Newbies with a 300-gallon wildlife pond, waterfall and lots of questions

[Lee Buchanan]

Glad to find an active, informative forum. We bought a house and inherited an above-ground pond that was a lot more derelict than we thought. We had someone drain it, clean it, rebuild the frame, restack the river rocks, put in pea gravel and build a waterfall about 1.5 feet above the surface.

I bought a 650 gph pump that fits inside a filter box with bio balls. The waterfall flow is very light, a little more than a dribble. The pump has been running two days now and the water isn't close to clear. I'm thinking we need much great flow. We don't plan on keeping fish, just plants and hopefully the critters that will show up (though hopefully not the baby water moccasin I found yesterday).

I'm thinking about getting an all-in-one with pump (about 1,500 gph) filter and UV. Is that a good way to go?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[sissy]

You loose water flow because of head height .I would go with a 1000 gph one .It is usually triple the amount of the pond for gph .But extra you are buying may still work it depends on the size of the hose you are using

 

[Lisak1]

Welcome! We'd love to see pictures of your pond!

I have no advice on the pump except to say more flow is generally better.

 

[Becky]

Just wanted to say welcome to the forum