Inherited a pond and rebuilding

[macncheesepro]

Hi everyone! I'm new to the forum and have quite a large pond, for being my first one and have some questions. To give some background.... we bought a foreclosure property last year and were lucky to have everything in tact, except a dishwasher, overgrown plants in the backyard and a swampy/leaky pond!

I started working on it last year, but barely had the time. The pond looks like it was a DIY job gone wrong, but they bought some good stuff!

• Tons of flag stone and a waterfall shelf
• Pond liner must be 45mil heavy duty rubber. I'm sure it wasn't cheap
• Savio SS0000 skimmer filter (the UV light things are broken and the filter element is torn apart)
• Tube that wraps all the way around the pond and up the waterfall with a distributor to three water outlets
• There was no pump here, so I bought a Smartpond 3600GPH pump

Thing is, that I can see

They didn't put any type of underliner underneath the rubber liner. Is this needed with really thick liners? If so, can I get away with using landscape cloth?

Also, they didn't pull the liner for the main part of the pond up and over the edge, so there is no overhang on half of the pond, but they had this swampy plant area that smelled like butt (all the way to the right in the pics) and I got rid of that and now, have enough excess liner to shift it around and have some overhang.

It was leaking really bad and I found a leak where the waterfall liner didn't overlap nicely and since these people were DIY landscapers (I'm assuming. I'm hoping they didn't pay for a professional to do this...) that had something against landscape cloth, tons of crabgrass and other roots opened up the gap and created a bad leak in the water fall. I think it may also be leaking around the skimmer, because when I fill up the pond and run the pump, it loses water very fast until it's below the skimmer. Then, if I move the pump into the main part of the pond, every day or two, it loses another inch.

What would you all do if you had the opportunity to start this over like this? To do it right? I took almost all the stones out and just have the liners and skimmer sitting there.

Here are some pics!

What we were left with last year....

After hooking up the pump (a day or two along with some scooping). The bullfrogs really let their presence known when this happened, haha!

This year, when I decided to just start over...

 

[sissy]

I did not put any thing under my liner before .But this time I got free stuff so put it under .But first put down roofing paper since there was so much shale.So far you have done good and it looks clear .I don't use a skimmer since no leaves blow in the pond .I just rebuilt my pond and found lots of aeration really helps .I bought a laguna one says ebay had it for 126 dollars but now wayfair has lowered it to 119.99dollars.You will need a good liquid test kit .I use api

 

[JBtheExplorer]

What would you all do if you had the opportunity to start this over like this?

I'd like to know the size of your pond length/width/depth.

I would definitely get pond underlayment material. Sand used to be a popular underlayment but I don't know if it still is. Underlayment can double the lifetime of a pond. Also before you put it down, check around to see if there are any rocks sticking out and remove them. With my last pond I actually dug the dirt an extra two inches down and removed any rocks in it and then flattened that dirt back down.

 

[Nepen]

I imagine that the swampy area was intended as a bog, personally I'd put that back as it help filter your water also.

I used sand for my pond but I'll probably use other thing if I had to re-do mine.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

For the overlap in the liner by the waterfall... there are tapes and glues that are intended to seal two liners together. That should prevent any weeds from being able to get started in the gap again.

I would definitely make sure you have some liner overhang all the way around the pond. If you get a heavy rain, water will run underneath the liner, causing it to float up from the middle, and cause all kinds of problems.

A bog filter is a really nice addition (not to mention maintenance-free!), but it requires that you have a liner underneath it as well.

Something to go underneath the liner is definitely recommended, however it doesn't have to be costly. I built my pond right after ripped old carpet out of the house, and the place that installed my hardwood floors let me raid their dumpster for room-sized pieces of carpet. Put that down first (trimmed to fit the curves) and you will have a nice soft bed for your liner to lay on.

 

[macncheesepro]

Thank you everyone for the input! You know, after clearing that spot up and realizing how much more space we have if that pond wasn't there and the rest of the stuff we planned on ripping out on that side of the yard, we realized, we may actually have room for our children to run around and play in!

That, coupled with the fact that there is this monstrosity of a tree owned by the town that is hanging over our pond and drops leaves into the pond, like it was meant for it, we decided to move the pond and make it smaller.

The other side of our yard has no trees, never gets debris and has a nice curve in our patio to make the pond sort of conform to. Since this pond won't be a 8'x6'x3' (I'm thinking roughly 4' round and 2' deep with a waterfall) we'll have plenty of liner left. I found some beautiful holders on the right supporting wall under the liner and a ton of landscape cloth to protect it (I do like the idea of using old carpet though), so I guess that will be my underlayment and I have plenty of stones and boulders to make it nice.

Bog is out of the question for me. I have a dog that will definitely play in it. He hates water, but if it's shallow and muddy, he'll play and lay in it (he's a beagle).

Sorry, that was a long winded response, but I will definitely post pics when it is finished!

 

[macncheesepro]

That does bring me to another question: Is the Savio skimmer needed for a pond that's only 4' and 2' deep? The skimmer appears to be almost 3' tall and it's huge, haha!

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I think you have the wrong idea of a proper bog... There is no mud involved! A bog filter has pipes underneath it so the water coming in pushes up from the bottom, and flows out the top. The entire thing is filled with pea gravel and planted heavily so the plant roots clean waste out of the water.

Sounds like the skimmer would be overkill, especially if you're moving the pond to a place where leaves won't fall in directly. You will have to net out leaves during the Fall, but you still have to do that even with a skimmer running.

 

[macncheesepro]

Yeah, then the bog the previous owners put in was like most of the projects they did and not done quite right. This was about 10 inches deep, some gravel, a bunch of gray mud and a ton of dead plants and pond scum thrived in it. Nothing flowed in our out of it. The wall all the way to the right in the pic separated it and it got no water flow. You could smell it when within 10 feet of the pond

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Ugh that's nasty! Yeah I saw that on the first pic and thought that might have been the original bog area. A real bog will have a constant (but slow) water flow. It should contain no dirt, never be stagnant, never smell bad, and the plants will grow crazy like no other area around your house. I think addy wrote up a how-to in the DIY section on setting up a bog correctly. I've been considering it as an addition to my own pond, except I don't really need any extra filtration.

 

[macncheesepro]

Now that you mention everything about a proper bog, I'm thinking about it now too. My wife and kids keep talking about having lily pads and other water plants. I see some people manage a bog as part of a small waterfall or cascade. I'll research more about it and see. I know a plant makes a big difference in my past aquarium setups. I'd love to see what it would do for my pond if set up correctly.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

If I remember right, addy uses her bog as the only filtration for her entire pond. They can be very efficient, but you have to plan them to do it right. I tried creating a bog area as part of my waterfall, and failed miserably. It has to be a separate feature, with its own pump, but then it gives you options for different varieties of plants that you might not otherwise consider (I really want a bed of carnivorous plants!).

 

[sissy]

I have seen bogs like the patio bog and planter done by pond digger on you tube .I use a filter with plants in it but I have to trim there roots often .I rebuilt my pond and going to do it the same way I had it last year .Water fall filter and sort of a bog .My weird way of making things work .This year and last year's filter and plants really help hide the filter

 

[RobAmy]

Skimmers in my opinion are also good for housing the pump, making maintenance a little easier for the pump with the benefit of catching debris and even surface algae if you develop any. Also there is never a chance of draining the whole pond in case of a failure it could burn up the pump unless it has a cut off switch. If you use a pump then most likely it will have to go into the pond with a pre filter. I have two pumps on mine, one in the same skimmer as you and one in the pond with a pre filter, if I did it again I would have all pumps out of the pond. Savio also makes a smaller skimmer then the one you have. I think the bog is a great idea but you still need a pump.

 

[addy1]

if I did it again I would have all pumps out of the pond..

I have never had anything but an exterior pump, so easy to care for. The only real issue is winter, it needs to be pulled unless you have a way to protect it during a power outage freeze (if you leave your pond running over winter)