Garden Pond Build

[count krunk]

Hello All,

After kicking around the idea for a while my wife and i are redoing our backyard and will be adding a pond. It will be a goldfish pond most likely around 500-600 gallons.

I have built a pond in the past and I keep reef tanks so I have that experience background. My first question as I get to creating plans, is a bottom drain needed?

 

[count krunk]

To add some more detail about the plans.

A two-tiered pond with first level around 12-15" and second level around 24-30". A skippy water filter fed waterfall is what I have in mind right now for filtering. The current plan is for one skimmer, one waterfall, and one fountain.

I am also toying with going in the opposite direction and creating a bog filter that drains into the lower pond. This method would still employ a fountain and skimmer.

Location is a sunny spot in central FL.

Please let me know about the bottom drain and if you would go bog filter or skippy type filter.

Thanks!

 

[GBBUDD]

Needed Nope::: A good idea i would say yup but i have found a trick to bottom drains. when you dig your pond or make your raised pond. Make a trench out from the side wall to where you would like the deepest point to be . Install your liner then place underlayement and your perforated pipe in the bottom of the trench and fill with stone so that it has voids between the rocks/ ie river rock but make sue it is larger then the holes or cuts in your perforated pipe. fill the trench in and you now have a sheet drain one where the suction is or should not be an issue to hold anyone down in a larger pond and you can collect anything that settles to the bottom. the sides you can do the same by digging the pipe trench in behind th e rest of the pond or rock it in either way no holes to cut through the liner.

I have only had my pond a couple years now with 30 koi some four to five year old ko and mostly 3 year olds. Eather way water has always been crystal clear and i can see the bottom of the 6 foot deep pond every day even in spring.

 

[JBtheExplorer]

is a bottom drain needed?

I do not have a drain.

Please let me know ... if you would go bog filter

Personally, I love my bog filter. It's an extra garden space for me where I can grow some wetland plants that wouldn't necessarily work well in the pond itself, and the birds love bathing in it and drinking from it. The frogs enjoy it, too!

 

[Phaewryn]

Not needed so long as you have a slight hill with the pond at the top so siphoning downhill is easy (handy as it allows you to siphon for cleaning) or so long as you don't mind investing in a water pump should you ever need to drain it.

 

[addy1]

I don't have a bottom drain, filter only with a bog. The pond takes care of itself. I only keep shubunkins, no koi.

 

[count krunk]

Bog it is! Since I live in flat flat Floria I was thinking a stock tank would be needed. Seems easier than building a raised bog. The plan is to bury it into the ground some and raise the ground around it.

The trench for the bottom drain with a perforated pipe sounds like a good solution. I assume a valve would be on this to control water flow.

 

[Phaewryn]

Bog it is! Since I live in flat flat Floria I was thinking a stock tank would be needed. Seems easier than building a raised bog. The plan is to bury it into the ground some and raise the ground around it.

That seems logical to me. If you're digging a new pond you have the dirt from the pond hole to use to make a raised area, but if your pond is already dug and the fill was removed, then you would have to buy fill. But do consider what you are going to do with the dirt you remove when digging the pond hole. It has to go somewhere and it's a pretty good amount of fill.

 

[addy1]

I was thinking a stock tank would be needed. Seems easier than building a raised bog. The plan is to bury it into the ground some and raise the ground around it.

A stock tank would work great. Mine is a liner, 27feet by 4.5 feet, mine is 2.5 feet deep.

 

[Alice_Bee]

I don't have bottom drains on any of my ponds

 

[count krunk]

does it make a difference if I go with metal or the plastic/rubber stock tanks for the bog? I am thinking that a metal stock tank would allow for a better seal on the drain(s) from the bog to the pond. I plan to have to bog drain(s) located about 8" up the side of the stock tank

 

[addy1]

I have stock tanks for two of my ponds, both rubber/plastic, no issue on attaching the drains to them i.e. water fall flow to the next pond.

I have no bottom drains in any of my ponds.

 

[Phaewryn]

Metal will eventually rust/corrode and have to be replaced. Most metal stock tanks are galvanized steel: it does not last forever. Rubbermaid type plastic, on the other hand, lasts a long long time.

 

[Jhn]

Just to add do not buy metal stock tanks as they are galvanized and will leach zinc into the water causing problems for your fish. The Rubbermaid stock tanks aren’t that expensive and can be just as easily drilled for bulkheads as metal tanks. The bulkheads will seal on these tanks just as well as a metal tank.

 

[Phaewryn]

Just to add do not buy metal stock tanks as they are galvanized and will leach zinc into the water causing problems for your fish.

I had not thought of that, but I will agree that galvanized is toxic: We have an area in the back that we wanted to plant rhododendrons and the previous owner had terraced using galvanized metal sheets and now nothing will grow within 4 feet of the terrace sheet metal. We dug up the rhodies that failed and nearly died for 2 years there and planted them elsewhere and the poor things that were nearly dead recovered 100%. Galvanized is toxic to plants, so not that surprising it's toxic to fish.