Recreation Pond - Calliope, QLD Australia
The Recreation Pond in Calliope, QLD Australia 6 months after installation was completed.
“Beautiful work guys, what a fantastic team, and you have created something truly beautiful for us! We can’t thank you enough for the extra time and effort you’ve put in to making this amazing pond for us”
Background
The client had a long-term dream to install a Recreation Pond in the backyard of their rural property in Calliope, QLD. A white sandy beach area for a turquoise look was at the forefront of the design, with plenty of fish habitat and large boulder platforms. A simple, double-drop sheet waterfall with lighting was requested as the feature. The pond would be a home for the much loved native fishes, provide a beautiful landscape feature for the home and a place to relax and cool off in the hotter months.
The proposal included scope for a 12m (L) x 5m (W) x 1.8m (D) recreation pond with a 2m (L) x 1.8m (W) skimmer intake bay, a 4m (L) x 4m (W) wetland filtration system and a Air-Lift Floor Filtration system and estimated to take 12.5 days to complete.
The Project
The first half of the project was completed in some of the hottest and driest conditions seen in the region in decades, and the second half of the project was when the dry season broke! The Recreation Pond project was also expanded on day 1 to a 14m (L) x 5.5m (W) x 1.8m (D) recreation pond.
With a massive 60m x 60m flat paddock for access, a 14-ton excavator and a 100hp skid steer was employed to complete the project. Excavation was good, however there was some very large seams of shale rock which meant care had to be taken to clear the excavation of sharps prior to liner installation.
The team employed our "Triple Layer Leak Defence" waterproofing technique when llining the pond, and took additional protective measures with the installation of a 50mm crusher dust cushion over the worst shale affected areas to ensure that the integrity of the liner would remain sound. The liner was installed in a Geotextile Fabric sandwich prior to installing the large boulders for the dry stacked walls of the pond.
The pond included fish habitat by way of rock caves and aquatic planting areas. Underwater lighting was professionally installed through the pond and in the landscape areas and a Air Lift Floor Filtration system was also installed in the basin of the pond marking the first installation of this innovative technology in Australia.
The pump shed was installed with dry-installed pumps, air compressors for the air stones and Floor Filtration and automatic dosing systems for automated dosing of bulk water treatment products: Bacteria Enzyme, Flocculant and an Organic Algaecide.
With this project, a sandy beach was installed including a concrete curb for a neat transition from turf to sand, and to maintain a sharp edge against the pond beach area.
The project was completed on time was expanded to include retaining wall sections to complete the landscape.
The Result
The project was enlarged from the specification to a 14m (L) x 5.5m (W) x 1.8m (D) pond and includes over 20 low voltage LED lights installed underwater and in the landscape. The pump shed contains 1 x 70,000lph variable speed FlowFriend pump which sucks water from the intake bay and Aquascape Skimmer and feeds the water to the 4m (L) x 4m (W) wetland filter and 5 x surface circulation jets installed around the pond. The pump shed also contained 2 x air compressors, 1 to feed compressed air to the Air Lift Floor Filtration System and a 2nd to feed compressed air to a single air stone in the pond. In addition, 2 x automatic dosing systems were installed with outlets in-line to feed bulk bacteria enzyme and flocculant directly into the pond via the circulation jets, with bulk organic algaecide available to does as necessary.
With the system incorporating a variable speed pump complimented by air-lift floor filtration we are able to operate the system at least a greater energy efficiency than competing systems and our bulk water treatments and automatic dosing system also address the start-up phase of the recreation pond with affordable and automated, high concentration dosing to expedite the start-up phase and boost the water quality during this time.
The family are wrapped, and are making the most of their beautiful new recreation pond with careful attention to the landscape surrounds.\
