2 shall become 1

We have been planning to get rid of the 1st test pond filled with guppies. The 2nd pond with the climbing perch wasnt built strong enough to handle the water pressure and began to buckle. It will be dismantled too, and a new, stronger, maybe even deeper pond will be built where the 1st was.

 First job was to remove the guppies

The pond completely dismantled

Other than guppies, we found earthworms, bloodworms, bladder snails and daphnia!

12 May update:

Getting the structure symmetrical with these

Spirit level to roughly make sure the ground is sloping the right direction.

Piece of scrap wood as a reference to make sure the inner wall of the brick pond is straight. 

Various poles and sticks to help place the bricks relative to the opposing side. The bottom pole on the right is from an old vacuum cleaner!

A broken wooden signpost was used for the width.

The problem with recycled bricks is that you will be faced with this a lot...

 

Zoey thinks everything we make is for her...

 

13 May update:

All the bricks from the guppy pond were in place. There was space to properly lay 3 sides. The side closest to the 2nd pond was too close so a temporary thinner/weaker line of bricks was put there. 

The next was to extract bricks from the upper layers of the 2nd pond to install onto the new stronger pond.

 

Down to the last layers of bricks, now to catch the fish. 

There were 5 adults and 2 or 3 juveniles. First in the net was the oldest, biggest, and most amazing one... the one-eyed Jack/Jill...

This was the water from the original pond. Some of it will go into the new pond so as to lessen the difference in water for the fish.

Really sad news... there were only 4 adults and 2 juveniles. Did a search for the missing adult but no luck :(

Moved the pond liner (linoleum) over to the new location and filled it with a mix of old and new water.

The next 24 hours will test the strength of the new pond walls and for leaks from the old liner.