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A rather odd item to have parked in the yard! This is the BIG
Hitachi Backhoe that was used to dig the pond, and as a crane to move rocks
and tanks.
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The backhoe belongs to Rocco Gallicchio, who is seen here taking the
'elevator' down into the excavation to measure the depth.
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While we used all the rock and soil from the previous pond to make beds,
there was just too much volume here to be useful - so it was emptied into a
dump truck. We carted away 23 monster dump loads!
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We thought we would have to blast to get deeper than about 4 feet (the
basement 6 feet from the hole was blasted), but here we are 8 feet down at
the end of the first day! Note how close the tracks are to the edge!
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This picture is taken looking from the back of the pond towards the
house - and you can see how close the corner of the house is to the big
hole! The dig started at the end of April, 2001.
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'Hard to imagine that thing ever holding water!'
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The backhoe had a 30' reach - which we needed to excavate the area for
the 'tanks' on the backside. The finished size is an irregular oval
about 20' x 30'.
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Because we didn't have to blast - we kept digging, and digging, and
digging... Finished depth (with the concrete!) is 12.5 FEET! The
bottom slopes up to about 9 feet.
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The sides of the hole were perfectly vertical! Amazing!
Because it was all rock and clay, it was pretty stable.
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Todd goes down to inspect the area for the tanks. The space where
he is standing is shallower than the main hole, and will be behind the pond
wall. We call this area the 'Pit'.
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Todd discovered that it was deeper than it looks! Well, he got in
- the problem was - how to get out??? It took him about 15 minutes to
dig out some toe holes for a temporary ladder.
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'I'll get lost in there!'
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It became clear that the shrub border on the side of the old pond would
have to be moved. We decided to use that space for some plant bogs to
aid filtration.
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Mike on a rental tractor/backhoe is moving the plants and digging the
large bog into the right side of the pond. We created a small bog
where the waterfall from the old pond was located. The pit bottom was
covered in 6 inches of stone to aid drainage.
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A yellow line marks the 'trench' that will connect the plumbing from the
pond to the house. The pumps and bead filters are located in the
basement on the other side of this wall.
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View from the roof during excavation. On the lower left, you can
see the little 500 gallon goldfish pond that was the first pond, and still
exists! Some of the goldfish are 13 years old!
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Using the backhoe to move the 1500 gallon tank into position in the
'Pit'. This tank will be used as a quarantine facility, and to raise
Tosai. This tank has a completely independent filtration system.
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The second tank in the pit is a 6' wide x 6' deep vortex settling
chamber. The bottom drains are gravity fed into this tank, which
removes large solids before the water is pumped to the bead filters for
finer cleaning.
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'You sure that thing will be a pond?'
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