Hidden Overflow / Service pipe idea

[tony sims]

Hi All,

I am mid dig of a new 5 * 4m pond which I am doing by hand so plenty of time for thinking. I have come up with a simple solution that I would like your thoughts on good or bad.

I've had the idea of installing a large est 10cm wet riser for want of a better word which will serve to provide invisible access to the bottom of the pond for aeration pipe, power cable, pump 4cm outlet to the filter. It will also serve as my overflow and a useful place to include a float switch to control the pump. I intend to use a large filter return jet for the pond wall with swept 10cm fittings to make feeding the smaller pipes through easy.

I have included a diagram which should be clearer.

So what do you think, good or bad idea?

Thank you

 

[Lisak1]

I would love to comment but I don't have a clue what you're talking about! I just wanted to say WELCOME and I look forward to hearing more about it!

 

[EricV]

I'm not 100% sure what you're talking about either, but if you are talking about flowing water through that pipe (with a pump) the water level at your overflow is not going to match the water level in your pond. Case in point, with a skimmer pump and box, the water level in my skimmer box drops 1-1.5" when the pump is turned on. I plug my overflow when I turn off the pump to avoid losing water.

 

[tony sims]

Let me have another go at explaining

I am planning to use a large 4 Inch filter return pipe installed a foot from the bottom of the pond, this will connect through to a vertical pipe via a swept bend and a swept T to form a hidden overflow and then continued vertically up so that I can use the spare capacity in the pipe to run power, air and filter hose to items in the pond. I can also attach a float switch to auto switch off the pump etc if the water drops too low.

The idea is that I will not have to install any pipework or power down the wall of the pond whilst providing a hidden overflow / top up point.

It seems to tick all of the boxes, hopefully that makes sense now. Thoughts?

 

[EricV]

So you are only using it to route cables and such into your pond. It's an interesting idea. I guess you want to avoid routing them over a finished brick side? I understand that. The one thing I'd think about is only bringing it a foot or so under the water line. If that pipe cracks or if the seal on the pond side goes bad, you'd only lose a foot of water instead of draining everything. Would that work equally well for what you want to do?

 

[tony sims]

Yes, I had thought of that hence installing it a foot from the bottom however I think as you say installing it a foot below the water line would make more sense and still serve the purpose it was intended for.

I have been reading about pressure pipe and intend to use that to reduce the chances of it splitting.

 

[EricV]

BTW, you might want to look into a trickle fill system instead of a float switch. A few of us use that mechanism. Here's an article that describes it: http://www.drjohnson.com/a_article_pond_koi_goldfish_constant_waterchanges.html He has a video too. I trickle in 50-75 gallons/day into a 2500 gallon pond. At best 1/2 of that comes out because of evaporation, etc.