In this section i hope to explain how i started in the hobby, this would include my first pond.

We moved into a new house in 2004 which was in need of some renovation both inside and out. the garden needed a complete overhaul as it had been left in a sorry state, the whole lot was turfed but there seemed to be an area that looked like it needed something there. This is when i decided to build my first pond.

It was what majority of first peoples ponds are...full of mistakes. I block built from ground up and used a liner, there was no bottom drain and initial filtration was inadequate, it was 12ft long x 3.5ft deep and was just under a 1000 gallons. I knew that if i wanted to take this hobby seriously i had to change a few things or build a bigger pond. I had an old brick outhouse just to the rear of the house which seemed ideal to build a small quarantine/ holding facility while i started to build a new pond.