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Sealing a cinder block pond

Seabass

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Domesticated me wants to build an above ground pond in the new back yard to raise tilapia. Not finding the info I need besides people saying to hire someone to do the work. Anyone on here have experience sealing pools or cisterns that cares to chime in?
 
Well ponds range in size from 1 sq ft to several thousand acres. Any idea how large this pong may be?
 
I have looked at doing an in-ground cistern to capture rain water and store for a garden. I have a hill of bentonite clay that I could have lined the hole with, but I figured out easier methods to get water to the garden when it’s needed
 
Domesticated me wants to build an above ground pond in the new back yard to raise tilapia. Not finding the info I need besides people saying to hire someone to do the work. Anyone on here have experience sealing pools or cisterns that cares to chime in?

Well ponds range in size from 1 sq ft to several thousand acres. Any idea how large this pong may be?

No wonder you’re such a fucking dumbass
 
You dont need to seal the bricks that you are going to put around the stock tank for decoration. The stock tank you should use is already sealed.

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here's a copy of a thread I had on my pool/tanning ledge




Poured some cement. I was going to mix it in my little mixer, but I figured out it was like 45 bags. So I called a cement truck. I also poured a little walkway at the front of my house.




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I laid the rest of the block. The reason I left the two sides open before was to "screet" the concrete.




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Sides in and the stepping stones on the top edge.




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Next, I coated the inside with "sider crete". It is a pool plaster. It's basicly real thick paint/cement kind of stuff. It was very difficult to work with. They have a video where they just roll it on and smooth it with a squeegee. All I have to say is BS.




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Of course, the second coat will go easier than the first, right? Wrong, it was harder. I have to say, this was the most disappointing part of this build. This stuff just wouldn't smooth out. They say in the video to smooth out all imperfections in the pool before applying this stuff. What a joke. I had the bottom cement way smoother than this stuff.




Anyways, Here is the second coat waiting for water.




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Next update, HEMTT drives through tanning ledge. Um......maybe not.




Ok, I'm ready for water. First thing to do is measure water level in the main pool. I'd like to know how much it drops to fill the tan ledge.




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Next, open the valve from the pump.




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I checked my watch to see how long it takes to fill. The pool blowers are still on. It would fill faster if I closed them, but this is the way it will operate normally.




After seven minutes, pool dropped 1 1/2" And I had this.




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First problem- the stand pipe makes enough waves on its own to splash some water out the corner. The height of the stepping stones are only about an inch over the spillway and 1/2" over the water. I knew it would be easy to make waves that would go over the side, but I didn't think the inbound water was going to do it by itself.




Second problem- the spillway is made from an extra piece of the pool coping. It has a bull nose to look cool, but the water "attaches" it self to the nose and follows it right around instead of a water fall.




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So I drained it down a bit and took a saw to the bull nose. I only sawed the very tip. It's still alittle rounded.




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This small change in profile made a big differnce in the way the water comes off the spillway.




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The next thing I did was to change the stand pipe to an elbow to reduce waves.




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This solved the wave problem, but it looked like sh$t. So I made a cap with multiple holes. Note, this pic is with the pump off. You can see the pool drains backwards through the stand pipe to this level.




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The multiple hole pattern makes just the right amount of waves so it looks good and doesn't splash out.




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So I'm pretty happy with it now. These tanning ledges cost about 5 grand and I got about one grand in this.




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After doing it, I got to wonder if I built the whole pool like this, I could have saved about 12 grand. The spill way is a way better skimmer than the one on the main pool. If you had that go into a big wash tub with a laundry basket to catch leaves, you would get that nice "waterfall" sound and you would only need to empty the leaves once a week instead of every day.




This sounds like a project for 2BigBroncos.

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I know several people that used old billboards for pond liners. Some seam tape if needed. Some of those are 12mil. If your worried use a double layer. Or just buy a big fucking stock tank and be done. Just make sure your climate will support them. If you’re 100 degrees all summer then maybe a buried stock tank would be better. Or if you’re negative 10 all winter you will need a heater to keep if from freezing solid, being in ground or partially buried will help prevent big temp swings. Large temperature swing are not good for fish in general. The faster the swing the harder it is on their system to adapt. That said tilapia seem to be about as durable as they come.
Or maybe smear tomato sauce all over it and let it dry. I swear to god that shit turns in to superglue after its dry. :flipoff2:
 
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Thanks for you input so far guys. The pond size will be dictated by cost of materials and layout of the yard. The pond will be part of an aquaponic garden. I've built two small scale gardens so far and this will be a supersized version of those. My beef with aquaponics is that it always looks like a science experiment. The above ground pond is my attempt at making it look more like a koi pond or water feature so tarps and billboards are out. Stock tank like the one above would be okay with me if it wasn't for the zinc and metal. Over time a working garden will go acidic and strip metals so galvanized stock tank is out.

Pond liner seems to be the answer I keep on landing on. I need to educate myself on making it contour to weird shapes without big folds and flaps I'd like to make a rectangular trough with a deep portion (sub grade) for the fish to hide in on hot days, so either a ramp or a recess in the bottom.

Anyone here bonded pond liner?
 
the answer to your original question was Super Thoroseal to waterproof a block pond. ( appears to now have been renamed MasterSeal583) Per the recommendation of ADD on here i used it to resurface my sprayed concrete in ground pool. its holding up great now 2 yrs down the road having been submerged full time- no cracks, chips or discoloration.

I would +1 on the stock tank though for ease/ simplicity but your block plan would work too and probable be cheap-ish. a liner seems like you may haver durability issues or have to treat it as fragile.
 
take the stock tank down to line-x and have them spray it if you are worried about the acidity stripping the galv.
 
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