First goldfish pond, 1000 gallons, put together equipment list, hoping for advice

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Ok, I'm building my first goldfish pond. I probably went way overboard on the equipment, but I wanted to minimize the maintenance and to try and keep the pond as clean as possible. Here are the details:
- It will be 1000 gallons, with 1 and 2 ft ledges, and the deepest area being 3.5'. Roughly 5' x 12' kidney shaped. I will use the Firestone 45 mil liner over underlayment.
- I plan to stock it with goldfish and a few plants such as water lilies.
- It will have a Helix Skimmer on one end, and a Pondbuilder Elite Waterfall 14"-wide spillway on the other. I plan to purchase the 16" deep leaf basket for the skimmer (there is partial shade from two nearby trees, so I expect issues with leaves in the fall). I will be putting concrete about 4" up from the bottom of the skimmer to keep it in place and level.
- I plan to put an overflow kit on one side of the skimmer, and an automatic water fill on the other.
- There will be a Koi Toilet I Aerated Bottom Drain - 3", with a 3" PVC running to the Skimmer buried. I will concrete in the bottom drain. I will cut a hole in the liner and attach the cover over the liner. The bottom of the pond will slope toward the drain.
- The airline for the aerator will run to the opposite side and attach to a the Hakko Linear Air Pump - 25 lpm. My thinking is that by placing the air pump near the waterfall, the cascading water will mask any noise from the pump. The airline will be buried under the liner. I plan to use 1" PVC pipe for the airline.
- The pump will be a submersible, the Easy Pro TH Series Pump - 3100. I will place this in the bottom of the Helix Skimmer. I will use 2" flexible hose from the skimmer to the filter system. I plan to split the 2" line into seperate lines to the TPR and waterfall, with ball valves on each to control the flow.
- The filter system will be TetraPond Bio-Active Pressure Filter with UV Clarifer.
- I plan to put a TPR about 12" up from the deep end of the pond to help move the water toward the skimmer.
- I will be putting three submersible LED spotlights in the pond (Aquascape).
- All electrical will be sent to a Calpump PC50-15 power center.
- i will use a Laguna Power Heat De-Icer to keep a hole in the ice in the winter.

A few questions for you:
- Is a 25 lpm powered air diffuser too much for a 1000-gallon pond?
- Is the TPR overkill for such a small pond? Will the aerator and waterfall provide enough water movement?
- The EasyPro pump has a gph of 3100, and 2760 at 5' of head pressure. There will be about 21 feet of 2" hose, plus a 2' waterfall, a TPR, Bottom Drain and pressurized filter system, so I estimate that the head pressure will be about 3.5', which means the pump will provide about 2900 GPH. I was going to have the pond water turn over once per hour, so I'm going to have more pumping than I need for such a small pond, but I wanted to error on the side of too much than too little. Do you see any issues with this?
- For the 3" bottom drain pipe that will connect to the Helix skimmer with a bulkhead, does it matter if it is mounted above or below the 2" outlet pipe from the EasyPro pump? If it's mounted above the pump, then I can have it enter between the basket and the matala filter pad, which will help protect the pump from waste and debris (I wiil have to creative in placement to avoid them interfering with each other). If I mount it below the pump outlet, then the waste will be in the area where the pump is located.
- I live in northern Illinois, so in the winter I plan to turn off the TPR and turn down the air diffuser to calm the water down (I'd like to keep the goldfish in the pond through winter). Should I turn off the waterfall as well or leave it running through winter? As I mentioned earlier, I will use the Laguna heater to keep a hole in the ice.

If any of you experts can point out any concerns about my proposal, please let me know, I appreciate any suggestions/questions!

Thanks everyone.

Chips
 
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Where are you located? You should look at a pond breather for keeping a hole. I used that and a small pump pointing up in Chicago. The breather never sealed up and the pump kept a large hole in the ice except for short periods of time.
 
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Welcome!

I'm not much on equipment specs, but my only question would be whether you need a bottom drain on a goldfish pond. That's typically more of a dedicated koi pond installation.
 
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I can't answer all questions, but having just built a DYI pond I would try not to use any cement if possible. Even though I did a TON of research in advance I've changed tweaked things a few times and tearing apart the rock ring with waterfall foam holding it together was a PITA. I imagine cementing anything would be even less fun. Just my $0.02 especially with a first time pond build.

As for as over filtering goes this has been a non-issue for me. As long as the pump and filter flow rates match you will be A-Okay.

I'm in zone 7 and only had to dig 18" deep. Very little freeze risk here. I regret not going deeper for extra volume AND predator protection. I also ended up pulling up the liner (see above about the rock ring) to take out some plant shelves. I also have a few trees and it's hard finding plants that due well with shade. I decided I wanted more swimming room.

Not sure how much that helps, but having just gone thru this I thought I would share where I got snagged up with my build. Hopefully you have less stones to dig up then I did! Good luck!!
 

j.w

I Love my Goldies
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@Chips
 

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