Pond help. Tell me what I need :)

[jay24k]

Well, saltwater is easy for me but ponds I'm still not all that great with. I currently have a pond near the front of my house that gets all the morning and mid afternoon sun. I have 2 lilly pad plants and another type that looks like tall grass that I don't know the name of. Obviously, it doesn't clear up the water.

My goal is to have crystal clear or close to it water. I'll get pictures tommorrow.

Right now the pond is approximately 6 feet long and wraps around the house about 2 feet. It is about 4 feet wide. I dug it pretty deap around 3 feet. I have a mag7 in there now circulating until I get the rest of the equipment. My neighbors pond pump died so I ended up with 4 koi. 2 bigger ones and 2 babies to help her out. Her husband died and she had no idea what to do.

The liner is the thick liner epdm or something like that. I'm planning on building a waterfall that will be on level ground and use a liner underneath it to catch any excess water to feed back to the main pond.

I was told to use a rubbermaid and just pump water up into it with a foam filter and lavarocks in a mesh bag as bio filtration.
What would you guys recommend as I want this to be extra nice. I eventually will have a 6 to 9 inch diameter pipe running underneath the ground to the other part of the walkway up to the house so the fish can go between both sides as I know these fish can get big.

I have a mag36 sitting around but that puts out a ton of water. Is it too much?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Links to actual products even better!

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

get a pond UV for suspended algae-it will do wonders keeping your water clear of becoming green

 

[FragMaster]

Why not just go with an archway over it? That would be sweet!
I would not only get the pond UV but Iwould stock up on mosquito dougnuts too. I wouldnt do a level to ground water fall though. Make a dramatic presentation! Go with a 3ft fall! Make it random over some large pumice rocks half way down to minimize splash.
Those lillies will drive you insane once they tak off too. Whe they multiply they MULTIPLY! LOL!!
Buy a few nice pieces of bog wood having one protruding up through the waters surface Like an old stump.
I did one up nice for my old neighbor around 6 years ago (?).
Chinese garden theme. Pagoda over the top of the falls so it looked like the falls started in the pagoda. A chinese themed archway over a narrowed section of the pond.
Natural gravel surounding it to serve as a rock garden which was raked in formation ( wavey lines ) with bonzai, small flowering shrubbs, and a japanese maple. There are ancient looking tan and black'ish paving stones through the garnden to the pond.The pond is 9 foot in length x 4 foot at it widest and 2 at its narrowest point x 3 foot shallowing to 1 1/2 foot.
The falls are on the 3 foot deepside which is also the widest point.
It narrows to 4 feet over the walkway.
Theres a couple small benches, and the entire area is surrounded by a reed wood stained privacey fence.

I used a small swiming pool filtration unit for it built into an above ground cabnetry set up that sits directly behind the falls that is hidden by shrubbery. I used a uv filter onit as well.
The pond was lined with 2 layers of 16 (?) ply liner. The falls are fiber glass and epoxy with the rocks set in the epoxy all the way down.
A few lillies, some duckweed,and a small section of cat tails.
and a but load of koi! LOL!!!

 

[jay24k]

Thanks for the suggestions. If you have any pictures that would help. Yea the waterfall will be higher as my pond sinks below and around it is concrete. This way I'll just build it up with rock and have it come down nicely. I like the idea about the wood. It would give it some variety. Any other options on plants?

 

[Anonymous]

Your best bet is a Skippy filter. Its basically a rubermaid stock tank or a garbage can. You pump the water in from the top, pipe it to the bottom, and it drains from the top into your waterfall. I use scrubber pads as the media but you can use PVC threads, hair curlers, even bio balls. I found that the scrubber pads are the cheapest. I woulldn't use lava rocks since they are heavy and get clogged easily. The easiest way to get the water clear is to use floating plants (water hycanith), but if you have Koi you'll have to put the floaters in a section of the pond where they can't eat them. I put mine in my waterfall pool/bog filter.

Here is a link to Skippy info.

http://www.skippysstuff.com/biofiltr.htm

I use a mag 24 for my 900gal pond. A Mag 36 would be fine.

 

[jay24k]

Thanks for the information. I will definetly check that link out more and do something similiar. I was thinking of having a box in the pond pump water up into a rubbermaid through a bulkhead. As it fills it would overflow and then onto rock down a waterfall and I could have all the filtration there. I guess I could make a little mini pond up higher for some of the water plants which might look nice.

 

[Anonymous]

Put a bag of barely bail in a high flow area.

UV's do a great job too.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

there are also plenty of excellent books on ponds available in the hobby, btw, that cover everything from construction to filter design/options