I've done a quick search and not come up with much on this...
I have a project in the planning stage for the school I work at. We are a remote area and while we can get poly tanks here they cost up to three time what you'd pay on the mainland. I was thinking it may be better to use a bobcat or some kind of excavator to dig a pond instead and line it with a heavy duty pond liner. After a quick google it seems I can get quite wide dam liner around 8m (can you join it???).(http://www.hydroponics.webcentral.com.a ... dliner.htm), or even 15m (http://www.rockaroundtheblock.com.au/ca ... 35&c=20426).
So I am after some pros and cons of using both a soft liner and a rigid poly tank (apart from the pond liner can get holes in it con).
Security is an issue for two reasons. The most important of these is child safety. We are a central school and have students from kindergarten to yr 12 at the same school. I don't want to risk a drowning. With a liner I was going to sink a few concrete pillars around the perimeter and secure a piece of weld-mesh to it to cover the whole pond with a paddlocked 'lid'. I don't want to risk relying on a gated fence (though this will still be included in the submission) as the 'Norfolk way' does not place much importance on closing or locking gates or fencing things (I don't even take my keys out of my car most times!)! The second issue is one of the locals helping themselves to the fish as we raise them
. The weld mesh will help reduce that risk - maybe. The high sided poly tank seems to be better in terms of safety as little kids are less likey to be able to climb in though I'd still need to cover it with weld-mesh. I don't want an overly complicated system either. My vision for the school was one fish pond with a number of grow beds situated around the edge - not a whole lot of little tanks and little beds etc.
Any thoughts or experiences would be greatly appreciated.
