A flat sheet Epalyn pond liner allows for creative design flexibility and the build of ponds that blend in with the surrounding landscape. The photographs shared here were sent in by one of Liners Online customers. A viewing point has been constructed over the pond offering a marvellous creative feature to compliment the long flowing pond. The decking area offers an idyllic setting to sit, relax and soak-up the beauty of this garden pond build.

Rocks have been used to edge the pond and secure the pond liner in place. If you are planning a similar finish to your pond and are concerned about the rocks bearing down on the pond liner and puncturing it, you can line the top of the pond liner over which the rocks are to be placed, with geotextile protective underlay.

Epalyn pond liners are the ultimate product for UV resistance. The 0.85mm and 1.0mm are the same as 0.75 mm but, give added piece of mind with the extra thickness for more demanding applications. For the average garden pond build the 0.75mm thickness is ideal.

Epalyn offers high flexibility and elongation properties, superior weathering resistance, and due to it’s durability it also offers low maintenance after installation.

Sharing photos of a pond during construction and as a finished product, helps others to draw inspiration from it’s unique qualities. Hence why we are so grateful to able to share photos sent to us by customers.

The transition from summer into autumn is marked by the colour changing of leaves, cooling temperature and the nights getting longer. For the pond owner it is the fall of the leaves that alerts them to the onset of autumn. The lovely hues of  red, orange and brown colours bring an exciting dimension to footpaths, streets and parks. But to ponds there is these fallen leaves risk floating to the bottom of ponds and resulting in dangerous increase in debris levels if not dealt with.

A question that frequently gets asked by pond owners at this time of the year is whether a pond heater is necessary to invest in. If you don’t keep fish in your garden pond then a heater is not needed at all. If you have followed the Autumn Pond Maintenance guidelines as illustrated in the above infographic, then you are not likely to need a heater either and I will explain why.

A pond that ices over for a few days is not likely cause stress to your fish or affect the health of your pond. During the cold winter months fish are less active, their metabolism has slowed and they are eating very little if anything at all. They will also spend the winter at the bottom of the pond where the water is a little warmer. With the slowed metabolism fish excrete less waste into the water. A thorough Autumn pond maintenance regime of cutting back, pruning dead foliage and skimming-off leaves means less organic matter sinks to the bottom of the pond to turn to sludge releasing carbon dioxide into the water as it continues to decay. So, with no sludge and clean healthy water an iced over pond isn’t going to lock in any toxins.

If you live in the northern most parts and you do experience periods of snow and freezing temperatures for extended periods then an aerator or pond heater maybe an option – although leaving a plastic ball floating on the surface of your pond will help prevent it freezing over thereby allowing gases to escape and oxygen to enter the water.

A small picturesque waterfall can add a fascinating dimension to a garden pond of any size. The tranquil sound of water splashing into a pond below will turn the most ordinary of gardens into a dream oasis – a place to relax and reflect. If you feel inspired to transform an area of your back garden into a water feature with water trickling over rocks into a pool below then here are a few tips to get you started. And, to help you budget for your project, I will share advice on measuring the amount of pond liner and protective underlay for your pond plus water fall extension.

The first step to getting started is to decide where you are going to site your garden pond so that it offers maximum visibility from your house. The next important step is deciding what type of pond – to home Koi carp, to display a stunning array or aquatic plants or a pond built for the purpose of attracting wildlife? Koi need as big a surface area as possible and a pond depth of no less than 1.5 meters. A waterfall will aerate the water acting as a natural oxygenator – helps maintain healthy water and reduce algae growth while providing oxygen to both fish and aquatic plants. But, cascading water can also be hazardous to pond inhabitants so  keep this in mind when planning your build.

The best advice given by pond experts and landscape professionals is to do thorough research before embarking on any pond project. This will allow for a confident execution of your pond build as well as save on time and budget. Success is built on the foundation of thorough research! Join pond forum groups to see photos of established ponds. They also provide a platform to bounce off any questions you may have.  Dedicated pond liner suppliers are generally experts and will be able to advice you accordingly too.

Using all the research you have gathered together, you can now start planning the design of your pond and waterfall. Refer to a previous article post, for Tips on designing your garden pond

There are preformed ponds and waterfalls which can be bought from specialist suppliers. A less expensive option which is what we prefer is the use of an underlay and flexible rubber pond liner. The reason – allows design flexibility and looks more natural.

List of equipment to build pond and waterfall

To budget your project and to ensure you have everything at hand when you start your project to avoid delays. Here is a list of equipment to get you started >>

• rubber pond liner
• protective underlay
• high efficiency submersible pond pump (possibly 2 – one for the pond to pump water through a filter and the other to pump water for flow into pond along waterfall)
• filter
• Tubing for pumped water to top of waterfall
• rocks/boulders
• stone slabs – pond edging and for waterfall contouring
• sandpit sand (fine grained) – if your garden is flat use the sand dug out to create your pond to build the contours for waterfall for smooth out with layer of fine grained sand
• hosepipe
• Extra wide repair strip – used to join the the pond liner where it meets at the base of the waterfall
• waterproof adhesive sealant

How to calculate pond liner dimensions?

To budget for your project take the measurements from your planned pond build scaled diagrams as follows:

• Measure the longest length
• Measure the widest width
• Measure the depth from the deepest area of your pond

Add to your calculation an amount needed for the pond liner overlap (0.15m) – this is so you can secure your pond liner in place using your chosen edging material.

How much of an overlay or overlap to add into your calculation really depends on how you plan to fix your pond liner in place. So, increase or decrease the amount of overlay depending on installation and edging method.

The pond liner calculation will look like this:

• Maximum length + (2 x depth) +2 x 0.15m overlap = Total Length of Liner
• Maximum width + (2 x depth) + 2 x 0.15m overlap = Total Width of Liner

For a more detailed discussion on determining pond liner measurements, please refer to a previous blog article, How much pond liner do I need?

Do the same for the proposed area over which water will flow into your pond as a length and width measurement with sufficient width to secure the liner in place using rocks and slabs.

In your pre-planning phase and to get a good feel for what your finished product will look like, you can use boxes of different shapes and sizes balanced on top of each other and side by side – just an idea and also helpful when measuring-up ahead of placing your order.

Building pond and sculpturing waterfall

• mark out the outline of your pond design using rope, hosepipe or spray paint
• start digging reserving the soil to build-up the ground for your waterfall (or stream – if gentle gradient is preferred)
• sculpture the sand to the desired gradient and steps
• trample down on the soil to make compact
• line with protective underlay pressing it into the steps and contours of your earthy mound
• clear the bottom of pond of stones and gravel to prevent damage to liner
• install underlay and pond liner pushing it into all the contours and adding neat pleats for a perfect finish – for more tips, please refer to this article on Pond Build and Pond Liner Installation
• lay rocks and paving blocks onto the waterfall securing them in place. Use waterproof adhesive sealant if necessary
• house the pond pump in an appropriate position to pump water through a tube from pond to waterfall

Landscape the area around your pond and along the waterfall. The final step is the addition of aquatic plants and fish. Then sit back and enjoy the sheer tranquility you have bought to your home and garden – the 4th room will be paradise!

Garden ponds, as all enthusiasts will agree bring so much joy and tranquility to a garden of any size. But, they can also be considered a hazard to young children particularly between the ages of 1 to 5 years old. Pond safety should be an important consideration.  Visiting children are a higher risk as they are not likely to be aware of the potential dangers of water. If you have young grandchildren or entertain families with young children there are steps you can take to ensure their safety around your pond.

Children are easily drawn to water so even having neighbours with young children should be enough to alert you to putting pond safety measures in place. A drowning can happen within minutes of a parent being distracted.

Overgrown ponds are reported to be the most hazardous as the transition from ground to water is far less obvious.

Pond safety tips

• Site your pond where it is visible from the house and from the patio or outdoor seating area
• Consider building a raised pond
• For ground level ponds have a gently sloping edge to allow for an easy way of exiting the water
• Install a fence around your pond. If this is your preferred safety measure the fence will need to be higher than 1.1m with a lockable gate. The lock must be as high up as possible.  The better option would be a gate with a spring attached should the gate accidentally be left unlocked. A gate which opens outwards will make it even more difficult to gain access
• Grow plants around the deeper side of your pond to deter children gaining access. Planting should not block visibility of your pond from view points
• Install an OFSTED approved metal pond guard or cover. Chicken wire won’t hold-up against the weight of a child so is not considered a safety measure and should be avoided at all costs
• Make sure the edging and boulders around your pond are firmly in place to avoid trips, slips and falls. The edging should be clearly defined
• Maintain your pond through the seasons and prune back aquatic plants so that at least a third of the pond surface is exposed to sunlight

The Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) says drowning is one of the five principal causes of serious injuries for the under-fives in England. The charity’s campaigns manager, Pamela Prentice, says: “Most drownings involving two to three-year-olds happen in the home and garden.”

According to government figures, four out of five residential pond drowning incidents do not happen at the child’s own home. So while you may have a perfectly safe water feature, your neighbours, friends and relatives may not.

According to Froglife and many wildlife charities, filling-in ponds rather than putting safety measures in place should always be a last resort, since the damage this can do to wildlife communities locally can be enormous. Ponds are great for teaching children about wildlife and the different stages of the life-cycle of small creatures such as frogs unfold in natural surroundings.

Adults with young children in their care should be vigilant at all times – even a bucket of water is a potential hazard.

As with all home and garden projects careful planning is required. So, in this article I aim to share all the steps you need to put in place including a project budget if you are going to include a pond liner, underlay, pond pump, filter, aquatic plants, fish and other finishing touches to your build.

With any pond build, the first and most important step is to decide what the purpose of your pond will be. Is it to attract wildlife, to keep gold fish, home Koi Carp or grow aquatic plants. Are you going to use natural or a mechanical water quality control system?

• for aquatic planting you will need to add a stepped base or shelf to your design plan.  The shelves can be used to accommodate marginal plants of varying heights or to place planting baskets. Shelves make it easier to remove plants to cut back at the end of the season and for general pond maintenance. The design and planning for this type of pond is much like the steps you would take when planning what to plant in a flower bed so that choice works together in a creative fashion.
• for a fish pond, water volume is an important factor when considering design and size. The bigger the pond, the easier it is to maintain healthy water levels. Goldfish require a pond of at least 5 meter square and a depth of no less than half a meter – or a volume of 3000 litres. Koi require a minimum of 5500 litres – or minimum pond size of 2.5m x 2m x 1.2m. There is also a maximum depth – a Koi pond shouldn’t be deeper than 3 meters because sunlight won’t penetrate sufficiently to promote the vital growth of healthy algae. Koi are big fish and need a large volume of water. They also produce high amounts of waste. For both those reasons, a steep or vertical sided pond is recommended. It guarantees the largest volume of water for the space occupied by the pond and steep sides don’t accumulate waste materials and debris that can release harmful ammonia.
• a wildlife pond is probably the easiest type to build and maintain. No retainer wall or brick work involved. A wildlife pond just needs a sloping edge so small creatures such as frogs can easily enter and get out.
• a natural pond is one in which the water, soil, plants, and animals all live in harmony. There is no man-made intervention such as a pond liner to contain the water or pond pump to aerate the water.

What size pond?

The bigger the pond the easier it will be to maintain relative to a small shallow water feature. This is because a small pond gets warm quicker in summer and is more likely to freeze over in winter relative to a bigger and deeper pond. However, there are solutions to every situation – when the temperatures rise during the summer months add extra aeration to your pond – use an air pump to achieve this and make sure your pond receives sufficient shade.  Use a pond thermometer if you plan on homing fish and keep an eye out for any signs of distress.  The lethal water temperature for Koi and goldfish is reportedly 90 degrees F. The higher the water temperature, the less dissolved oxygen it is capable of holding. Fish have a greater demand for oxygen at higher temperatures so the distress they show is due to breathing difficulties.

Pond location

The next step is to decide where to position your pond. A formal pond into which a box-welded pond liner is fitted can be raised off the ground or dug into the ground. It is about deciding which fits best with your garden size and overall landscape design.

• site a pond on level ground – this will also help avoid rainwater run-off, which could bring with it fertilisers carried into your pond. Added nutrients will have a negative impact on water quality.
• ponds need 50 to 70% of the water to be in shade. This can be achieved by building your pond under a pergola (or building a pergola to go over your pond) or shaded in relation to the position of your pond to a garden wall or house. Include floating plants can also provide the necessary amount of shade ( fish can’t breath if too much of the surface is covered by aquatic plants). Building your pond too close to a tree to provide the necessary amount of shade is possible although you will have to keep on top of skimming off all the fallen leaves before they sink to the bottom.

Pond design

Now that you know what the purpose is for building your garden pond, the size that we best fit in the space you have available and where you are going to position it – the next step is deciding on design. A box welded pond liner doesn’t restrict you to a geometric with variations of square or rectangular layout. It is possible to be more creative with your design and still have your pond lined without creases or folds to the pond liner. The main criteria is that the design needs to include vertical sides.

Use a length of rope to play around with different shapes until you come up with one that will work in your garden and against the backdrop of your surrounding landscape.

Building your pond

A raised pond can be built using bricks, concrete blocks or railway sleepers. Sunken ponds require digging. The soil dug out can be used in flower beds or to landscape your garden. Once you have finished digging and are fully satisfied with the layout and depth you will need to remove as many of the stones and rough gravel as possible so as not to damage your pond liner. Measure the widest width, the longest length and the deepest point of your pond. These dimensions are necessary to calculate how much pond liner and protective underlay you will need to order.

Installing underlay and pond liner 

It is always best to tackle the job with another pair of helping hands. First unfold the protective underlay and line the hole dug for your pond. Then, with great care unravel the pond liner and, with help lift and place over the pond. Allow your pond liner to sink into the deepest area of your pond. Step barefoot into your pond to carefully push your pond liner into the contours. Pleat and fold as neatly as possible into the corners. Don’t be tempted to cut any excess pond liner until the pond liner has ‘settled in’ and you have filled your pond with water.

 The final step is to decide whether you are going to use natural means of aerating and maintaining water quality or mechanical by way of a pump and filter. The role of a pond pump is to keep the water moving and by so doing it add oxygen to it. A filter added to the pump will remove debris. This is particularly important when keeping fish because their faeces, if left in the water increase the nitrate levels. This in turn affects water quality.

Goldfish and Koi excrete waste into the water in the form of ammonia from their gills and nitrate in their faeces.  And, algae grows in ponds where there are high levels light and nutrients. When nutrient levels get high enough, algae takes over the pond and chokes everything else out.  Ponds lined with a pond liner means there is a lack of soil in the bottom therefore few micro-organisms compared to that of a natural pond. There are also fewer surfaces for mico-organisms to attach to. Therefore you have to create an artificial place for the microbes to live. A filtration system can be used to provide a surface for the micro-organisms to live on. Microbes take-up waste animal and plant matter as they float around in the water keeping the water clear of nutrients needed for algae to thrive.

Building a pond in your garden is such a rewarding challenge to take on. The finished product will provide you with endless enjoyment so I hope these steps help you to get to work on your plans.

Do the goldfish in your pond look like they need reviving? Belly up and motionless could be a sign that they are over fed or are in a pond with poor water quality. It could also be the result of a lack of oxygen – using a solar powered bubbler will help to increase the oxygen levels of the water during winter months when a pond has frozen over.

Water quality is very important to health of goldfish who become increasingly stressed in poor conditions. There are a number of factors that can affect pond health such as local climate, size of pond, number of fish stocked, number of aquatic plants and the type of filtration system installed.

Goldfish are cold water fish and so do best in ponds that are in partial to full shade (geography dependent but best to avoid goldfish pond water getting too warm). Types of goldfish that are hardy and known to thrive in a garden pond are the Cornet, Ryakin and Shubunkin. They can survive all but the coldest winters when ponds freeze over. Goldfish require less maintenance than Koi and do less damage to pond plants nibbling on them only.

Healthy pond water conditions for goldfish

• avoid spraying insecticides or pesticides on to flower beds that are close to your pond and put measures in place to prevent rainwater run-off (unless your garden and pond are on flat ground!). Use natural methods of pest control to reduce chemicals entering your pond and affecting the water quality.
• test the pH of your pond water fairly regularly. Goldfish thrive in water which has a pH of around 7 to 7.4. High ammonia and nitrate levels are an indication that there are too many fish in your pond or the filter system isn’t coping. The role of a filter system is to clean the pond water and keep it free of bad bacteria.
• carry out a partial water change weekly.  This helps to remove pollutants from the water. The advice on how much water is exchanged varies amongst pond experts. Start by doing a 10% change and monitor the water quality between changes. If 10% is not enough to remove pollutants then increase the volume. No more than 50% should be changed to avoid stressing the natural ecosystem and fish. Use a pump, pond vacuum or hose to remove water from your pond. Replace with harvested rainwater or dechlorinated tap water.
• a garden pond is a closed water system where water leaves only via evaporation leaving behind pollutants. Ponds need to be installed with a good filtration system to remove fish waste – which if not removed release ammonia into the water. Bacteria in the water converts ammonia into nitrates which is then processed by plants and algae.
• reduce levels of algae by growing aquatic plants which cover 50 to 70% of the water surface. Plants will also offer a protective habitat to fish. They also absorb nutrients in the water reducing algae growth
• remove organic mater from your pond water before it sinks to the bottom and starts to decompose – and becoming a food source for the growth of algae.
• add one fish per 30 gallons of water.
• the greater the surface area of a pond the greater the amount of oxygen so always build a pond as big as your garden space will allow.

Goldfish can thrive outdoors for many years in well nurtured and maintained garden ponds. A raised, vertically sided pond lined with a rubber Epalyn or Butyl pond liner is more of a deterrent to pond predators than a pond on ground level. There are, however pond guards and protective aids available for all pond types and shapes to discourage predators visiting and reducing your goldfish numbers.

Goldfish are friendly and add so much character to a garden pond. They are hardy provided you follow the advice shared in this article. If you can add anymore advice, we would love to hear from you.