2500+ Gallon outdoor BUILD THREAD at Ellis Aquatics

JDEllis

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#1
Koi and turtle pond build that is...haha

Been contemplating when and where to do an XL build for 8+ years and finally pulled the trigger.

This pond will be roughly in the 2500 gallon range spanning a 35' x 13' area consisting of a large waterfall spilt into two approx. 8x10 ponds which then cascade into another large waterfall into a large donut shaped pond at the bottom.

I got started this last week by building the arched bridge first. Due to the location the pond will be placed, access would be tough without having the bridge built first so we can put in place when needed.

Heres a few pics...



Used 2x6 Douglas Fir for my step planks cut to 36" lengths, needed 26 of them for this 12' bridge


Saved the scraps to use as cross supports for between the stringers


For the stringers I used three 12 foot 2x12 Pressure treated lumber
 

805reef

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#2
This is going to be awesome! will this be available for customers to see when visiting the shop? My kids would love it!
 

JDEllis

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#3
Left 16" of flat surface at the ends of each beam and then cut my arch. I placed a screw 4" up on the center of the board and placed two more screws one on each side at 16" inward from the edge and then used a bender board to bend around the screws to draw the perfect arch



I then used the first arch as a template for the other two 2x12 stringers and cut them out
 
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#4
nice brother... what kind of filtration are you going to use..? i recommend an out of pond venturi/vortex system... easy to build... eventually, if i ever build another pond it will be about 13k gallons and have a massive venturi filtration system...
 

JDEllis

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#5
This is going to be awesome! will this be available for customers to see when visiting the shop? My kids would love it!
This will be simi visible from the front but not entirely...once this one is complete we are using the leftovers to build another pond in the front tho.
 

JDEllis

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#6
nice brother... what kind of filtration are you going to use..? i recommend an out of pond venturi/vortex system... easy to build... eventually, if i ever build another pond it will be about 13k gallons and have a massive venturi filtration system...
surface skimmer with built in UV, Aqua UV Ultima filter, and Savio waterfall bio mechanical filter in addition to tons of plants
 

JDEllis

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#7
Then I placed the arch cut out from the bottom on top of the stringer and centered it then screwed it in place to hold it for the next set of cuts

 

JDEllis

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#8
Same as the intial cuts I placed 3 screws in the boards side (center, and one on each side (this time two inches above the very ends of the board)) to draw another arch for the top.

Then cut which make the final shape approx. 2" tall at the ends and the center is 12" tall with a 4" gap from the ground making it 16" tall total

Repeated this for all 3 stringers. Then lined up all three and trimmed down anywhere where all 3 didn't match up. This wood is very hard and required a lot of time and bladed to cut through to make it perfect

Used wood glue and then re screwed in the arch portion of the board to the stringers.



 
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JDEllis

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#9
Drew out my lines on all the boards and drilled them. My holes were placed center, and on the sided they were 2-3/4" in from the sides which will leave me a 2" overhang on the sides. All holes are 1-34" from the edge of the board. 156 holes later we were ready for a dry run to make sure all the boards fit and that 26 would be enough. Luckily it was.

I placed two planks in place and drilled them in at the far ends to hold everything together for now


 
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JDEllis

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#11
I then added the cross supports to the bridge to keep it all together tight. After this I didn't take pics but we stained/weatherproofed.


 

JDEllis

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#12
Although I did put it all together to see how it looks and "weight test" it, no pics of that...youll have to wait for later pics closer to the end of the project to see it complete with post and handrails.

The bridge holds a good amount of weight too. It held two men and my 6'3" 285lb frame jumping on it at its peak with no creaking or noise.
 

JDEllis

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#16
Placed everything in place and painted out the lines to start digging and get a final layout in my mind

Off to the right under the bridge will be the Largest pond with a small island in the middle making it donut shaped


This will be a larger island in between the two smaller ponds and waterfall in the back of this pic


 
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JDEllis

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#18
We also started building up our retaining wall for the waterfall area and to hold most of the soil we dug up

 

JDEllis

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#19
A lot more digging and the wall being complete and second level started since the last pictures I have posted right here. I will try to get pics of that today. We are back at digging again tomorrow and Friday. Hopefully done with final shape and holes by then. The goal is possibly lining it and rocking the whole thing and plumbing by end of next week making it only a two week build total (I know high hopes lol)
 
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