Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Floating Islands

Hey all! I am in the middle of thinking about putting a floating island in my pond. The island would have some plant life on it and allow turtles and ducks to nest on it. I have found one site that offers this and it claims to also help with water quality and fish habitat. SIte is as follows: http://floatingislandinternational.com/understanding_general.htm Question is has anyone ever used one of these? Its about $29/sq ft but sounds interesting and an island about 15 sq ft would be right for a pond my size. If not has anyone ever made one of their own floating islands up using PVC and foam or other materials? Just curious.

Eric,

From an aesthetics standpoint perhaps this may be the best choice, but from a cost/benefit standpoint, a floating raft of pallets makes a rather inexpensive way to go. I've used that approach and it works good except after a time some pallets get water logged and no longer are an island but underwater structure...which is okay also. For $450 you can add a lot of improvements to your pond, including forage fish.

I hear you on the cost. They do however make claims around helping water quality and other things related to fish environment. I do also like the natural look vs. the look of a floating dock. But it does come back to the cost. That is why I was wondering if anyone here has used them or heard of them.

I also think that maybe something like that could be made with PVC and foam and a mesh layer of peat moss and hydroponics methodologies for a lot less than the $450. As for saving the money for adding fish, there is always money there for that I just wanted to gain the benefits of a island while not eating up volume in the pond for an island.

The other thing I thought that a floating island would help with is that I currently have a floating board out in the pond holding my line to the aerator and I thought I could attach the island to that and kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Well I hope someone out here has some more thoughts on this and or has tried something like this in the past.

Neat idea Eric, I bet you could use black shade cloth it comes in 6 ft widths from HD and Lowes to form the center areas and then put the peat on top of it. It also would cover the pvc pipe. Might try a little 2' by 2' in the koi pond and see if it works and if it does make a larger one in the .4 acre pond. I was thinking of building the frame in a square and use some t's and a cross coupling to make a "+" in the middle for extra support then drill a few 1/4 inch holes in the pvc and then using a can of expanding foam to fill the pvc. Then place the shade cloth over it and stitching it to the frame around the perimeter with 130 pound dacron fishing line. Sure would be alot cheaper. What do you think?

Bob

Thanks Bob. I was also thinking of using the PVC piping and doing some cross tees in the center as you mentioned for support. I was going to fill the PVC with the expanding foam prior to putting it together but I like your idea of drilling the holes after its together.

I was going to use some fiber mesh screening as the bottom to allow the roots out but keep the peat in, however I am interested to find out more about the shade cloth. Does that breakdown over time? I was trying to figure out what to use for the top cloth. It has to be sturdy enough to keep the plants supported but open enough to allow the plants to start growing.

I had not thought about sewing it together with the fishing line but that would make sense for a fish pond I was going to secure it to the PVC with wire ties.

One of my concerns was to figure out how large of PVC and foam to keep it floating but not so much that nothing can either crawl up on the island and or have it look too fake. I was going to go with about 2 - 3 inch thin wall PVC and have the cross "+" braces not filled to provide some of the weight as to not have this blow away totally and also give it a good center of gravity. I was also thinking of cutting a small chunk out of one of the side braces to put a wood or some sort of ramp for any turtles or frogs to find their way up on it, but would not need it if it were more neutrally buoyant.

Well that’s my ides so far. Just thinking about it makes me believe that it may be a bit of work and who knows maybe paying the floating Island place to build and seed it would be worth it. lol They did send an awesome packet to look over and what I saw sounded right but I am still debating about the cost of that when I know I could make something like that for less. Ahhh well maybe I will make a prototype here and see if it looks good and if not then buy one of theirs. Stay tuned and if anyone has other ideas I would love to hear them!!!

Eric: Last year I had a problem with predators eating my ducks. A wildlife biologist at a nearby university suggested that I build a floating island and plant bunch grass on it. Said the hens would take to it, especially at night. I've made mine out of a sheet of exterior plywood with styrofoam glued to the bottom for buoyancy. I've also attached the foam "noodles" that kids use in swimming pools to each side for additional bouyancy. I've covered it in plain old hay, which is easy to replace when the duck poop gets too deep. The ducks (and the turtles) have indeed liked it.

Eric the pieces of shade cloth I am going to use are about 6 years old. I used them for about 3 years to cover my small greenhouse in the summer but after I built the big one I am no longer growing plants in the little one. So from there for the past 3 years I have been using it to contain my compost piles that are ground up leaves and every spring when I remove it to move the compost to the garden I looks like new so with that in mind I think it is quite durable. It is also very strong you could make a hammock out of it and not have to worry about falling through it. If you go look at it has a small mesh opening which is sized dependant upon the percentage of shade it provides. I was thinking the same as you using thinwall sewer pvc. Figure I'll build mine and let the kids test it out before I put anything on it for growning media!

Bob

I believe Norm posted that site a while back.

Here's another thread on the subject:
http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=000678

I think it's a neat idea. Here's a picture of one that was built down in mexico out of recycled materials. It wasn't permanent and the guy has since moved it.

Now thats an Island!!!!! If I could have an island like that and have it equiped with a Tiki bar and Bikini Dancers I might be interested, otherwise I don't think I need one that big.

I have started working on my small 5'x3' Island. I am working on what plants to put in that do well hydroponically. I think my whole Island will cost out somewhere around $45. Stay tuned!!

Chip Rowland:

I see you're from Lima, OH. Spent many evenings and days there when we used to have a facility there. You ever get down to Grand Lake St. Mary's? Always thought that was a beautiful area, on the drive up from our Muncie plant.

Eric,

Good luck with you project. I used to work for a company that made 3D textile products; polypropolene mats for hydroponic farming.When I read about the island I thought it was pretty neat. It started as a big mesh bag full of pop bottles and look at it now.

Matt,

I've seen the lake you mentioned but haven't had a chance to fish it. I moved here about 2 years ago from Georgia so I haven't tried all the local lakes yet but your right, it's a nice area. It's amazing that they dug that lake without heavy equipment.

Chip

Just an update to all. The floating Island has been built and is out floating as we speak. I am adding the plants over the next few days.

The island is built out of 5 floating noodle type of things that kids use for swimming. Tied together with rope in a round/rectangle type of shape. I used Industrial ground cloth for the liner and attached it to the noodle frame. I filled the island with a bio type of straw/manmade material that is held together via a mesh netting. I layered this many times to achieve the depth that I wanted ( about 6-8 inches ) I then tied that all down and back to the liner that sat within the frame.

Total cost of the 5' by 5' Island:
$5 for noodle structure
$3 for rope
$10 for Ground cloth liner
$23 for Bio mesh
$5 for fishing line that ties it all together.

Total into project: $46, Cost of purchasing Island from site listed above for 3'x5' ---> $450

Savings $404 ( Me ---> Wife ----> )

If I could figure out how to attach pics here I would show you how it turned out. By the way the fish and fatheads were drawn to the island right away and you can see them hanging out and feeding around it already. Great fun and nice project. If anyone wants more info where I got items just give me a shout.

send pics!

Here's a post where Wood explains how to post pic's: http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=19;t=000054