To the right, you'll see a slideshow of photos of the work in progress. I could have taken up an entire page with dull shots of me sweating, but I didn't. Thank me later. The slide show is about 2.5 mb, so on a slow connection it may take a while to load up. Please be patient, as it's already been reduced several times over to make it fit on a web page at all.

As you can see from the first few images in the slide show, the original pond was cute, but small and easy to upset the ecosystem. The previous owners had apparently just finished putting it in when they sold the house, so they never had an opportunity to get things really situated. For one, they had a medium sized fountain pump sitting in the middle of this tiny pond, and it would always clog up, spewing water all over the grass and eventually threatening the fish. We learned a lot about how to kill fish the first few months we lived here. I mourn all the goldfish that went to my education.

Anyway, I decided finally to do away with this puny thing and build a manly pond, if such a thing exists. However, I had a few obstacles. First, the current pond was built by piling dirt around the molded plastic form, so I'd have to excavate just to get to ground level. Second, our driveway surrounds the pond on two sides, in a sense, so I couldn't move it any closer to the house, and it must be at least two feet tall to prevent it becoming a hazard when parking, walking at night, etc. Lastly, there are water sprinklers installed in the area, which I had no interest in ripping up just to satisfy my urge to put the pond at least a foot in the ground, so all of the pond would most likely be above ground, and while I could have easily dug the center down a bit extra, I decided against it because it is much harder to clean a multilevel pond, and it's easier for fish to hide from view (safer for them, but their sole purpose in existence is to be beautiful for my benefit, so I overrule).

Once I decided to make the pond large enough for Koi, the parameters were set. It had to be at least two feet deep, a minimum of 10' long by 10' wide, and should be clear and clean year round with minimal or no effort on my behalf. While building the pond, I also wanted to dig a trench for drainage, for other reasons, but also for ease of cleaning. We have a ditch that runs behind the pond on the other side of the fence, so a drain is quite easy to install.

The electrical was pretty easy to run. The previous pond had a really lame install with PVC shrouding a 50' extension cord. I simply cut into the PVC a point near the pond, then turned it to run along the edge to the back side where the water fall would be, to keep it out of sight. However, I actually mounted a box with conduit up the edge, cut the end off the extension cord and hardwired a real GFI outlet into the box. Since I was planning on having the pump and UV light plugged in all the time and both running off the same timer, I put a lamp timer inside the shed where the power source is, so both sockets are live or dead at the same time. Also, I put a rain shroud over the plugs which have enough room for both large plugs to be fitted without possibility of rain or critters getting into the box.

Number	Item	Cost
	lamp & appliance timer	$6.86
	plastic rain protective enclosure for box	$9.46
	15A GFI outlet	$8.75
	single plastic gang box	$3.61

After measuring and looking at the available materials, I decided to use 4"x6"x12' posts to form the walls of the pond. While this is fairly expensive, it's very heavy and required no cutting on my part, as my area was roughly 12' square. The typical above ground construction is done with landscaping timbers, which are only 8' long and 3" thick. The costs were only 10% less, but required more hardware and a lot more effort on my part for assembly, so I went with the solid posts instead. They're also treated for outdoors use.

I didn't have a drill bit long enough to drill through the 6" wide posts, so I did some searching and found that a 6" auger bit will work fine, but it requires two plunges, to clear the bit. There aren't any sizes in between 6" and 18", and the long bit is a lot more expensive.

Also, I originally planned to use angle brackets on the inside corners to brace the wood, but after I noted that my work area is not exactly square, I scrapped that. Instead, I put metal rods through the entire stack and drove them one foot further into the ground. I did this on the corners only, so that three per corner could be used, and staggered each layer, tightening the entire structure. Ideally, I would have also put rods at 1/3 and 2/3 the length of each post, but I didn't feel that was necessary. So far, I think I was right. The weight and thickness of the wood alone is more than enough to hold shape. The amount of water in the pond doesn't seem to exert all that much force outwards, enough to flatten the liner against the wood, but not enough to force the corners to be hard-pressed to the wood at all. In fact, the bottom wouldn't have even been flat unless I forced it to be myself, to prevent eventual settling and tearing.

Just for reference, here's all the things I bought (I saved every related receipt):

Number	Item	Cost
16	4"x6"x12' treated posts @ 14.95 ea	$239.20
12	3' long, round steel bars @ 3.17 ea	$38.04
	5/8" wood auger bit (7" long!)	$7.64

When putting together the frame, I checked for level in all three dimensions, and relative levels between sides of the frame. I knew that certain sides were slightly higher or lower than others, but I figured that after the first layer or so, they'd equal out. Not so. In my particular case, the gaps all migrated to the back corner, making it the lowest point by about two inches. That's not bad, for an amateur, but when I fill the pond, the front has what looks like a significant amount of empty space between the top and the water level. Remember, water is always level, and in a pond, any errors you make will be shown at the level of the water, which happens to be near the top of my timbers and close to where people will inspect the pond. It's something to keep in mind. I was in a hurry when putting in the frame, and that's the worst place to rush. Next time, I'll make sure it's perfect before moving on.

The drain beside the pond was unexpectedly expensive because of the D-channel. If I had done it out of PVC and a simple grate cover, it'd be a lot less. However, we had special needs and required a longer opening. Originally, there was a big gap between the driveway and the plastic channel. After seeing another install where the builder had put a piece of wood trim in to fill the gap, then the wood rotted and the channel shifted, I decided to use concrete instead. Filling with concrete was fun, but I wasn't careful enough and made the lip a little too high in places for water to easily enter the drain, but not bad for an amateur.

Number	Item	Cost
2	80# concrete mix @ 2.39 ea	$4.78
3	4' Spee-D-Channel @ 18.93	$56.79
	Spee-D-Channel End outlet	$3.31
2	Spee-D-Channel couplings @ 3.03	$6.06
6	2' Spee-D-Channel grates @ 9.07	$54.42
	Spee-D-Channel End cap	$2.52
	4" x 10' soil pipe	$3.90
	4" x 5' soil pipe	$5.77

Doing the entire drain only took about 3 hours, and most of that time was spent working the concrete and digging to adjust the drainage angle.

The plumbing is easy. Getting all the parts in one place so you can do the plumbing is another matter entirely. The equipment I bought requires pumping water outside the pond, through a UV light to sterilize the water, then into the bottom of a tank that spills over into the pond again. This has the drawback that a leak will put water outside the pond, and that's bad indeed. After I got all my connections set, I checked them every 20 minutes for any signs of a leak. Sure enough, an irreplaceable part ($200) had a leak on a coupling! The only way to fix it was to dry it thoroughly and go around the outside of the problem area several times with cement and hope it holds. It has, but only because it's not under any significant pressure. Ponds are rarely under much pressure unless you're pumping a long way uphill (static head pressure).

Number	Item	Cost
50 ft roll	flexible backwash hose	$9.98
	2" x 10' PVC pipe	$3.58
2	1 1/4" x 10' PVC pipe @ 1.28	$2.56
1 ft	1 1/4" braided hose	$2.57
	PVC cleaner	$2.67
	PVC Cement	$1.47
4	1/2" cap (for sprinklers) @ 0.40	$1.60
	Various couplings and adapters	$20.64

Two tricky things had to happen for me to get my pump jibing with the biofilter and UV light.

First, everything was at 2" pipe fittings except the pump, which had a 1 1/4" outflow. Flexible tubing for that size is scarce and expensive, whereas 1 1/2" is cheap and plentiful, especially if you aren't holding significant pressure. I bought a short piece of 1 1/4" and stepped it up to 1 1/2" as soon as possible, then ran that sized flexible tubing to the pond wall. At the wall, I have rigid PVC plumbing that goes up and over, into the UV light, then into a bulkhead fitting on the biofilter. All the PVC is at 2", so there's even lower pressure running through these sections, with no adapters outside the pond! You don't leak in the middle of a solid pipe, so I tried to keep as few connections outside the pond as possible.

Second, the flexible hose which runs from the pump to the rigid PVC is very thin backwash hose used on pool pumps. It's the same stuff that hardware stores sell for $1.00+ per foot, and I got 50 feet for $10.

By the way, there is nothing securing any of these parts to the pond at all, except the shape of the PVC which hugs the wall somewhat. When emptied of water, this could be moved around to a different position, which is nice for cleaning or if I someday get creative and build a nice waterfall someday. One stupid thing I did was I built the plumbing outside the pond to rest at ground level. Well, since the pond is above ground, this means even with the pump turned off these sections of pipe will hold water up to the level of the pond water. So, if I need to change something or move a component, I have to drain out about 40 gallons of water onto the ground before the pipes are clear. Messy and wasteful. On the other hand, it may be bad for a biofilter to be dry half the day, so maybe I did the right thing? When designing your pond, you might ask a professional for the best practice.

After we had the pond together, it dawned on us that we had a cubic yard or so of dirt laying about, 30+ retaining wall bricks, and company coming in a few days! I decided to make a small patio on the unused side of the pond, out of the way and facing any visitors we'd be receiving from the street. After building up the patio, we surrounded the dirt with retaining wall blocks and leveled as best we could. I added sand to do a final level, but it can only do so much. Then, we laid 140 or so bricks in rapid succession, just to get it down before the rains came. The next day, I removed all the bricks again and hand-leveled each brick with a gardening hand shovel and fit them together one at a time. This took a whole day. At the end, we had a nice patio that looks great up against the pond. The only downside is the retaining wall is curved and the patio bricks are not, so I will get to spend some time to cut a lot of bricks to match that curve over the next few months. It looks unfinished now, but not bad.

Number	Item	Cost
mason chisel	$8.69
16	retaining wall bricks @ 1.88	$22.56
178	interlocking Colony bricks @ 0.65	$115.70
3	50# play sand @ 1.98	$5.94
24	paver edgers @ 0.65	$9.10
8	solid patio bricks @ 0.59	$4.72

Once the patio was in place, we build stairs out of more retaining wall blocks. This was a little tricky because we needed more separation between blocks than was customary, and the dirt was soft, so I bought some solid bricks and buried them under the stairs for structure. They're pretty solid still. Lastly, we took some iron chairs and a small iron cafe table and set them beside the pond. Every morning, my ritual is to sit at the table and feed my beautiful koi, and they swarm up to greet me. It's wonderful.

While there can be no doubt that pond equipment is the most expensive part of building an above ground pond, I did buy some very good quality equipment. Many people build their own biofilters, waterfalls out of rock and EPDM rubber liners, skip the UV light, and so forth. Being my first pond, I did what I thought was necessary to make a great pond the first time out. On reflection, I would probably build a biofilter and locate it a bit further from the pond, or literally within and above the pond, but not right up against the side where it is. It's hard to keep water from splashing out once it's attached properly with double stick EPDM liner. This particular biofilter, the Purifalls, is bulky and hard to conceal with an above ground pond. All the installs they show on their video are for in-ground ponds, and if not, they pile dirt around it to hide the unit.

Number	Item	Cost
	PuriFalls	$275
	CalPump PU2000	$215
	Aqua Ultraviolet 15W	$225
	EPDM 20' x 17.5'	$245
15	3" to 5" American (pond quality) koi	$75

Also note that the UV light is only 15W, which is rated for 750gph and not 2000gph as the pump is rated. This did cause our pond to take a full two weeks to finally clear and curb the algae bloom, which all new ponds do have. A higher wattage bulb would have given clearer water faster, but over time would cost much more. Since then, however, our water has been crystal clear and beautiful with no chemical effort on my part. In fact, except to clean the intake filter on the pump, I have done almost nothing but rearrange plants and feed my fish since they took over the pond.

A few minor tips that I've come to the hard way thus far: when putting your pump in the pond, if you decide to put it in a pot, make certain you get a pot without any holes in the bottom. I tried everything to plug the holes, and had trouble getting the holes plugged reliably. The whole purpose of putting the pump in a pot is to help control the junk the pump sucks in, but holes sort of ruin that! Also, since my pump is in a pot with holes, I solved the problem by putting a round slice of pond liner in the pot's bottom. Well, the pump naturally wants to rotate at right angles to its motor, so the pot kept falling over, and sucking junk into its intake when the liner moved. So, I put a heavy brick in the bottom of the pot and set the pump on the brick, and it's been easy to manage ever since.

I was told by the local pond guy to put a filter around the pump to keep more junk from getting into the pump. This works fine, except that the filter fills up at least every week, and requires me washing it out. Filthy fish! Most of the junk is biomatter, but a lot is leaves, so I fashioned a screen out of scrap aluminum mesh that fits completely over the open top of the pot. All the leaves get caught in this screen and only the smaller matter gets into the heavy filter. After a while, I gave up on the heavy filter and went with my screen instead. It's working great. I also set the pot up on bricks so that the open lip of the pot is near the surface level of the water, so leaves will eventually get sucked into the pot and not be able to escape due to the suction of the pump. Such a configuration creates a skimmer for free, and cleans the pond every day for me. Whenever I feed my fish, I glance at the screen to see how filthy it is. When it's dirty, I just pull it out (remember, it's only 1/2" below the surface now) and flop it on the ground. All the leaves come off and I put it right back on. No muss, no fuss.

All told, the total cost (plus tax, which is not included in the above figures) was about $1830 for my pond. I'm not done yet, but I'm confident I'll break $2k. If I could, I'd much prefer an in-ground pond than an above ground pond. It's much easier to naturalize an in-ground pond, frogs don't need special stone or grass 'ramps' to get to the water, and I really think digging is easier and more likely to give the desired results than building up your pond walls. It won't cost you anything extra to dig a deeper pond, either, whereas building up higher certainly will. You also cannot build attractive Japanese bridges across the water when the edge is two feet off the ground. If you can, build down, not up. I'm very happy with my pond, but I know it'd have been less expensive and less work the other way.

Truly, I think any sizable pond would want a ultraviolet light to keep the water clear. I love the results.

Get a bunch of smaller koi at various sizes when first starting out. If none die in the first month, go buy a couple of fully grown koi, if you want larger ones. I got lucky and bought two mostly grown koi off a nice lady who was moving, and they've been the delight of the pond. All the smaller fish follow Kathy and Judy around like tag-along siblings. It's also nice to be able to recognize a few fish while enjoying your new water feature.

Get a few large plants for the koi to hide under during the day. At first, they're liable to be quite shy, but after you feed them for a week or so, they get to be more adventurous. Mine literally swim up to the surface near where I sit anytime I talk to them.

I won't bother building any pond smaller than 100 square feet surface area. If you build too small, you'll regret it. You can never build too large.

Also, buy some black spray paint. Look at the plumbing photo and you'll notice I painted the PVC black to disguise it. From the front, it's not likely to draw your attention, but from the back it's still white and easy to maintain even in the dark. Lastly, I bought a grill that is used for flourescent lighting fixtures that has 1/2" squares all through it, about 2' by 4' in one sheet. This works great as a shelf for rocks or plants in the PuriFalls, but does require a crossbrace (I cut a simple 1x2 and it's working great). This is also blindingly white, so black spray paint helps make it less distinctive.

I've included a number of high quality and quite large images. The camera really brings out the fish, but I have to take photos of them with a fast shutter, or they blur easily. Koi don't pose for pictures. The first image is quite large, at over 1.3mb. The rest are lower resolution and weigh in at 240k each. Take that into account before you click, as it may be a while before you see the picture.
Here is an allegorical photograph. Try to visualize the many levels; I think it's high enough resolution to print nicely as well.
The feeding frenzy begins.
It's mayhem.
They are sharks, patrolling the waters now.
Padding back to the shady hangout in the center of the pond.
They suddenly spy a few tasty morsels.
...and attack again, leaving no survivors.