Holes in the liner

[csdude55]

Careful with a 2 inch drain. That can be very strong and hold and kill your fish when the swim too close

I've gone back and forth on it a lot. The pond currently has no bottom drain, just a waterfall pump that sits in the bottom and pipes over the edge. But there was over a foot of sludge sitting in the bottom! I tried to siphon it out with a garden hose, but it would constantly get clogged with sticks and leaves so it didn't really work.

In theory, I can just sit a chicken wire cage over the bottom drain, then use it to flush the bottom every Autumn when any fry are too big to get through the holes. That wouldn't get sticks and leaves, though.

The alternative would be to pipe it to a settlement tank and give it its own pump; less pressure, and it would keep it clean year-round. Problem there is that I only have 20A available for the whole area, and the 10,680GPH pump for the big pond is going to take a lot of that!

 

[GBBUDD]

a 2" line can clog very quickly and has or can hve a strong draw sucking fins in and holding a fish stuck to the drain killing them. thats why a 3 or 4 inch pipe is prefer even if gravel is sucked in it's not a problem until a lot is pulled in.

an other option i'm liking more and more is like a centipede in a aquascapes bog / where you did a trench under the liner put the drain line in instead of thee centipede. this keeps the pipe in the pond so if there is a problem it is easily accessed. remove the few rocks you used to conceal the the pipe . you can literally pull the whole thing out if need be rebuild it if necessary and start from scratch without touching the pond it's self

 

[csdude55]

an other option i'm liking more and more is like a centipede in a aquascapes bog / where you did a trench under the liner put the drain line in instead of thee centipede. this keeps the pipe in the pond so if there is a problem it is easily accessed. remove the few rocks you used to conceal the the pipe . you can literally pull the whole thing out if need be rebuild it if necessary and start from scratch without touching the pond it's self

So, like a 3-4" PVC pipe ran in several directions with slits cut every few inches, all connected to a manifold before going in to a bulkhead fitting in the side of the pond?