Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Fish Pond Liners

koi pond under constructionImage via Wikipedia
Most Popular Fish-Safe Pond Liner for Small Koi Ponds and Water Gardens
The very first thing you want to do is ensure the pond liner is fish-safe. This is vital. Fish-safe liners appear in a variety of thicknesses that are made out of different material. The most famous for a koi pond or water garden are 45 mil EPDM rubber pond liners. These liners are quite thick - about 1/8" and are very pliable and 'rubbery'. They remind you of a bicycle inner tube, but thicker. They come in a variety of sizes with dimensions which might be divisible by 5'. For instance, a 10' x 10' pond liner belly pre-boxed and ready to ship. Pond liners up to 400 sq ft (for instance a 20' x 20' liner) might be shipped via UPS. Larger, 45 mil EPDM liners which can be heavier and packaged differently, require shipment via motor freight are available in rolls while using largest size being 50' x 100', in one piece. These rolls are normally transported towards the pond site using a front end loader having a fork that suits into the opening from the roll how the liner is rolled on. These liners can weigh 1,500 pounds or maybe more and once at the website, are rolled out near the pond's edge and strategically thrown into the excavated area.

Most favored Fish-Safe Pond Liner for Large Fish Ponds
There are a couple of options for those who are looking to build a large fish pond or water garden where they will require a liner bigger 50' x 100'. In cases like this, the 2 most popular options are to buy 2 or more rolls with the 50' x 100' 45 mil EPDM pond liner (or whatever size you'll need) and splice them together (see below for splice information) or get a different kind of liner which comes in a larger size which is made everything in one piece! I'll explain the two options further so you can decide which sounds one of the most appealing to you.

How you can Splice Two 45 mil EPDM Pond Liners Together

Although there are step-by-step procedures that particular must follow to splice 2 bits of 45 mil EPDM liner together, in a 'nutshell' what you need to do is lay both pieces on a very flat work surface such as plywood or for larger applications, a flat parking lot or driveway. You unroll each liner and carefully overlap one fringe of the liner within the edge of one other liner. Ideally, this overlapped area ought to be about 6" wide for the length of both liners. A two-sided, sticky, EPDM pond liner tape (referred to as a splice tape) will be rolled out on top of the edge of the bottom liner which has already been carefully cleaned and primed. The extra edge of the top liner, containing also been cleaned and primed is carefully laid on top of the bottom liner. The spliced area (ie; overlapped area) will be rolled having a roller to make a tighter seal. Furthermore, an EPDM pond liner cover strip that's approx. 6" wide and possesses one side that's sticky, will then be adhered within the seam joint from your 2 spliced liners. Next, a bead of rubber caulking made specifically through the manufacturer who come up with 45 mil EPDM liner, is ran along both edges with the cover strip. After Twenty four hours of drying, the liner will then be moved into place. You can splice as many pondliners as you desire together in order to create the correct height and width of liner you will need for your application.

The advantages of having a large, 45 mil EPDM pond liner is always that it's a heavy-duty liner and is 'rubbery' which gives it greater flexibility and 'forgiveness' with any protruding rocks that will surface from your already prepared and raked out area for that pond. The death of using a 45 mil EPDM pond liner for larger applications is the fact that it's heavy which requires higher shipping costs plus much more manpower to advance it into place.

24 Mil Woven, Polyethylene Pond Liners

24 mil woven, polyethylene pond liners are fantastic liners for substantial ponds whether they're for big koi ponds, water gardens, large fish ponds or for aquaculture uses. They provide great strength and are light weight. Unlike other polyethylene liners that stack layers after layers along with each other inside manufacturing process, this polyethylene liner is woven together which provides it more strength. Another huge advantage of this liner is that it is custom made to size which enable it to come in one piece around 65,000 sq . ft .! Pretty sweet to get a large pond application!

Unlike PVC pondliners which can be on the market for giant fish ponds, the 24 mil woven, polyethylene liner doesn't require 12" of soil on top of it to protect it from UV rays. This particular liner is UV stabilized in order that it can last for years! Because they're lighter weight, they are cheaper to ship and require less man capability to maneuver. They are only offered in larger sizes and do not come pre-boxed much like the 45 mil EPDM liners do. Each 24 mil woven, polyethylene liner is customized to size in increments of 5'.

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