Topics

1

Pond Construction & Filtration / my revised design

« on: May 13, 2007, 10:59:23 AM »

First i thought I could use the pond with a stream to double as a runoff drain. That turned out to be a bad idea.
http://www.americanponders.com/forum/index.php?topic=2573.msg27313#msg27313


Then I thought I could keep both a seperate stream and runoff channel. That presents problems because the pump is positioned in a rather small reservoir.
http://www.americanponders.com/forum/index.php?topic=2609.0

So now I'm thinking about keeping it simple. A waterfall, short stream, second waterfall and then the 8x12 sq ft pond. The pond would use a skimmer/filter with a submersible pump in the skimmer. Water would be pumped up to the waterfall/filter unit. I estimate about 1200 to 1500 gallons of water in the system.
My question, will the skimmer and waterfall units provide enough filtering to keep some gold fish?

[img width= height=]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-10/459194/IMG_1428.jpg[/img]

2

Pond Chat / more questions

« on: May 11, 2007, 06:48:35 AM »

here's a diagram of the pond I want to build:

[img width= height=]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-10/459194/diagram.jpg[/img]

The total water volume is about 1500 gallons. The top of the falls will use a filter/falls unit. It will cascade about four feet to a 6x12 foot pond, about 2 feet deep. Then will run down a 30 foot stream and empty into a 50 gallon barrel. A sump pump in the bottom of the barrel will push the water back up to the falls. The total drop should be about 5 feet.

The reservoir barrel will contain some kind of filter as well, I'm guessing. Tinkster suggested a "skippy" filter. Would that work down here? or any other suggestion for a filter in my barrel?

What about a skimmer? The pond is small and doesn't seem set up properly to use a skimmer. Can I just rely on the stream to act as a skimmer? Maybe place a screen in the path?

Here's the photo of the site.

[img width= height=]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-10/459194/IMG_0821b.jpg[/img]

I'm thinking that a second larger pond can be built in the future on top of the second tier of ties. I think I'd want a better pump/filter/skimmer/UV light system in that stage of the project. For now I'm trying to keep it kind of small, low maintenance and cheap.

Thanks for everyone's help so far, great suggestions and great links.

Kevin

3

Pond Chat / Nooby ponder with questions

« on: May 09, 2007, 11:41:35 AM »

Hello you ponders, nice site you have here.

I have some questions. First I'll explain my situation. We remodeled and built a walkout on our basement. It's not a regular slant downhill type of walkout but more of a sunken patio. A 30x25 foot pit lined with railroad ties. One corner has a 8 foot wide ditch leading downhill to act as a drain. (We live in Wisconsin so a drain for snowmelt and rain is essential)

I left that one corner of the patio open to drain excess water away from the house. That ditch is where I want to place a pond and stream. The way I envisioned the project is that the pond and stream will double as the drain for the patio. Bad idea? Everything I've read indicates that allowing runoff into your pond is a bad idea.

There will be no chemical fertilizers or pesticides used but a lot of leaves will find their way into the system, Which is going to happen whether I use the pond as a drain or not. I'll just have to deal with that. I am hoping to add some little goldfish or minnows to the pond.


The second option is to build a drain next to the pond/stream and disguise it as a rocky path. better solution? This could also have the stream running TO the pond where the other system has the pond draining downstream to a holding tank. (a 50 gal drum)



Any suggestion about which way might work better? Also any suggestion or links to DIY filters, pumps, or plumbing. I'm trying to do this as cheap as possible but still have a nice garden .

Thanks
Kevin