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Now i this may sound like a pipe dream and it may still be, but after some considerable thought, myself and a life long friend have decided to look at at building a 10/20 acre lake here in the United Arab Emirates.

Right now we have an investment of around $200K (to build and stock the lake), but right now we have more questions than answers!

Glaring questions we have are so far:

1. What is the best type of lake to construct for such a hot climate (between 10c - 50c heat)?

2. What depths are we talking about to have the right environment for the stock.

3. Should we go with cement, or geomembrane, or anything else (there is lots of cement and geomembrane manufacturers in the UAE so getting stock is not an issue). Most of the UAE is sand. That said, in the North becomes very rocky and lots of gravel. Would a gravel pit, or a sandpit would be best suited?

4. What type of fish would be best suited. My ideal fish is bass, or trout, but i have fished some excellent lakes in Thailand etc that have big game, including catfish etc.

Their are native fish in the UAE in the northern mountain rivers (http://www.uaeinteract.com/uaeint_misc/teanh/022fwfi.pdf), but with the scarcity of water, these turn into small ponds in the summer.

5. What would be the running costs to manage this size of lake?

The great thing is labor in the Middle East is cheaper the in NA. Hiring an excavator is also cheaper than most other countries.

That said, i'm not sure whether the $200k would cut the mustard to get the project set up. We are right at the planning stage, so were hopping to get some good advice and plan well.

All help and advice would be greatly appreciated.



Last edited by middleeastfisher; 07/13/14 04:53 AM.
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Welcome to the forum MEfisher! There is no way we can answer hardly one of your questions without a lot of technical information and a considerable amount of research specific to the geographic area and especially any political/legal hurdles.

That said, I was asked last year to consider a total renovation of a 17 acre lake in Hong Kong at a hotel, but the owners wanted it to be the centerpiece in changing it into a destination location for families. The starting budget there was just over $2M. With all their requirements and visions, it just wasn't possible to get their needs done within the budget available. The idea there was more function and aesthetics rather than fishing, though it was an integral part also.

I would suggest starting to get rough ideas on what your realistic goals are, in the climate you are in first, such as researching species and sub-surface structures and depths of any lakes in similar latitudes and temperature zones. Rubber membrane liners would be best because you WILL need 12-20 meter depths in much of the pool and concrete would fail. I would also suggest, for cost reasons, that you search for any fisheries experts in the middle east to consult. I would think there are VERY few, if any in North America that you wouldn't have to pay well to educate themselves on your area.



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Originally Posted By: middleeastfisher
Now i this may sound like a pipe dream and it may still be, but after some considerable thought, myself and a life long friend have decided to look at at building a 10/20 acre lake here in the United Arab Emirates.

Right now we have an investment of around $200K (to build and stock the lake), but right now we have more questions than answers!


middleeastfisher:

Welcome to the forum!

I've been working with a person in Turkey for the past year to design and build a pond in the southeastern part of the country. Rainman is right, there IS a learning curve. wink Let me try and answer your questions.


Originally Posted By: middleeastfisher

Glaring questions we have are so far:

1. What is the best type of lake to construct for such a hot climate (between 10c - 50c heat)?


The lake will have to be designed for the fish species that you will be stocking. Look at their preferred temp range, and preferred habitat. That leads us to your 2nd question, due to evaporative loss potential.

Originally Posted By: middleeastfisher

2. What depths are we talking about to have the right environment for the stock.


A deeper pond is better in your climate than a shallower pond. Yes, that also means aeration to enable the fish to utilize the entire water column, and to help mitigate surface water temperatures. Since your location has litle rainfall, evaporation rates will exceed rainfall rates, so you will have to do some research in your area to see if underground aquifiers will supply enough water, of good quality, to keep the pond full. We're talking a LOT of water for that size pond. One of the biggest hurdles that you will have to address is good quality fresh water. The total groundwater reserves in the UAE are estimated at 640Km³ (2.6% fresh, 18.1% brackish, 79.4% saline) 97.4 % are either brackish or saline reserves, with meager fresh water. Depending on the area that the pond is built, you could have an annual deficit of 40mm (or more). So, using that 40mm figure, in a 10 ac pond you will need a minimum of roughly 500,000 gallons of water annually just to keep up with evaporation providing you have no other water loss providing you have an "average" rainfall year. If you have a low rainfall year you might have to replenish more than 10x that amount.

Originally Posted By: middleeastfisher
3. Should we go with cement, or geomembrane, or anything else (there is lots of cement and geomembrane manufacturers in the UAE so getting stock is not an issue). Most of the UAE is sand. That said, in the North becomes very rocky and lots of gravel. Would a gravel pit, or a sandpit would be best suited?


I would check for clay. The location in Turkey was initially thought to be sand with rocks interspersed. Upon further review, it was determined that if the rocks were removed, and water added, there was more than enough clay in the soil to make a liner with the existing soil. But, like Rex said, a membrane liner would be the preferred route vs. cement.

Originally Posted By: middleeastfisher
4. What type of fish would be best suited. My ideal fish is bass, or trout, but i have fished some excellent lakes in Thailand etc that have big game, including catfish etc.


You have to use a warm water species, definately not Trout unless you have a small pond inside of a building where you can control the climate and keep the water temp below 21°C. The biggest problem is getting fish into the country. Shipping fish internationally is a much larger problem than you think. You will have to check the importation regulations for UAE as to what permits and tests are required to import live fish.


Originally Posted By: middleeastfisher

5. What would be the running costs to manage this size of lake?


The running costs to manage the lake wouldn't be that great compared to the cost of building and stocking it. But, that does not take into account the cost of water to keep it full - I have no idea what good quality water costs there.

Originally Posted By: middleeastfisher

The great thing is labor in the Middle East is cheaper the in NA. Hiring an excavator is also cheaper than most other countries.

That said, i'm not sure whether the $200k would cut the mustard to get the project set up. We are right at the planning stage, so were hopeing to get some good advice and plan well.

All help and advice would be greatly appreciated.



Like Rex said earlier, I also think that the budget will need to be a LOT larger. What is the cost of the liner material for 13,100 square meters? Not only just the liner material, but the underlayment, vents and labor to install? What is the cost of good fresh water per million gallons? You can have a slight salt content, but nothing more than what you can safely drink. An acre of water, one foot deep is 325,851 gallons. I hope this helps you, even a little bit.


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Hi "middleeastfisher" . I am the person from Turkey that Esshup mentioned smile . I have been trying to have a pond for 2 years, now.

Actually it amazed me to see how relaxed you were about water supply issue. You didn't even ask anything about it. Really man? Do you have a good source of water? How do you think you will supply water for that 10 acres pond?

I am in a much cooler area. I am sure we have much more water than you have over there too. But water supply is still my biggest nightmare. All i can do is to use well water.

Second thing is about foreign fishes. If you plan to use American fish species like LMB, it is pretty hard to bring them over. I have been trying for a while and still no luck. Please give me a hand if you know how to do it man.

Trout is not gonna survive there. But living in a tropical environment will bring you a great advantage. You can have hundreds of catfish , cichlid, crazy predator species in your pond and get them either from an aquarium store or import from Singapore or Thailand easilllyyy... Why not have peacock bass? Or red tail cat? That pond will be a blow with these species smile . I wouldn't even consider LMB or trout . These are so colorless and boring compared to all the tropical species.

I will be following this thread. I might learn a lot from here too...

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Fatih, I was wondering if you were going to see this. wink grin


www.hoosierpondpros.com


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You might even have some saltwater predator fish near your coast or the estuaries that could handle a feshwater pond. I have found a few here in Florida.....

first things first,get a hole with some water in it.


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Bobby, they have a lot of high salinity groundwater, and wells there don't always pump "fresh" water. So, a saltwater pond would be a very likely possibility.


www.hoosierpondpros.com


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well that would be neat..

Not to hyjack but , A few arteasian wells around me are showing up to 10 PPT salt...

Mine is being dug today...If mine shows this it will great ly expand my veriaety..a few species will go pure fresh...Lots and Lots will go "nearly" fresh


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Another good thread in the dustbin...


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