do i need a bottom drain and a skimmer. Help!

Thanks for all the advice. I've read that the bottom drain is for mid
to large ponds. Is this true? Would the size of my pond be
considered small or mid? Are there plans for homemade skimmers or
bottom drains? Thanks in advance.


"~ Windsong ~" wrote in message ...
"Ka30P" wrote in message
...

You can run a pond without a skimmer or a bottom drain, or even without
netting

* This I would never again do. Too many predators where we live and I fully
believe they bring disease from natural lakes and rivers nearby. What the
diseases don't kill the predators take. I live in a real rural area.

it
BUT you will have to drain it and shovel
out loverly muck, every spring if you can,
which we don't, but we should!

* We're going to start doing ours every 2 years. There's not much on the
bottoms now.

kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A

DAN wrote:

Thanks for all the advice. I've read that the bottom drain is for mid
to large ponds. Is this true? Would the size of my pond be
considered small or mid?

Wrong question.

Right question: "How do I want to empty this thing?"

DAN wrote:

Thanks for all the advice. I've read that the bottom drain is for mid
to large ponds. Is this true? Would the size of my pond be
considered small or mid?

Wrong question.

Right question: "How do I want to empty this thing?"

I aksed this same question myself recently (just built a 9x14x2.5)
http://www.woosworld.net/pond/

and in the end I decided to build them both in to make my future life
easier, neither of them was very hard but my skimmer is already
proving itself worthwhile, removing alot of floating debris.

When the water warms up I am going to check on my bottom drain, it
doesn't seem to work as well as I hoped - I still have dirt on the
bottom of the pond. (This may be because it's not installed correctly,
I'll have to see)

As for your pump, mins is only a 1.25 opening, and you can see the
waterfall it is pushing (about 35' of 2" pipe with a 6-7' height raise
gives me something like 11-12 head height)

I aksed this same question myself recently (just built a 9x14x2.5)
http://www.woosworld.net/pond/

and in the end I decided to build them both in to make my future life
easier, neither of them was very hard but my skimmer is already
proving itself worthwhile, removing alot of floating debris.

When the water warms up I am going to check on my bottom drain, it
doesn't seem to work as well as I hoped - I still have dirt on the
bottom of the pond. (This may be because it's not installed correctly,
I'll have to see)

As for your pump, mins is only a 1.25 opening, and you can see the
waterfall it is pushing (about 35' of 2" pipe with a 6-7' height raise
gives me something like 11-12 head height)

"Offbreed" wrote in message
...
DAN wrote:

Thanks for all the advice. I've read that the bottom drain is for mid
to large ponds. Is this true? Would the size of my pond be
considered small or mid?

Wrong question.

Right question: "How do I want to empty this thing?"

Skimmers and Bottom Drains are by no means a requirement for a pond, but
they do help in reducing maintenance in addition to other features. IMHO,
you probably don't need a bottom drain for a pond that is small enough to
allow you to reach the bottom easily. For example, if you had a two foot
deep pond, a BD would probably be overkill. In my case, my pond goes down
nearly 4 feet. My BD is in for two reasons. It feeds my filter from the
bottom of the pond, and the return is at the top of the pond. I get very
good circulation this way. I did not install my diffuser last year, so my BD
is not doing much in the way of cleaning, but as soon as the water warms up,
I plan to get the diffuser in place, and then it should help to maintain a
clear bottom.


--
BV.
www.iheartmypond.com

"Offbreed" wrote in message
...
DAN wrote:

Thanks for all the advice. I've read that the bottom drain is for mid
to large ponds. Is this true? Would the size of my pond be
considered small or mid?

Wrong question.

Right question: "How do I want to empty this thing?"

Skimmers and Bottom Drains are by no means a requirement for a pond, but
they do help in reducing maintenance in addition to other features. IMHO,
you probably don't need a bottom drain for a pond that is small enough to
allow you to reach the bottom easily. For example, if you had a two foot
deep pond, a BD would probably be overkill. In my case, my pond goes down
nearly 4 feet. My BD is in for two reasons. It feeds my filter from the
bottom of the pond, and the return is at the top of the pond. I get very
good circulation this way. I did not install my diffuser last year, so my BD
is not doing much in the way of cleaning, but as soon as the water warms up,
I plan to get the diffuser in place, and then it should help to maintain a
clear bottom.


--
BV.
www.iheartmypond.com

Your pond looks good so far. I'd like to see it when its completed.
What kind of pump are you using. You noted that it was 1.5" and then
the pipes were 2". did you use some type of adapter to go from the
1.5 to 2 and if so, do you think that a bigger one like 3" would be
better?


(Josh) wrote in message . com...
I aksed this same question myself recently (just built a 9x14x2.5)
http://www.woosworld.net/pond/

and in the end I decided to build them both in to make my future life
easier, neither of them was very hard but my skimmer is already
proving itself worthwhile, removing alot of floating debris.

When the water warms up I am going to check on my bottom drain, it
doesn't seem to work as well as I hoped - I still have dirt on the
bottom of the pond. (This may be because it's not installed correctly,
I'll have to see)

As for your pump, mins is only a 1.25 opening, and you can see the
waterfall it is pushing (about 35' of 2" pipe with a 6-7' height raise
gives me something like 11-12 head height)

Your pond looks good so far. I'd like to see it when its completed.
What kind of pump are you using. You noted that it was 1.5" and then
the pipes were 2". did you use some type of adapter to go from the
1.5 to 2 and if so, do you think that a bigger one like 3" would be
better?


(Josh) wrote in message . com...
I aksed this same question myself recently (just built a 9x14x2.5)
http://www.woosworld.net/pond/

and in the end I decided to build them both in to make my future life
easier, neither of them was very hard but my skimmer is already
proving itself worthwhile, removing alot of floating debris.

When the water warms up I am going to check on my bottom drain, it
doesn't seem to work as well as I hoped - I still have dirt on the
bottom of the pond. (This may be because it's not installed correctly,
I'll have to see)

As for your pump, mins is only a 1.25 opening, and you can see the
waterfall it is pushing (about 35' of 2" pipe with a 6-7' height raise
gives me something like 11-12 head height)

"DAN" wrote in message
om...
Your pond looks good so far. I'd like to see it when its completed.
What kind of pump are you using. You noted that it was 1.5" and then
the pipes were 2". did you use some type of adapter to go from the
1.5 to 2 and if so, do you think that a bigger one like 3" would be
better?
snip

I went straight to 4''.

--
BV.
www.iheartmypond.com