Once upon a pond...

[Bsh21wash]

Greetings,

My name is Brian and I live in Washington State. I've moved into a new place and the previous owner had built a pond. I'm trying to get this thing up and running and well, I'm completely lost on where I should start. Let me begin with what I have.

Currently there is an upper pond about 6 feet by 8 feet?. In the middle is a round pool looking thing where I'm guessing a fountain goes to over fill into the outer pond. In the middle it's about 3-1/2ft deep and around the outside about 1-1/2 ft. This goes down too, two gravity fed water falls into a big pond below. There is a little pump house about 4ft away from the lower pond where he housed a pump that would pump water from the lower pond up to the upper pond out the fountain which would overfill the pool into the outer pond and would run down the waterfalls and repeat. There is also a water wheel with a hose going to it.

As of right now there is no water in the lower pond and it's filled with debris. The pump is not hooked up as it's sitting in the shop with several other pumps and what looks like a filter to me. The upper pond is filled with green stringy algae and the biggest frogs I've ever seen.

Please see the pictures that I've attached.

My questions are, what should I do first? I know I need to clear the lower pond of debris, but what about the algae? How would I go about hooking up the pumps? What kind of filtration system should I be looking at? My overall goal would to have some plants and fish in the pond.

 

[mgmine]

Honestly Brian I would rip it down and start over. The swimming pool liner in the bottom pond won't look very good when the pond is filled with water and the water wheel will just take a lot of energy to move it around. The gravel will be a dirt and leaf collector and who knows what the purpose of the round pond is. Without the round pond the upper could be made to look nice and the lower could be filled in or reshaped and a new liner installed. Once done a skippy filter, skimmer and new modern pump installed. I don't see any filter in your pictures. I do see five pumps and probably a few of them are probably broken. The water wheel requires one of the pumps and the top pond requires another pump. There is a pipe running out of the back of picture 1 that probably goes into the round pond. It's hard to tell with all the junk floating in the pond. I don't see a filter in any of your pictures.

 

[sissy]

first see if the liners are any good and then get new pumps the old one maybe why the pond was let go ,that or liners leaked . The blue liner looks like a swimming pool liner .Welcome to the pond world and our forum

 

[Bsh21wash]

Thank you! The liners up top have held water the entire time I've been here, so I know those are good. I will be clearing out the bottom pond this weekend. Best way to check is look for rips, or is filling it up and letting it sit to see if the water level has dropped the best way?

Cheers

 

[sissy]

even minor holes can leak a lot of water and do you know what type of liners they are .Cleaning and filling is the best way, true .

 

[Bsh21wash]

Honestly Brian I would rip it down and start over. The swimming pool liner in the bottom pond won't look very good when the pond is filled with water and the water wheel will just take a lot of energy to move it around. The gravel will be a dirt and leaf collector and who knows what the purpose of the round pond is. Without the round pond the upper could be made to look nice and the lower could be filled in or reshaped and a new liner installed. Once done a skippy filter, skimmer and new modern pump installed. I don't see any filter in your pictures. I do see five pumps and probably a few of them are probably broken. The water wheel requires one of the pumps and the top pond requires another pump. There is a pipe running out of the back of picture 1 that probably goes into the round pond. It's hard to tell with all the junk floating in the pond. I don't see a filter in any of your pictures.

I appreciate your opinion. I was thinking about ripping out that pool liner, and replacing with a black liner like the one in the above pond. However, the water wheel really takes minimal water to move it. There is a splitter from the hose coming up from the bottom pond to the to pond where it goes into the pool fountain. It's a garden hose that sits on top the water wheel. I do like the water wheel feature so I want to utilize it. Where would be the best place for a filter? What pump do you recommend?

Thank you

 

[Richardspond]

I would nix the bottom pond and fill it in. I'd yank that pool or whatever out of the top pond and utilize that as my only pond. It's got the makings of a beautiful pond. I'd tear down the wheel it's in weird spot to the pond. I'd build that area up with a falls. You could keep the wheel but it would look best parallel to the pond not adjacent. That's what I'd do

 

[mgmine]

Where the filter goes depends on the pond. If you had a waterfalls then it could be incorporated into the falls. In most cases you want to push water from the pump to the pond and not pull it. That means that once the water enters the filter it has to be able to easily get back into the pond. If you are going with a homemade filter then that limits you to a gravity system. As far as the pump goes it depends on the size of the pond, the head and how much water you have to pump. There are a lot of good calculators on the web that will help you once you know how many gallons your pond holds.

 

[sissy]

also electricity use .I have seen ponders here want to give up because of there electric bill going up .I have seen pumps that use 700 and 800 watts and they have 2 pumps going and still don't get much water moving and also people that use to small a hose and no water flow coming out .Just because it comes with smaller adapters does not mean you need to use that size because the hose is cheaper .I use 1 1/2 inch sump pump hose and always run my hoses inside the pond .If they ever leak it all runs back into the pond .But I have never had 1 leak and still have the same hoses for over 9 years .

 

[Richardspond]

I have submergible pumps 1 runs 900 gal per hour the other 1600 and my pond is around 1300 gal. I haven't noticed anything in my bill much. I use a 1.25 hose on the falls pump and no hose on the 1600 gal UV pump. I would be scared to use an external pump for fear something would come lose and drain my pond

 

[sissy]

I feel the same way about external pumps ,plus taking them in is a hassle .Right now with 2 laguna pumps and aerator and 2 uvs I am using less than 200 watts

 

[Richardspond]

My 1600 is a Laguna dual bio mechanical filter with uv

 

[sissy]

both of mine are the new ones and I like the fact that they use less energy than they say .

 

[JBailey]

We have swapped out most of our lighting to LED over the past year or so, and changed chick brooding methods for our poultry operation, partially to free up wattage budget for pond gear. So far so good. The sad thing is that our bill stays the same or goes up slightly, no matter what we do, so I can only imagine how awful it would be without the changes we've made.

 

[sissy]

true the more we save the more money the electric bill is .They keep raising the cost .I have had all LEDS for years and all new energy saving appliances 2x6 stud walls and insulated floors and attic and new heat pump .You can't win .I thought about solar or wind but the cost is outrages and since I am not planning on staying here long enough to get it back in the end ,it would be useless .Even resale houses here are dirt cheap so would never get it back .