# Starting pond. Questions and pictures



## blindkiller85 (Jan 8, 2011)

Well, I've decided to further extend my pond and make it bigger than originally planned (up to 1000 gallons bigger). I'm going to ignore my fiance's wants of replanting half of the section I'm clearing. The pictures that I'll be posting are of what I've done just today from 8am to 130pm. I do irrigation so I dig all day anyways, so it's not that hard for me. Replanted some of the virigated mondo grass just because I like it and I want something to be there for now because I need to plan, save $ and then go to town. So for reference of how big this will be, here we go.

EDIT: This also gives a reference for how much sun this area gets. Granted the sun has moved more northern the past 2 months, but only about 3 feet of the length there gets sun for 6-7 hours a day during the summer/spring. So this is the real thing about what plans I could realistically put into the pond to aid in the fry having survivability chances within the pond.

For reference, the length of this pond should turn out to be about 15 feet. 1 foot to the right of the gutter, and 3 feet (or more) from the landing on the front porch. That's where my equipment will go. I have about 21 feet to work with total.









Mmmmm "bowfront" - This is why my equipment will be going near the front door. At the smallest point it's only about 3 feet wide. Widest is around 6 1/2 feet. 










How would you guys do this as far as filters, plumbing and all. I'm wanting to separate a waterfall from the actual filtration process. Just because I'm going to attempt to breed tropical fish, I want to be able to turn the waterfall off to effectively keep the water temperature 78 degree's or higher as well as minimizing evaporation. Temperature control, I plan on 2 to 3 (1000w) heaters. Waterfall I was thinking about a 500gph pump and a sponge to keep large elements out of the pump.

The Actual filter is a grey area. Not knowing how many gallons this will be until the hole is dug to measure. Not knowing what brands are good and what I should be looking for, none the less flow rates. Another random question, should I plan on leaving the filter on 24/7 or should I set it on a timer? I would think for breeding I would need to leave it on to keep conditions normal rather than having no circulation and the fry leaving the heavily planted area's. None the less leaving it on makes more sense for algae, and biological filtration, as I do have an aquarium lol.

Thanks for reading, I know it was terribly long lol.


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## blindkiller85 (Jan 8, 2011)

Just to revisit momentarily, when I say how would you plumb it I'm asking if the typical bottom drain to go to the settling tank and then pump back out into the pond? I've been leaning towards the Laguna ClearFlo series as I can make a box to house it, next to the 100g barrel and beneath a 4 plug external outlet box.

I'm just curious on doing my own thing on this. Because I really would like to have a 100g water barrel for my skimmer/settling tank and a reserve. Using it the same way as a refugium does, flowing into the barrel in the ground when it reaches a point then pumped back in via the filter. Only catch is going about it so that there is a sensor to cut off the pump in case of low water. Simply adding water to retrigger the filter to work whether it be rain, or added manually. Hence the separation for the water fall to keep the water moving in case of low water. And on the other side of the pond being 2 inches higher will be a natural overflow with a screen on both ends dumping into my driveway/viburnum as to only overflow in one direction rather than a spread onto the sidewalk or into the dirt surrounding.


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## blindkiller85 (Jan 8, 2011)

Not like anyone seems to care, but this is now on a permanent hiatus due to my fiance being an idiot with finances. Farewell pond, until we meet again.


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