Ranchu Pond Build Begins. Turning Japanese!

With the glorious weather set to be with us for a little while now, a couple of days ago i set about constructing my new ranchu setup. My plans were to have 3 ponds, which will function primarily as "growing out" ponds. I have seen many examples of concrete ponds used across Japan

I intended to build the ponds out of railway sleepers and then line them. They would be much cheaper than custom made fibreglass ponds, easier to build than blocks and concrete, removable, and still the right dimensions (with ranchu in mind), strong and attractive enough to look at (which was an important factor in getting the nod of approval from the misses!). The only downside being that the water will have to be pumped or syphoned out rather than simply pulling a plug.  However, with a spare pond always available, water changes will become much faster. Move ranchu from pond A to pond B, drain pond A, refill and open a beer.

In the middle of last week the railway sleepers arrived and i set about laying them. I was hoping to get an available depth of around 15 inches in the ponds. The cheapest way of doing this was going to involve laying the sleepers on their thinnest edge, as laying them more traditionally flat was going to require twice as many layers to get the depth i wanted available.

Having laid the first layer, it became obvious to me that a second layer was going to increase the height of the ponds to a point where they may become ugly to look at. Unfortunately this meant that to get somewhere near the depth i still wanted, i would need to dig down. It took the best part of 2 days, in the hottest weather the UK has seen so far this year, but i managed to get an extra 5 or 6 inches added to each pond. 

The ponds are 6 ft long, almost 5 feet wide and will have an available depth around 15 inches which should be plenty for my ranchu grooming. Due to the nature of ranchu ponds, temperature fluctuations are a common problem and so i will be setting about making both shaded and insulated lids to protect from the elements before any ranchu go into them.

Having decided to stick with just one layer for the ranchu ponds, it has meant that i have sleepers left over and so i will be able to crack on with plans for another pond build very soon. I intend to make a larger, deeper pond that will be the home of my seed fish. I intend to insulate it heavily in the hope i can winter the ranchu in it as well. 

The ranchu themselves are well and i'm suprised at how active they are given the temperature. The weather has been very warm for the UK, around 30 degrees C for a few days now, and the pond temperature today has risen to around 26 degrees, even being shaded!