How would you filter a 18'x40' lily pond ?

[HTH]

My wife is heavily into water lilies. Our current version of the unfiltered lily pond looks like this. Line is an uncut 25'x50'. For the purpose of this discussion ignore the hole in the foreground.

This pond is being relocated to the other side of the yard and I would like your take on what the best way is to set it up so that it is easier to clean. Because it is primarily a lily pond it needs to retain a flat or nearly flat bottom and depth suitable for lilies.

The current plan is to try mixing our clay soil with cement powder to cast the pond walls. DIY filters only.

 

[sissy]

BIG BIG AND REALLY BIG FILTER :cheerful: Just joking will you be fertilizing them in the pond and will there be fish in there .I know the koi farm i go to has a big lotus and big lily pond (they sell them )they have no filters in them they just use aerators for the ponds .He said there was no reason for a filter .I saw he does heavily feed them though .They where big plants .

 

[HTH]

Goldfish no koi.

Lilies will be bare root so we only need to add fertilizer to the water.

Latest idea is to wire several lilies to a 2x4 and weigh it down with concrete blocks to keep it on the bottom. This will help us keep track of where lilies are. Also my wife picked up an all metal label maker to emboss aluminum id tags.

We also had aeration but no filtration. After a few years there is a lot to muck out of the bottom. On the far end the muck is over 6 inches deep. I have to wonder how much of this came from the pots. Thinking not that much but unsure. as there is no dirt in any of the pots in that it has all been replaced by roots.

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[Bev12]

I wouldnt use concrete in a pond - was told it messes up the Ph value of the water.
Let the fish do the fertilizing!

 

[HTH]

Bev

Link to video of old pond.

The old pond had a few 100 goldfish and 5 koi. The lilies used nutrients built up over winter for some nice growth and blooms in the spring. By summer they had used it up and fertilizer was required for continued blooming. The long term plan is to use this pond for growing out young goldfish. Adults and koi will be moving to their own ponds/homes.

They say one needs to wash new concrete blocks with mild acid but rain is acidic and fixes the problem too. They may be cases where new blocks have been used in small ponds and caused ph problems. I have never seen it but then I tend to use old block in larger ponds.

 

[Bev12]

HTH thanks for the link enjoyed watching that- what a huge pond!!!!
I wish my water lilies would grow like yours do. I can understand your need to fertlize the lilies. Do you know how many waterlilie plants you have in the pond or have you lost count? :cheerful:

 

[capewind]

First, a question;-) there was another post this morning from someone asking if those big white stock tanks like you have can be used as a skippy? Im not sure if those square corners would hurt with seperating the sediments to fall to the bottom ...

You know I dont know squat about filters, still learning, but something hubby did in the basement is working really well ... In the inside plant/baby pond, the plants are potted in typical soil ... added lots of dirt to the water, and bottom ... it was getting pretty gross looking ... You are going to have to read between the lines of my explaination of what he did.

Water comes from the pond (note, it is only 600 gallons of water) via a 3" pvc pipe (has an end cap, and holes drilled into the pipe for intake of water, but not intake of fish LOL) to what is now a bucket that holds about 30 gallons of water ... solids fall to the bottom ... he has large filter media (full sized floor buffer pads) about mid level ... pump sits on top but still summerged (barely), and feeds the skippy filter (stock tank holds about 40 gallons of water) ... The skippy filter also has a sediment area (that S like pipe for the bottom is off the bottom, and has a bottom drain) ...

He has cleaned (as in let water out of valves at bottoms) both filters a couple of times now ... the 30 gallon filter pulls totally discusting dark sludgey water ... the skippy's drain runs clear ...

This is an older picture (mid construction) before he swapped out the first filter (non skippy) for a bigger container. He also has another line, that runs to the other end of the pond, simply for water flow/circulation (stirs up anything on the bottom) ...

You have soooo many lilies, they'll clean up after the fish load, so think your main focus is on muck only ... Wondering if a couple of those lifts you have would do the same thing, just on a larger scale....

 

[HTH]

HTH thanks for the link enjoyed watching that- what a huge pond!!!!
I wish my water lilies would grow like yours do. I can understand your need to fertlize the lilies. Do you know how many waterlilie plants you have in the pond or have you lost count? :cheerful:

We moved here 8 years ago with over 40 varieties and over 100 lilies but we moved them here bare root and I only got about 75% potted so we lost some. We have added a few new varieties and repotted a few since then. Currently we are cleaning the old pond in the video. My wife is not tossing anything that will make a new plant so I expect we will have 100s when we finish. Time to get a picture or three.

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These are the divisions we have so far. I do not know what percentage done we are. Something between 1/4 and 3/4.

We were selling cutting out of our backyard when we lived in Colorado. I was thinking we were done with that when we moved here but my wife wants to try it via the internet. I want to start crossing lilies. Either way it is going to take a lot of pond space.

First, a question;-) there was another post this morning from someone asking if those big white stock tanks like you have can be used as a skippy? Im not sure if those square corners would hurt with seperating the sediments to fall to the bottom ...

You know I dont know squat about filters, still learning, but something hubby did in the basement is working really well ... In the inside plant/baby pond, the plants are potted in typical soil ... added lots of dirt to the water, and bottom ... it was getting pretty gross looking ... You are going to have to read between the lines of my explaination of what he did.

Water comes from the pond (note, it is only 600 gallons of water) via a 3" pvc pipe (has an end cap, and holes drilled into the pipe for intake of water, but not intake of fish LOL) to what is now a bucket that holds about 30 gallons of water ... solids fall to the bottom ... he has large filter media (full sized floor buffer pads) about mid level ... pump sits on top but still summerged (barely), and feeds the skippy filter (stock tank holds about 40 gallons of water) ... The skippy filter also has a sediment area (that S like pipe for the bottom is off the bottom, and has a bottom drain) ...

He has cleaned (as in let water out of valves at bottoms) both filters a couple of times now ... the 30 gallon filter pulls totally discusting dark sludgey water ... the skippy's drain runs clear ...

This is an older picture (mid construction) before he swapped out the first filter (non skippy) for a bigger container. He also has another line, that runs to the other end of the pond, simply for water flow/circulation (stirs up anything on the bottom) ...

You have soooo many lilies, they'll clean up after the fish load, so think your main focus is on muck only ... Wondering if a couple of those lifts you have would do the same thing, just on a larger scale....

I do like what your hubby has done and it is neat that the two of you have a common interest. It is the about the same here. We both like the pond but I am more the fish and filters and she is into the plants.

I must have missed or not gotten to the post about the square tanks. I expect they can be used for filters and I have resisted cutting a few open for that purpose. But I am not sure about a skippy filter. Seems the media would cost a fortune and cleaning it would be a long task. Skippys are great filters but I don't think they scale well. Now I could be wrong on all counts. Thinking more along the line of something I can clean by back flushing for muck removal.

 

[sissy]

Forgot to say his plants are in clay pots ,he says he likes clay pots better than plastic .I bought lilies from him and when I got them home just cleaned them up and put them in the stock tank until I could repot them and I reused the clay pot he had them in .Not sure how he deals with the muck on the bottom .Never thought about built up stuff .I could see the pond is done in rows .He told me that after I saw he walk across it to get the color lily I wanted .He did say he has 16 inch concrete block under the liner in rows and that's what he walks on the get to the plants and pulls them out .I guess that keeps them apart and gives him easy access .I was amazed when he walked across and had to ask .He also told me the liner was 60 mil .I just had to ask as I never saw a set up like it before .Looking at it it looks like a large pond and looks deep but it isn't ,when he walked across the block it was only at his knees .He said it makes it easier to groom the plants too.I know I did not see fish in it but saw lots of frogs .

 

[HTH]

Things are progressing. We have all the lilies in the lifts and stock tanks divided. We are working on the ones we dumped into the 2nd pond (on the right) using the backhoe.
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The current plan is to tie evenly space bare root lilies along PVC pipes. Evenly spacing multiple pipes will form a neat grid so we can ID a lily by pipe ID and loacation along the pipe. For example the 3rd lily on the 2nd pipe would be 2C. Still working out the details. I have been bodging long enough to know that few things work as planned but that is where we plan to start.

And I am still looking for good suggestions regarding filtration. The water does not need to be crystal clear. I am thinking maybe something to take out the solids so there is less sediment to remove. Or maybe do as sissy suggested put it back the way the old one was with just air.