Raised Pond Construction

Hello All.
I am in the process of turning my rear south facing garden from a
wilderness into a "extension" of my house. Five years of hard graft
have now resulted in raised beds , gravel walkways, yorkshire stone
flagged steps and an area that is enjoyable to sit in and relax.

I have now got to the point where I want to build a raised pond !
(well nagged really from my better half) and I need help and ideas how
to do this.

I intend to build a concrete found and build the pond walls upwards
(this will raise the top of the pond to approx 3 ft from ground
level). My questions are as follows

1) What to put inside...liner , rigid pond, other ?

2) Ideal depth (er indoors wants Goldfish !!)

3) Thickness of walls - bearing in mind pressure of water in what may
be a 12ft length by 6 foot wide area

4) Running water into pond (small fountain or spout of water from other
source - I quite like the idea of a cascade of water from some source -
is this a good idea of not ?

5) As it is south facing will it be too hot in summer - where it is
sited get sun for 8 out of twelve hours per day

6) Power - solar or buried armour protected cabling ?

7) Shelves for plants and places for fish to hide

8) Drainage - how do I stop it filling with water and overflowing due
to rain ? (and how I stop the fish falling out/being eaten ?

9) I also want to encourage frogs/newts/toads to move in. (We have a
resident frog at the moment which has worked wonders on removing slugs
from my garden !! (He's called Freddy by the way - awwww!!)

10) Any other tios from other readers who have done the same i.e do's
and dont's

Answers would be gratefully received as I dont want to build then
demolish due to incorrect specifications.

Thanks



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Stirkius
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