First time ponder, any thoughts for this design?

Hello, I am planning to buld my first pond.

9'x14' and 2' deep with a 15 foot waterfall/stream running down to it.
You can get a pretty good idea for my design so far from here

http://www.woosworld.net/pond/

I am planning to put my bottom drain to my skimmer (homemade) and
gravity feed the water from the bottom drain to the skimmer and from
there to the pump, where it will be pumped up the hill to the top of
the waterfall..

Any thoughts?

I may need more filters someday, and I am also concerned that my pump
may not put enough water over the falls to make it look quite right -
it's a Supreme 3600 rated for a bit over 2200GPH at the head height I
am going to need from it.

Thanks

Josh

Hello Josh!
Is that a patio down at the bottom of the yard?
If it is..... make the stream longer or start it further 'forward' so the pond
is next to the sitting area - you'll have a lot of enjoyment of the pond if you
can sit next to it and watch the fish and critters.
Go as big as you can afford because I think you'll find that folks around here,
when asked what they would change, is that they wished they made it bigger! ;-)
Also the bigger the pond the more forgiving it is when we mess up.
Smart to be putting in a bottom drain and skimmer you get extra points for
that.

You've got a lot of greenery in your yard so plan, when you build, for an easy
way to net the pond in the fall. You might sink some pvc in the ground to set
poles in to attach your netting to.

Others will chime in.
Welcome to rec.ponds!


k30a
and the watergardening labradors
http://www.geocities.com/watergarden...dors/home.html

Josh wrote:
Hello, I am planning to buld my first pond.

9'x14' and 2' deep with a 15 foot waterfall/stream running down to it.
You can get a pretty good idea for my design so far from here

http://www.woosworld.net/pond/

Which part of the world are you in? Anywhere cold and I'd be tempted to
make it deeper to leave plenty of unfrozen water. Actually I'd make it
bigger and deeper anyway, but then I like digging holes!

Also, make sure you can net your pond in autumn, it looks like you've
got quite a few trees near by.

Finally, as your building it on a slight slope don't forget you'll need
to build up the bottom edge.

--
Matt Helliwell
www.helliwell.me.uk
matt at helliwell dot me dot uk

(Josh) writes:

9'x14' and 2' deep with a 15 foot waterfall/stream running down to it.
You can get a pretty good idea for my design so far from here

About 2000 gal. I'd double it by making it 4 feet deep. You could use
a 20x25' liner. Could almost do 5' with that liner...

From your website I see your in Georgia now... wish I was further
south... anyway I would consider the going deeper. I put in a pond
about the same size earlier this year with one 6ft x 3ft section 3ft
deep and I am going to redo it next year and get the whole thing 3 ft
deep at minimum. That way my fish will have plenty of room to swim
around and get big and strong. I will also hopefully get less temp.
variation. Hopefully your ground isn't too hard.

(Josh) wrote in message . com...
Hello, I am planning to buld my first pond.

In addition to the other comments with which I agree, you should
consider if the focus of your pond will be fish, or plants (water
lilly, lotus, etc.) If fish, you are in fine shape. If plants, be
advised that water lillies need lots of direct sun, and you should
consider placing the pond in a place where it is not shaded for much
of the day. 5-6 hours of direct sun should be enough.

Looks like a valid plan, I would echo what others have said, I am concerned
your pump *might* bit a bit small for your waterway, it also sounds like you
have bought the pump....actually this may be a good way to go, use the pump
you have, see what it looks like, if it is not enough flow, buy another,
bypass the filter with it so it just pumps into the head of the waterfall,
put it on a timer so it runs when you are there to see it and shuts off when
your not, you save power & the other pump is still providing
filtration/aeration. strongly consider a u.v. light in addition to the
filter, algae (green water) can be a problem. The other thing I would
suggest is to run plenty of GFCI power as near to where your pump is going
to be as allowed by code (get permits!) cause I have already used up 3 of
your available plugs with my suggestions :-). Since $$$$ is an issue you
may be able to do these things in phases, power, u.v & 2nd pump if needed.
Good luck & don't work too hard digging a hole in the Georgia clay.

"Josh" wrote in message
om...
Hello, I am planning to buld my first pond.

9'x14' and 2' deep with a 15 foot waterfall/stream running down to it.
You can get a pretty good idea for my design so far from here

http://www.woosworld.net/pond/

I am planning to put my bottom drain to my skimmer (homemade) and
gravity feed the water from the bottom drain to the skimmer and from
there to the pump, where it will be pumped up the hill to the top of
the waterfall..

Any thoughts?

I may need more filters someday, and I am also concerned that my pump
may not put enough water over the falls to make it look quite right -
it's a Supreme 3600 rated for a bit over 2200GPH at the head height I
am going to need from it.

Thanks

Josh

Is that a patio down at the bottom of the yard?
If it is..... make the stream longer or start it further 'forward' so the pond
is next to the sitting area - you'll have a lot of enjoyment of the pond if you can sit next to it and watch the fish and critters.

It is a patio, and I was going to, but I wanted to keep a large
portion of the backyard for the baby to play in - plus my wife isn't
so sure she wants a pond, so she "informed" me it could go over there.
My thought is that since this one isn't really intended to be a koi
pond (hence the shallower depth) I can use it for the falls and plants
and such. My goal is to then dig a deeper one next to it for koi (in
the future) and link the two via underground PVC.

You've got a lot of greenery in your yard so plan, when you build, for an easy
way to net the pond in the fall. You might sink some pvc in the ground to set
poles in to attach your netting to.

You are referring to putting a net over the pond during the fall, not
just a net to skim out the leaves -- I have never seen that (granted
I'm new). I dont get many leaves that land where the pond is, which
is why I chose that side of the yard, the vast majority of them are
blown into the front yard by the prevaling breeze.

Andrew Burgess wrote in message ...
(Josh) writes:

9'x14' and 2' deep with a 15 foot waterfall/stream running down to it.
You can get a pretty good idea for my design so far from here

About 2000 gal. I'd double it by making it 4 feet deep. You could use
a 20x25' liner. Could almost do 5' with that liner...

The next pond will be deeper, I'm mainly planning on goldfish and
plants in this one. I thought about Koi in this one, but I got a
15x20 45mil EPDM liner for $45 so it sort of dictated the size ;-)

Hopefully your ground isn't too hard.

Uggg. I started digging last night, Georgia clay and lots of roots -
it was awful. I am going to keep pretty good track of my progress on
the website (didn't get the pic of day 1 digging up yet), but between
all the roots and sod and rocks and clay it will take me awhile to dig
this ;-)