines with one of them rolling on top of the other one with 45 degree fittings.

[Russell Peters]

This picture was taken at the end of the day but, with the ground being solid clay, it took about 4 hours to get both of these bottom drains in. The area around the bottom drains is to allow for rebar and concrete to encase the units so they are less likely to shift in the expansive soil.
The two 2 x 12 boards in the back are there so I could mix the clay with a little water and compact it back in place so that the filter pit area is solid for the concrete pour.

[Russell Peters]

Here is another picture but at a slightly different angle.

[Russell Peters]

All of the rough plumbing in the filter pit area is done as well so that only leaves the supply lines for the airdromes on the bottom drains. In this picture you can see, closest to the camera, the two 4" lines that leave the RDF and go to the up flow Lithaqua basin. The two 4" lines that come up in the basin are at the top of the picture. The two 4" lines in the middle of the picture are the lines from the bottom drains that will feed into the front of the RDF. The gray 3" line is the supply line from the skimmer that will connect to the side port of the RDF. All of this has to be laid out very close to where it need to be for this to work.

[Russell Peters]

This is a picture of the plumbing in the filter pit from the other side.

[Russell Peters]

Day 3
Today was mostly a rebar day but I also got in the airlines for the two bottom drains and some of the inside forms. I took down the two boards that I used to help compact the area in the filter pit that was excavated for the two bottom drains. It worked very well and I was able to walk on the area.

[Russell Peters]

All of the equipment was ordered ahead of time but the skimmer just arrived yesterday. It turns out it was the wrong one. It isn't going to be an issue though as concrete probably won't get poured for another 3 weeks. I am forming up the area for the skimmer, the rebar will be cut out later, and the 3" line from the skimmer will run around the perimeter of the pond to the RDF. The pond is going to be 18" above grade.

[Russell Peters]

Here is what the rebar looked like at about noon when I stopped for lunch. The forms will be coming up another 7" from the top of the boards that are in now.

[Russell Peters]

On the first day, when I set the perimeter form boards, I also installed a board that divides the pond from the filter pit. When the concrete is poured it has to continue around the perimeter of the pond and filter pit so, the points at which this board connects is in the way. I needed to keep the board there without it being attached to the sides because this board also helps determine where the concrete wall goes. This first picture shows the connection.