Alright thanks, I have a very good idea how the pond will look (or at least I hope how it looks). The digging will start Thursday. Ill post pictures... on here. is flagstone good to use for the waterfalls?
4500 Gallon koi pond in progress (I need some help) :confused:
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I have field stone, flagstone, quartz, and river rock in my water falls. A lot of people use flagstone as the water fall rocks, so yes.
Stay away from sand stone, it will not hold up.
Stay away from sand stone, it will not hold up.
Alright thanks, I am going to use them for the waterfalls. The digging starts in 2 days, only problem I stumbled accros is I was wondering how do you guys prevent the pipeline from freezing during winter? Do you remove the pump when it starts getting cold? And during winter I should just leave the airator on, right?
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We will be pulling ours once the water starts freezing as it comes out of the bog. Have the pump set up with flexible connectors to easily take it off. All of our pipes come down a steep slope so they will drain. We will leave the water in the bog. Those pipes are deep.
Does filtration look right to you guys? I really appreciate all the help that you guys have given me so far.
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Bottom drain and skimmer on the same return? better to have separate or at least a way to direct flow from one or the other.
I was going to connect it.to the filter but I read somewhere that if filter is above the water level then it wouldn't work. Is that true?
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Only if it is a gravity fed filter, water needs to flow into it. The diy filters, the pump feeds the water into the filter, piped to the bottom and it flows out of the filter top into the pond.
You want your pump drawing from the bottom drain and or the skimmer then into the filter. You need to have two lines, with ball valves to adjust the rate of flow between the skimmer and the bottom drain.
You want your pump drawing from the bottom drain and or the skimmer then into the filter. You need to have two lines, with ball valves to adjust the rate of flow between the skimmer and the bottom drain.
I thought that the BD should be gravity feed. I thought this was a lot simpler when I started lol. Would you happen to have a sketch of how it should go? something that looks like one of these two.
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Denis, Re lines freezing, It's best to leave your pump going as long as possible and start it up as soon as you can. This will help reduce anaerobic decay. I use an airstone all winter to keep a hole in the ice. Also it helps oxygenate the water if it gets covered with snow so the fish can get enough O2. Ever pond is different but I take my pump out around Dec 1st and put it back March 1st. If you have enough sun hitting it you can leave the pump going longer. Note the biofilter won't do anything under 50 degrees so you can take that out.
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Denis S said:
I am not the best in filters, I use a bog. But in the diy section there are a lot of explanations of building filters and the plumbing used.
I can draw up what I would do if I did a filter, but others that actually use them will prob chime in to help you.
I don't have a bottom drain either, I would think your bottom drain should be hooked to the pump to draw the junk out of the pond. I have a reto fit type bottom drain, it is plumbed right into the pump, with leaf baskets in line.
Thanks Addy, I've seen your pond and it looks amazing. I thought it was supposed to go to a filter too until I saw the pic above. I'll buy bottom drain and it might say on it where it goes lol, I think digging starts today, not sure because it rained a lot and i have to drive a backhoe between the houses, I'll check later how the ground is.
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Denis S said:
That picture looks like a skimmer filter. with a bottom drain plumbed into it. The pump is behind the partition. A submersible pump. I use a external pump, so my plumbing has ball valves on it to direct flow.
To keep your pond nice, in my opinion, you need more than just a skimmer filter.
I would keep them separate, then you can direct the flow more towards the bd if need be or the skimmer if a ton of leaves falling. In my opinion lol
OK, I figured all the stuff out, how it works. The BD is supposed to go to a settlement tank and then to a filter. here is how the pond will look.
The frames are finally complete and two sides are up and in place but I couldn't take a picture because my phone was dead and it was dark outside.
