Digging of the pond and filter chamber began on July 5^th 1999 (where did those last 6 months go?). It should have been a quick process with a mechanical digger but we discovered that when it rains in this part of the world it rains heavily. One such storm resulted in the hole filling up with dirt and water meaning that it had to be partially re-dug. My calculation was that the weight of the water in the pond would be around 70 metric tons, so I was determined that this pond was to be built on a solid concrete foundation. Bottom drains and pipe work was put into place and we got a team of men in to lay a concrete base and at the same time a patio. Whereas we had found that land was of a relatively low cost in this part of the world, in contrast concrete was incredibly expensive compared to England. The next stage was to build the walls for the pond and the filter chamber. I intended to have this work done by a professional so quotations were obtained. The best quote was $1.75 for every block laid. I knew that I would need in excess of 1500 blocks for this project and you do not need to be Alan Greenspan to work out that this would be very expensive. The alternative was to teach myself how to lay blocks and get on and do it, and that is what happened. Laying building blocks in South Carolina proved to be incredibly tough work for some one brought up in the British climate. An observer may have concluded that I worked slowly to ensure that I laid each block with meticulous care, but seriously, I could not have done the job any quicker. The process of laying blocks was broken up by tasks such as putting the filters in position and fitting return pipes and progress was made throughout the fall and winter of 1999.

When we departed England we left our fish residing in a 14,000-gallon pond with the expectation that we would see them all again in about 6 months time. The reality was that around 16 months later we were recovering from the set back of the filter wall collapse while knowing that our fish had outstayed their welcome in their temporary home. Therefore, an interim solution needed to be found because it was going to be some time before the pond was ready for habitation. In the garage we constructed a temporary pond made from a 2000 gallon swimming pool with filtration provided by 3 plastic cattle troughs. The whole set-up was put together over a weekend and a week or so later we added a couple of Koi to start the filter.

During this time plans were being laid for the journey of the fish. Before leaving England we had made arrangements with Shirley Aquatics who were going to deal with the dispatch of the fish. They netted our fish from their temporary home, took them to their facility and prepared them for the journey by not feeding them for a week and giving them some anti-parasite treatment. Then early on the morning of July 26^th 2000 they drove them to Gatwick Airport and put them on a British Airways flight to Atlanta.

Meanwhile 4,000 miles away Sue and myself were driving to Atlanta worrying about everything from customs paperwork, procedures required by Wildlife and Fisheries, to the possibility of the airplane crashing. Thankfully, we had done all of the homework required, contacted the correct people in advance and experienced wonderful co-operation from the individuals of Wildlife and Fisheries and eventually we were driving our fish towards their new, but still temporary home.

Work on the pond progressed to the point that on November 11th 2000 we were able to introduce the fish to their new home. If they were to compare their old pond back in England to their new facility, they must think that they had won the Georgia Lottery.

So now I would like to tell you a little about the pond that we built and how it has worked out. As you already know the pond is water proofed using an EPDM liner. The dimensions are 30 feet by 16 feet and 6 foot deep at the bottom drains. When it was filled the volume of the pond was found to be 17,680 US gallons. The idea of using the deep-water returns and air domes to reduce the level of dirt settling on the pond bottom seems to be very successful and the level of particulate matter in the water is very low. An unusual feature is the waterfall, I felt that a high waterfall would not fit with the design but I still wanted to maximize the aeration provided by the waterfall. My solution was to pass the water over stones with an overall width of around 8 feet in length. The water then falls about 6 inches into the pond. It seems to be very effective in that oxygen levels are always at the saturation point for the temperature. The air domes on the bottom drains are each fed by an Alita 40 air pump.

The filter system is in fact 2 identical systems consisting of 3 vortex chambers each. This means that if one filter needs to be taken out of use for maintenance or repair, then the other will continue to run. Each system is fed by gravity from one of the bottom drains with the first chamber being for settlement of solids. Most filter systems are configured in series where the water flows first through one chamber then the next. I designed this system to run in parallel (Figure 3). Therefore when water leaves the first vortex it flows into two separate vortex units filled with Springflow media. By configuring the filters in this way, I believe that the filter has the maximum possibility of developing a strong and even bio-mass. In addition a chamber can be emptied and cleaned without disturbing the bio-mass of the other chamber. Aeration for the filter system comes from an additional Alita 80 air pump that feeds 6 air stones in each of the 4 biological chambers. After the filtration system the water is pumped by one of two ¼ HP Sequence pumps through two 40 W UV’s before returning to the pond. To date the pond and filtration system has worked well. The fish that we brought with us from England have grown and we have been able to add to our collection.

There are many other things that I could have included in this article which would include encounters with Black Widow Spiders, suffering heat stroke, being hit by golf balls and cutting the top of my finger off. But as I sit by the pond, watching the Koi feed, these small matters are distant memories.