We have recently moved into a small Bungalow, [it's an age thing!] to be closer to the sea and our boat and decided to almost double the size of it by building a large conservatory.We already have an aviary full of canaries, an aquarium with two Oscars and thought a pond would complement the garden.

We have always wanted some sort of water feature in the conservatory so decided to "bring the pond inside" The project is still very much ongoing as you can see but we are close to installing the filter, pump and planting it up. Apart from the obvious efforts to build the retaining walls and back fill the pre-formed fibreglass pond the only headache was designing the draught seals. We have achieved this by fixing lengths of hardwood under the lintel that sandwich strips of natural rubber sheet that have been profiled to suit the contours of the bio edge pond. The rubber sits a couple of inches below water level and will isolate the conservatory from the effects of wind and cold temperatures outside. The plan is plant both the bio-edge and the deeper parts with native [uk] plants and stock with just a few small native fish, hopefully they will eat the mosquito lava before they hatch!.. We are going to slope the ground up to the end of the pond to provide an escape route for any "critters" we might have breeding in there and the pond will have an overflow pipe buried under this slope. The filter will be sited here buried in a small dustbin so that it's not noticeable but easy to access. We plan on fitting the lid of the bin upside down and planting that as well The curved interior wall will have a hardwood sill top, you know, somewhere to rest the beer glass on and the bio edge will be planted inside too.

So fingers crossed, in a couple of weeks it will all be up and maturing..I'll keep you posted.