Pond Liner
A fish safe pond liner is what
you need if you're wanting to create a fish pond or water garden.
There are a few different types of
fish pond liners available but how do you
know which is the right one for you? I’ll tell you about a couple
different kinds of liners so you can decide.
Most Popular Fish-Safe Pond Liner for
Small Koi Ponds and Water Gardens
The first thing you want to do is make sure the
pond liner is fish-safe. This is vital.
Fish-safe pond liners come in a variety of
thicknesses which are made out of different material. The most popular
for a koi pond or water garden are 45 mil EPDM pond liners.
These pond liner 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
that are divisible by 5’. For instance, a 10’ x 10’ pond
liner would come pre-boxed and ready to ship. pond liner
up to 400 square feet (for instance a 20’ x 20’ liner) can be
shipped via UPS. Larger, 45 mil EPDM liners which are heavier and
packaged differently, require shipment via motor freight and come in
rolls with the largest size being 50’ x 100’, all in one piece. These
rolls are typically transported to the pond site via a front end loader
with a fork that fits into the opening of the roll that the liner is
rolled on. These liners can weigh 1,500 pounds or more and once at the
site, are rolled out near the pond’s edge and strategically placed into
the excavated area.
Most Popular 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 that would be larger
than 30’ x 75’ or so – or for what size of pond you could create from a
50’ x 100’ roll of 45 mil EPDM pond liner.
The 2 most popular options are to buy 2 or more rolls of the 50’ x 100’
45 mil EPDM pond liner (or whatever size you
need) and splice them together (see below for splice information) or
buy a different kind of liner that comes in a much larger size and is
all in one piece! I’ll explain the two options further so you can
decide which sounds the most appealing to you.
How to Splice Two 45 mil EPDM Pond Liners
Together
Although there are step-by-step procedures that one
must follow to splice 2 pieces of 45 mil EPDM liner together, in a
‘nutshell’ what you need to do is lay both pieces on a very flat surface
such as plywood or for larger applications, a flat parking lot or
driveway. You unroll each liner and carefully overlap one edge of the
liner over the edge of the other liner. Ideally, this overlapped area
should be about 6” wide for the length of both pond liner.
A two-sided, sticky, EPDM pond liner tape
(called a splice tape) is then rolled out onto the edge of the bottom
liner which has already been carefully cleaned and primed. The edge of
the top liner, which has also been cleaned and primed is carefully laid
onto the bottom liner. The spliced area (ie; overlapped area
that needs to be 'glued' together) is then rolled with a roller
to make a tighter seal. In addition, an EPDM pond
liner cover strip which is approx. 6” wide and has one side that
is sticky, is then adhered over the seam joint from the 2 spliced
liners. Next, a bead of rubber caulking made specifically from the
manufacturer who created the 45 mil EPDM pond liner, is ran along both
edges of the cover strip. After 24 hours of drying, the liner can then
be moved into place. You can splice as many pond liner
as you want together in order to create the correct size of liner
you need for your application.
The benefit of having a large, 45 mil EPDM pond
liner is that it’s a heavy-duty liner and is ‘rubbery’ which
gives it greater flexibility and ‘forgiveness’ with any protruding rocks
that may surface from the already prepared and raked out pond area. The
downfall of using a 45 mil EPDM pond liner for larger applications is
that it’s heavy which requires higher shipping costs and more manpower
to move it into place.
24 Mil Woven, Polyethylene Pond Liners
24 mil woven, polyethylene pond liners are great
liners for very large ponds whether they’re for large koi ponds or water
gardens or for large fisheries and aquaculture uses. They offer great
strength and are light weight. Unlike other polyethylene liners that
simply stack layers after layers on top of each other in the
manufacturing process, this polyethylene pond liner is woven together
which gives it more strength. Another huge benefit to this liner is
that it is custom made to size and can come all in one piece up to
65,000 square feet! Pretty sweet for a large application!
Unlike PVC pond liner
that are on the market for large 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 so it can
last for years! Because they’re lighter weight, they are cheaper to
ship and require less man power to maneuver. They are only offered in
larger sizes and don’t come pre-boxed like the 45 mil EPDM liners do.
Each 24 mil woven, polyethylene pond liner is
custom made to size in increments of 5’.
The Decision: What Liner to Buy
Well, you have some of the basic information about
various pond liner on the market. If you have
a small backyard pond, koi pond or water garden, and you need a liner
that’s smaller than 50’ x 100’ , then I’d recommend using a 45 mil EPDM
pond liner.
If you have a larger pond and your soil is sandy
and well-prepared (raked, rocks and debris out, no roots nearby) then I
would recommend going with a 24 mil, woven
polyethylene liner and getting it made into the custom size you
need.
If the soil for your pond area needs a bit more
‘foregiveness’ but is still well-prepared, I would recommend you going
with a
45 mil EPDM pond liner and splicing the large pieces of liner
together. Be sure to splice it according to the manufacturer’s
recommendation and use only clean, prepped liners with 45 mil EPDM
splice products. The extra time and patience it takes to splice a liner
together properly is worth it to ensure you have a leak-proof pond.
What Not to Do
There are cheap liners on the market that are
actually roofing liners. Yes, they can hold water but they are
treated with algaecides and other harmful chemicals when used in a pond
or water garden. Don't fall for getting a roofing liner instead of
pond liner that is specifically made for ponds and the ecological system
that ponds require. Saving a few bucks by getting a roofing liner
can cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars in the long run as you'll
try to combat the effects of the chemicals that are in roof liners that
can be hazardous when used in a pond.
Something Else
To Consider
There are many preformed ponds on the market and
yes, we used to sell them. There are a few things you should know
about preformed ponds and by preformed ponds, I'm talking about the
thin, plastic preformed ponds on the market.
There are certain steps you need to take when it
comes to installing a preformed pond and one of those very important
steps is properly backfilling it in with sand. If it's not
properly backfilled, you will create gaps in the dirt that surround the
preformed pond. This gap in dirt will create a pressure point from
within the pond and the wall of the preformed pond will want to buckle.
This 'buckled' area can then easily tear and puncture causing a rip in
your preformed pond. Often times, this happens during the winter
when the soil outside of the pond shifts. Personally, I recommend
going with a rubber, fish pond liner like our 45 mil EPDM pond liner.
They will conform to any shape of pond you create and they are much more
durable. If you're really wanting to bury something in the ground then
our holding tanks are very solid and thick - but they're blue.
I hope this helps!
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