Recreation Pond - Yandaran, QLD Australia
The Recreation Pond in Yandaran, QLD Australia 6 months after installation was completed.
“Being in a bush acreage setting with a lot of space we were weighing up a large concrete pool for quite a while, having previously had mineral pools. Then a friend put us onto a natural style recreation pond which we had never seen before. As soon as we saw the visual look of the pond and idea around them, we had our heart set on one! The fact it’s fresh water, with no chlorine or chemicals, and when jumping in it feels like you’ve dove into a fresh waterhole or stream. We are constantly doing work around the property and just strolling over and flopping in which is extremely refreshing without wanting to get out! We are in May now, and still swimming in it so the fact we can use it all year round is unbelievable.
Brad and team set out with a plan in place at the start that only got better and better in terms of concept and design throughout the build and what we have ended up with is incredible and we can’t help but stare at it everyday. The elevated bank with water feature at the top and wrapping around the pool as well as the large waterfall that you could just sit around all day listening to is beyond expectation. The advice and updates throughout the build to educate us on the process were on point and the team were a great bunch of really nice guys that we had a ball with throughout the build. Brad’s also been back on numerous occasions post build checking in and assisting with any questions/sorting any minor issues which has been really impressive as well. We would 100% suggest anyone looking to build a recreation pond to hit this team up with their professionalism and quality being over and above.”
Background
United Waterscapes was contacted by the client for a Design & Consultation after seeing our Calliope Recreation Pond project. The client had already received a project estimate from another company and was seeking a comparative estimate that more closely matched their design and budget requirements. Upon completing the Design & Consultation, United Waterscapes provided a fully itemised Project Estimation and Design Concept document to the client who accepted the proposal. The client advised that they were "..really impressed with the detail and effort that went into communicating and explaining the design of the proposed system".
The proposal included scope for a 12m (L) x 9m (W) x 1.8m (D) recreation pond with a 3m (L) x 2m (W) skimmer intake bay, a 6m (L) x 4m (W) wetland filtration system and 2 x Floor Filtration systems and was estimated to take 18 days to complete.
The Project
The Recreation Pond was located on a rural property and in a paddock beside the home. The pond was situated in the perfect position from an excavation and accessibility point of view, and with such good access we were able to utilise a 25 ton excavator and 75HP Positrack Loader.
The earth was great for our type of excavation, consisting of mostly soft clay. The soft earth was removed easily and readily moulded into shape for our pond liner installation. Utilising our "Triple Layer Leak Defence" waterproofing technique, the United Waterscapes team installed the geotextile fabric and EPDM pond liner.
With a large excavator and great access we were able to utilise large boulders for the dry stacked rock walls within the pond, with some boulders weighing multiple tons and measuring more than 2m in girth. The team installed 2 x Air Lift Floor Filtration systems, an under-gravel filter that sucks water from the floor of the pond via air-lift and returns the water through a high volume outlet towards the skimmer intake bay. 3 x fish caves were installed for fish habitat for both breeding and to escape predatory animals like the Kookaburra.
We experienced a lot of wet weather mid-way through the project, which resulted in delays to work on site and also with our stone and pebble supplier which hampered our efforts to keep the project on schedule. The team persevered and was able to complete the project including some additional landscaping works within 20 days but over a 5 week period due to the poor conditions.
The Result
The resulting project was our largest, best designed and most sophisticated project to date. The project was built to specification and includes over 40 low voltage LED lights installed underwater and in the landscape.
The pump shed contains 2 x 70,000lph variable speed FlowFriend pumps which sucked water from the intake bay and Aquascape Skimmer and fed the water to the 6m (L) x 4m (W) wetland filter and 5 x surface circulation jets installed around the pond. The pump shed also contained 3 x air compressors, 2 to feed compressed air to the Air Lift Floor Filtration Systems and a 3rd to feed compressed air to the air stones in the pond. In addition, 3 x automatic dosing systems were installed with outlets in-line to feed bulk bacteria enzyme, flocculant and an organic algaecide directly into the pond via the circulation jets.
With the system incorporating variable speed pumps complimented by air-lift floor filtration we are able to operate the system at least 30% more 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.
As a recreation pond is a very large fish pond, the installation will soon be home to 250 x Rainbowfish, 100 x Glassfish and 25 x Silver Perch.
Needless to say, the client was very happy with the end result and we are proud to have produced such an amazing project.
