My long overdue pond build

[GBBUDD]

AS TO THE SETTLING CHAMBER i would fill it full of k1 or bio balls this will give the the delay your lloking for to draw the heavy sediment out of the water it will get stuck in the media that or a matala filter pad . as to the falls that can be an easy fix to if you have the water fall onto an angled plate of plexi glass one that is at like a 60degree angle the water will slide into the pond and not fall into it .

The other note is yes i understand the jets at the bottom of the pond but i'd feed the rest of the flow to the bottom of the bog.

the skimmer should empty into the bottom of the settling chamber but then break the pipes apart and have the pump draw from the top of the water with your floating skimmer. from there pump water up to the bottom of the bog let the water rise up through the bog and out the over flows

 

[alexelite]

Thank you @addy1,

Because my well water is so hard, even using an ion exchanger is not an option because it will release many sodium ions and I've read it is not ok for fish an also pants. Calcium absorbing materials are also not an option to lower GH from 38 to 10-12 degrees. I asked at a local hardware store. So a combination of tap water (5-6 degrees GH) and well water to get it around the desired value is feasible. From what I know, they use chlorine not monochloramines to sanitize tap water and it will naturally go away in a few days.

also thank you @GBBUDD. The settling chamber is ~900 liters (230 gallons), so filling it with K1 is very very expensive. Also all articles I've read mention a moving bed type filter when using K1 type media. Because of the price I did not investigate any further.
I am investigating building a radial flow filter inside the settling chamber. It will only cost like $20-30, but it is a little difficult to install.
something like this:

I did not understand your idea about the skimmer. Can you explain in more detail, please?

 

[GBBUDD]

The orange is plastic strips its not k1 but it will trap and large solids.
Yellow is a matala pad for a little fine filtration
The resivour needs to be larger as if the power goes out you'll loose water from the over flow. But you will still need enough water to refill the pond and pumps to an extent. And even at this design it may not be we enough. A vacuum breaker will be needed for the bog / im not a fan of check valves. Not without some good back pressure anyways.
Feed the bog from the bottom water rises up and drops out the waterfall. If to loud have it fall onto a rounded rock or even a angled piece of glass rock etc . To deaden the sound.

 

[alexelite]

Thank you for the details. Your drawing looks almost like my original plan from 7 years ago ( with empty settling chamber).
My plan was to circulate all 6000-7000 liters (1500-1800 gallons) through the 2 bogs every hour, and overflow directly in the pond via 2 waterfalls, so half the total volume per bog per hour.
But after reading this forum, @combatwombat post to be more precise, about retention time inside the bog, it hit me that the retention time is very low. The water content inside the bog is probably ~150liters (40 gallons) max, so if I go for 10 minute retention time, I can only recirculate 1800 liters (500 gallons) so once every 3 hours the total volume.
250 gallons for a waterfall seamed pretty low at the time.
Also my pond geometry made me think that water will not recirculate very well in the small section of the pond and also in newly created cave so I added the jets to improve water circulation (agitation).
My current understanding is that whatever the configuration of the settling chamber, retention time is also important, the higher the better.
On the other hand, to get the water to circulate and to have a working skimmer, high flow is required.

After writing this post I thing the question is: For the overall function of a pond, is it better to have high retention time in filters and have some of the flow bypass the filters, or lower the retention time and make all the flow go through the filter?

 

[GBBUDD]

Im about 18000 GALLONS running a 12000 gph but only pushing about 5,000 gph to the matrix bog and 3000 gph to the peastone bog the other 4000 is recirculating the pond with jets. In short I'M RUNNING 4 TIMES THE FLOW IN A BOG I BELIEVE IS HALF THE VOLUMN OF YOURS. and half the water volume. Not that one is right or wrong but more whats working for me and i do have 30 koi plus 12" or more

 

[GBBUDD]

settling chamber,

retention time @cw was not refering to a 230 gallon chamber he was talking the matrix bog a heck of a lot more then 230 gallons

Thank you for the details. Your drawing looks almost like my original plan from 7 years ago ( with empty settling chamber).
My plan was to circulate all 6000-7000 liters (1500-1800 gallons) through the 2 bogs every hour, and overflow directly in the pond via 2 waterfalls, so half the total volume per bog per hour.
here is a video of what the flow rates look like what sounds like a lot of water in real time is barely a trickle


But after reading this forum, @combatwombat post to be more precise, about retention time inside the bog, it hit me that the retention time is very low. The water content inside the bog is probably ~150liters (40 gallons) max, so if I go for 10 minute retention time, I can only recirculate 1800 liters (500 gallons) so once every 3 hours the total volume. Have to remember too @combatwombat is also working on his first pond as did i 4 years ago . Again no rights or wrongs more whats working for the average.
250 gallons for a waterfall seamed pretty low at the time. HERES AN EXAMPLE

Also my pond geometry made me think that water will not recirculate very well in the small section of the pond and also in newly created cave so I added the jets to improve water circulation (agitation).
My current understanding is that whatever the configuration of the settling chamber, retention time is also important, the higher the better.
On the other hand, to get the water to circulate and to have a working skimmer, high flow is required.

After writing this post I thing the question is: For the overall function of a pond, is it better to have high retention time in filters and have some of the flow bypass the filters, or lower the retention time and make all the flow go through the filter?

 

[alexelite]

Gorgeous pond GBBUDD. Thanks for all your input.

In the past few weeks I managed to purchase 2 IBC tanks and installed all pipes, valves, pump, skimmer etc.
I filled the pond mostly with tap water and dechlorinated it with some liquid solution. GH was 5, KH 12 and PH 7.5
I lowered the waterfalls at about 25 cm above water and the sound is nice and pleasant.
Because everything looked very nice after filling I could not wait and bought some goldfish.
After a few days water started turning greener and greener. No ammonia, no nitrite, no nitrate and PH was 8.5
Although the waterfalls ran 24/7 the fish seamed to stay more at the surface so I bought a Hailea 12V air pump (compressor) 60L/min, one 15cm air disk stone for the pond and 4 round air stones to put inside the bog, maybe more oxygen helps bacteria grow faster.
I also started filtering the pea soup with a 5um PP 10" cartage filter. As I read on the forum, single cell algae use up all fish waste and also oxygen, and bacteria grows slower then algae and have little to feed on.
I definitely filtered some algae, but the filter would clog up very fast and had to make and operate a manual backwash system, so after a day I stop using that pump.
In about 3 days the water started clearing up and now I can see the bottom very well.

There is a green mat on the walls, I guess it is normal???

I went with the radial filter idea, will see how well it will work at filtering.

As not many plants are available at the beginning of autumn, I got some yellow iris, dwarf bullrush and a few water hyacinth.

The air pump is very noisy. I tried to move it in a storage near the pond but I still can hear it in the house. If I soundproof it I guess it will overheat. This is the model https://www.amazon.co.uk/Transport-Aerator-ACO-003-Oxygen-Pump/dp/B00BEV63LY
I have 0 experience with air pumps. I went for the 12V for safety near the pond thinking about installing it in the technical space between the IBCs. This model has enough pressure that I can use 15m long 4mm tube and it still works great. So any voltage will work there, but should be less noisy. Any recommendations?