Building filter and landscaping pond?

[TorchwoodMindfreak]

Alright guys I've convinced my parents to start working on our pond again. We dug it a couple months ago and it has just been sitting there since. So they told me that I have the week to plan every thing and then this weekend we'll get the stuff. Anyway I have to plan the filter, waterfall, edging, and landscaping. I think the pond is around 2000 gallons. I was planning on maybe doing one of those filters in the blue barrels with the outflow going into a waterfall. I kind of drew up a brief landscape plan the other day but suggestions are welcome. I don't know what looks best as edging and waterfalls, or for under the gazebo; round rocks, flat rocks? What do you guys think is the best way to do the filter? I wasn't sure if this should go in the section or the DIY part Thanks for any help. Anyway here are some pic of the pond during construction, now, and my drawing. You can see how I had him build shelves in too. I tried just attaching the photos as thumbnails but it wouldn't let me :/
Here is the very beginning. The bare square on the right is where the gazebo will go.

And now you can see the shelves too.

Here is the pond now, they still haven't put the gazebo up yet either.

From the left side.

From the right.

Now this is how dirty it currently is.

Here is my first landscape draft.

 

[sissy]

well guess the big machine was a help but you will have a lot of water cleaning to do .Are you going to pump the old water out and start again .You may have to get a net ,bird netting works great

 

[TorchwoodMindfreak]

Yeah lol having the backhoe definitely helped. We've pumped it out and cleaned it once but we'll probably do that again to start afresh this time.

 

[addy1]

You liner edge, pond edge, appears to be at the same level as the surrounding ground. During heavy rains etc you will get some runoff into the pond. That will keep your pond mucked up. I would build up the edge so it is higher than the surrounding ground.

 

[sissy]

I was looking at your plans and thinking I saw a rectangular pond like that on you tube and why not make that whole side like a triple or quadruple waterfall ,meaning that whole side would be water fall and would resolve that whole side being low and keep some of the leaves from blowing in the pond .You could make the waterfall all different levels coming down .This way also it would help aerate that whole side of the pond and make for a healthy atmosphere for the whole pond .Plus would give a different look than just a normal waterfall .It would also give you a great place behind to hide filters or everything you want back there .Build the waterfall up with concrete block and dirt in the back .

 

[Shdwdrgn]

It might also be useful to put the waterfall directly on one end, and put the pumps in the other end. That would create a definite direction of flow and help with the circulation, however putting the waterfall where you have it in the diagram would probably give the same effect.

It's hard to tell without some actual measurements, but I think you're overestimating the capacity of your pond. Just judging by the pictures, I would have put it at maybe 1000 gallons? You need to get an actual idea of the capacity, plus consider what types and how many fish you are planning on stocking (and keeping in mind that the fish will grow a lot!). Once you have that information on hand, you can determine if you should do one or two of the 55-gal barrel filters. Using the output of the filters works great for feeding your waterfall, however you should be aware that since it appears your pond is out in the open, wind will tend to blow water off of your falls and you could be refilling often. On my pond, I sunk my barrels a foot in the ground, so my waterfall is less than 24" tall, and when we have strong winds here, I can lose 50 gallons of water in a day.

Going by your drawing, it looks like you are considering a variety of plants. This is good - different types of plants attract different visitors to your pond. Tall grasses in and around the edge can provide some cover for your fish from the sight of birds, and also attract dragonflies which eat the other pesky insects. Lots of lilies in the water will really help cover up the fish and also keep the water cooler in Summer. Of course any plants that you can grow IN the water will be beneficial in helping keep the water clean, plus attracts water insects which provide extra food for the fish. And fast-growing ground cover plants around the rest of the edges will give your pond a more natural look and help reduce the amount of dirt that finds its way into the pond.

A week really isn't enough time to plan out a whole pond if you want to design a well-balanced system that doesn't require a lot of maintenance, but keep reading and asking questions, and you should be able to create a fairly extensive list of supplies to get most of it done.

 

[TorchwoodMindfreak]

Maybe it's around 1,500. I Just went out and roughly measured it. It's about 12ft by 4.5ft, the depth at the deepest is around 5ft if I remember right and the shelves are roughly 1ft wide each and about a foot or so deep. Yeah we were thinking about maybe sinking the barrel a bit. What parts of them do you have to access for maintenance and how often? It's not usually to windy here and we use well water so refilling will be simple if necessary. And yeah they just want a basic plan so they can buy the stuff, and rocks, and so we can start to get the borders done. Yeah I'm trying to think of a varied plant list. Unfortunately I just found out that apparently water hyacinths and water lettuce is illegal in Texas so none of those, which I wanted. Does anyone have imput on roughly how wide the planting area should be? Also should it be wiggly like I drew it or rectangular?

Oh and I was planning on just goldfish, I'm not sure how many can I have in this size pond?

 

[addy1]

Start with a few fish, the pond water, etc needs to stabilize, Goldfish tend to pop out babies, lots of them!

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Just doing that math on what you said, your center would be 2.5 x 12 x 5 = 1122 gallons, and each shelf is 1 x 12 x 1 = 90 gallons, for a total of 1302 gallons.
However... your pictures seem to indicate that the center trench is more evenly matched in width to the shelves. If you recalculate with the shelves and center being the same widths (1.5 feet), you come up with the trench at 1.5 x 12 x 5 = 673 gallons, and the shelves at 1.5 x 12 x 1 = 135 gallons, for a grand total of only 943 gallons for the whole pond. Having somewhat accurate measurements makes a big difference in the estimated capacity!

When you build your filter(s), you want to include a drain in the bottom. This can be a pipe with elbows to bring it around back up the side of the barrel, with a valve placed low to the ground to drain sediment out of the bottom of the barrel. After sitting for the past year, the soil under my barrels has settled and they are both sitting at angles now (and at slightly different levels), so I will be digging them up this coming Summer to add more sand and level them out again. Other than this detail of getting them just right (and its not really that critical), there is really no maintenance you need to do to them. Make sure you get some kind of shower drain kit that includes the rubber washers to get a good seal on the drain pipe. You don't want this leaking! Any other maintenance that might be done is simply performed by removing the filter media and reaching directly into the barrel, so once the barrels are set in place and leak-tested, you should have no reason to move them again.

Now on to plants... Hyacinths and water lettuce are illegal because of how quickly they grow. In your area, they never die off over the Winter, and they grow so fast that a couple dozen plants will choke the life out of your pond in a month. We can use them further North because the cooler weather slows down their growth. Not to worry, the water lilies are great for any pond and will give you some fantastic flowers in many different colors. Use them in the deep parts of your pond, and you won't be sorry. For the shelves, various grasses, dwarf and mini cattails, and water irises will really fill it in. Also consider the water forget-me-nots. In the dirt around your waterfall, some tall grasses will help blend the transition of a mysterious hill spouting out water. Possibly some type of vines that can grow around the falls, and really large plants like elephant-ears behind the falls. Taper off to shorter plants - grasses and ferns, perhaps some more irises, then down to the basic ground-covers. If you're into lots of flowers, there's a huge choice of plants that work great around ponds. If you're going for more of a wilderness green-plants look, try something like perriwinkle which will vine out with very dark-green (variegated also available!) leaves. If you need something to fill in between plants, or just keep the soil in place at the edge of the water, creeping jenny will spread fast, stay very low to the ground, and will grow down into the water and provide shelter for baby fish. Finally, if you are planning on laying out some loosely-spaced bricks as a sort of patio area, irish (bright green) or scotch (dark green) moss can grow to fill in between the bricks and give a nice 'old' feel to the area.

OK, that's enough typing for tonight... buy my book at... (just kidding)

 

[TorchwoodMindfreak]

Haha alright I'll go out there with a tape measure tomorrow afternoon. And thanks for all the info I'll have to look those up. Do you ever order plants online? Because I've never seen pond plants at any nursery around here. And yeah my step-dad is a plumber so he'll make sure nothing leaks lol.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I have ordered pond plants online, but I was very disappointed with the results. I've also ordered aquarium plants online, and gotten great results. Get input from others here about the best places to order.

I have been slowly discovering nurseries around here that carry pond plants. Some were unexpected, and only carry plants for about a month. Some had one little tiny corner of pond plants, but their plants were twice the size and more healthy than anything else I found (for the same price). Just keep your eyes open, and ask around wherever you go, and you'll eventually find the gold mines.

 

[addy1]

I ordered plants from here: http://stores.ebay.com/The-Pond-Plant-Girl-Show-Store?_trksid=p4340.l2563 the plants were large lush, grew great. I was very pleased with what was sent.

 

[TorchwoodMindfreak]

Alright cool. I live in a very small town now but I'll have to take a trip into the city once we get things ready to see if I can find anything. And I can't find a tape measure right now but I'll have one when my step-dad gets home.

 

[FountTech]

I have a huge question for everyone in this forum! Have you ever seen and know were I can purchase the pictures that I've attached to this response?

If you know, could you please help me out? I've tried Aquascape, Aquatic Water Gardens, Matala, Poly-Flo Tubing and Poly-Flo Inc, and none of them have had an answer for me.

Thank you

 

[TorchwoodMindfreak]

Okay the pond is on average 6ft across and 15ft long. The shelves are on average 1 and a half feet across each. We're going to start looking for barrels tonight and some other stuff.