Pond Liner For Fish Pond or Water Garden

Most Popular Fish-Safe Pond Liner for Small Koi Ponds and Water GardensThe first thing you want to do is make sure the pond liner is fish-safe. This is vital. Fish-safe 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 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 that are divisible by 5′. For instance, a 10′ x 10′ pond liner would come pre-boxed and ready to ship. Pond liners 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 with 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 PondsThere are a couple of options for those who are looking to build a large fish pond or water garden where they would require a liner larger than 50′ x 100′. In this case, 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 made 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 TogetherAlthough 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 liners. 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) 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 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 pondliners 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 area for the pond. 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 Liners24 mil woven, polyethylene pond liners are great liners for very large ponds whether they’re for large koi ponds, water gardens, large fish ponds or for 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 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 pond application!Unlike PVC pondliners 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 liner is custom made to size in increments of 5′.The Decision: What Liner to BuyWell, you have some of the basic information about various pondliners 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.