DIYbanter - View Single Post

Norminn

On 5/11/2013 11:46 AM, wrote:
On May 11, 11:25 am, dpb wrote:
On 5/11/2013 10:14 AM, Norminn wrote:
...

... install
underground lines for water and for electricity for use at the pond and
the garden. There is a septic field between the house and garden, so
that is (I think) a consideration. When I had a chandelier installed by
an electrician, I asked him about installing underground electric, and
he told me it must be 4' down....I haven't found anything online today
that addresses that....several articles that recommend burying line
12-18", using conduit, RF line, etc.

Unless it's been modified (which I sorta' doubt but didn't verify) NEC
says underground electrical must be 24" _except_ for residential where
if is a branch circuit rather than service entrance and has circuit
protection of 30A or less, then the req'd depth is 12". As always, if
you're concerned about Code compliance, local reqm'ts may differ.

...

--

Actually I believe the reqt is that the circuit must be GFCI
protected and 20A or less, then 12" is OK for direct burial
cable. That should suffice for the application. If there is
the possibility of any service wires, cable, phone, etc in
the path of the cable, the local markout folks should be
called. Around here there is one number and they do it
for all the utilites for free.

We have 20A. I was surprised to see there was no GFCI on the line to
the pump, as the house is really up to snuff and well done. Even passed
our energy audit with no dings. I called 811 to mark utilities because
I wanted to hire someone to till sod for shrub/flower beds (we have way,
way more grass than anyone needs

) Also considering putting in a
bocce court. Ennyhoo, the 811 lady said they don't mark owner-installed
stuff, but the pond electric is probably straight line. Dang thing goes
under a mortared rock border 'round pond. In my Googling, I saw a neat
gadget called a pipe puller....

My major challenge, other than planting shrubs and veg. garden, has been
cleaning algae from pond....emptied about 1/2, two days in a row, and
vacuumed algae hanging on the walls of pond. Day after first cleaning
was the first I set eyes on my koi....long winter's nap....the former
owner said there were six, but I'm pretty sure there are seven. Largest
about 1'. At 1" of koi per 10 gal. of water, I'm over capacity by a
good deal. Got a water lily, growing fast, so it is using some fish
waste and the spring algae growth may be ending. It is hard to fine
info about koi that doesn't include advert., but I'm thinking there must
be a pretty good balance between koi and plants without all kinds of
treatments. Filter media is $10 sq. ft. at pet store, but window screen
gets just about as much.