Getting old pond up and running

[CMR]

We bought a house back in July, and with this house came a pond (which had me super excited). After many many renovations on the interior of the house from July onward, we are now ready to play with getting the pond up and running.

It is about 300 gallons (estimated by my bf, who used to do estimating/drafting for a living). The previous owners (who I believe installed the pond) did nothing with it. There was no filter, no pump, just a pond liner in the ground with rocks around the edges and water. Great for mosquitoes, not so great for the rest of us. I was going to have a picture below of the pond, from before we bought the house, but I can't put pictures in posts yet :beerchug:. I realize the water level is low, but I'm pretty sure that is just because they didn't do anything with it (so, it was probably just filled by rain and snow melting).

Since I do not want to have a mosquito mating ground, I want a pump and a filter (cuz I want fish!). Currently I am looking at the Tetra Pond ClearChoice Bio-Filter #1 and a Tetra DynaMag 250 for a pump. Thoughts? I definitely want low wattage for the pump (really don't want to rack up that power bill), and was initially looking at the Lifegard Aquatics (formerly Pentair) Quiet One- 800 Pond, but the local fish store (do people still use LFS?) guy said to go with the DynaMag one (or a Tetra Water Garden 325, which is cheaper, but has higher wattage...)

Sorry this has gotten long.... but info is good, right?



-Crystal

 

[CMR]

Alright, here's a picture of the pond from last summer... Hopefully I will have time to take more pictures tomorrow.

 

[koikeepr]

You are on the right track and thinking correctly. When I bought my house, I inherited a 2500 gallon mosquito trap where the owner had not thought of filtration of any kind.

Yes, you need to put in filtration! You could probably hide it right in those bushes and dig a trench for the pipe to it. Or you could build a waterfall backed by the bushes and just keep your filtration behind it. Another option for you would be a pressure filter, which you can bury.

 

[CMR]

You know, I never thought of putting the filter by the bushes.... There's a pile of rock on the left there that looked like it was supposed to hold a pump or filter (there's even part of a hose left) and I've just been thinking of putting it there. You've given me something to toy around with in my mind now. Thanks!

 

[CMR]

I just found a listing in Kijiji. $100 could get me (person has made a new pond and does not require these parts anymore):
2X Laguna power jet pumps (he says he doesn't have specifics on which ones, so I think I'm going to ask how big of a pond he had)
1X Laguna Filter box (attached a picture of what looks to be a Laguna PowerFlo Filter Falls 5000, but he says it is the older version?)
1X Laguna pre filter (2 stages)
1X Laguna powerclear UV filter (I wasn't going to concern myself yet with a UV filter...)
1X a 3 piece platic resine waterfall (he's not sure of the brand)
Plus hoses to hook everything up.

Compared to the $170 ish it was going to cost to get the new pump and filter in my earlier post. Would this stuff be good, or should I just get the new stuff?

Just found out the pieces are 6 years old, haven't been used in 4 years, but the pumps have been plugged in and still work.

 

[CMR]

I asked how big his old pond was, and got the reply of "4 feet by 6 feet" and his new one is "7 feet by 12 feet" (I'm guessing he meant 12 feet, he had 7' x 12").

Seems to be missing a measurement to me....

Anyways, if you were me, would the parts he's offering be adequate? Or would you just buy the new parts?

 

[koikeepr]

it all depends on their condition, of course. If anything has o-rings, for example, you might want to replace them since they are likely dried out. Go look at the stuff and make your determination.

 

[CMR]

So we went and had a look yesterday. It was a good price for the collection of stuff, and it looks to be in pretty good shape. The guy did show where some of the o-rings were and mentioned that they do dry out and they should maybe be replaced.

The filter looks like it's probably a Laguna PowerFlo 1000 (http://www.lagunaponds.com/lagunaeng/filters/plo1000.php?link=152). It has the one foam pad, but needs some biological filtration for it's bottom tray, any recommendations? And it's missing it's pumice filter material in the top tray, so I'll have to find something for there as well.

If it wasn't raining last night when we got home I would have been playing with it getting it all ready to go in, but unfortunately I have to wait until probably Saturday night or Sunday now (provided it doesn't snow!).

 

[koikeepr]

can you find the replacement on Ebay? Or perhaps come up with something else? Feather rock, maybe? I don't know what this pad is supposed to look like. Get creative.

 

[CMR]

Alright, I think I have the filter bit figured out. Now it's just the hosing part and the where-to-put-it-all part.

Here's the pond empty (except for a little bit of water). I took all the rock off of where they used to have a pump or filter or whatever.

Now, the other half wants to put the external filter in the little area something used to be, but I'm afraid that won't work as the filter's not supposed to be in water, and water clearly goes in there... Here's a picture of what he wants:

My idea was to put the filter on the other side of the pond (with the waterfall thing that was a part of kit we got), as I think that looks "better". Since there's that raised area that would fill with water (where the pump/filter/whatever used to be) I was thinking of trying to put plants in there maybe.. Would that work?

Which would you do? Or would you do something completely different?

 

[CMR]

I guess I should also say that once we get it set up we'll be doing our best to landscape or otherwise "hide" the filter.... not going to just leave it sitting out like that on the grass.

 

[digginponds]

you could add a waterfall to help hide the filters along with plants hosta's are real good for cover.


example in pics

 

[CMR]

Hmmm.... the hostas look neat. I might have to give them a try.

Of course, now I have to wait for the snow to go away (again).

 

[CMR]

Alright, the pond is up and running. Turns out we have somewhere around 500 litres, so we had a little bit of miscalculation somewhere. It's been an interesting journey, fun and stressful at times (finding pond parts in this city is next to impossible!).

I currently have 2 little comets in there, they do a lot of hiding, but I wanted to give them a try to make sure that everything is good (hate to say it, but I didn't want to spend $4 for a shubunkin to find out there's some residual harmful something or other left behind from the previous owners that would kill the fish, these guys are 19 cents....). They're doing a lot of hiding under my pump and pre-filter thing, but otherwise they're doing ok.