Pond Destroyed, new Pond Constructions

[GreatDanesDad]

Well here it goes. My pond was about 2000 gallons with twenty fish ranging from 5 inches to 30 inches in length. I had a bog sitting just outside my pond with a small pump pumping about 500 GPH water into the bog, which then ran thru a pipe and back into the pond. I left for t days for Thanksgiving and in that time the bog got a large leak. It flooded under the pond. (Which was mortared in flagstone) while pumping the water out of the pond. It floated my pond 3 feet in the air. Leaving about 6 inches of water in the pond. Only my largest female survived. L

Ok this is a bump in the road of life I guess. Attached is the 3d model of my new pond build. I think you will have to click on it to see it in 3d. The grey is the liner, and the area where you see the extra piping is going to be my bog. There will be a rock wall between the bog and the pond that acts like a dike for water to filter back into the pond. The barrels are my filters and the water is forced into the bottom of the barrels and then will overflow back into the pond. I know the model doesn’t show anything pretty, but it will have a whole “shimmer” pond above the barrels that will cascade over into the pond.

The dimensions of the bog are 1.5x2x16. The dimensions of the rest of the pond are 4x 10x16. The pump is 8000 gph and has two inlets one from the bottom of the pond and one from a skimmer. The bog has a valve to let water in and the pipe will have slots to drain out. The other line has a valve to control how much water goes to the waterfall or to the bog. The idea is I can also close the waterfall valve and run the full pump circulation through the bog to flush it out.

The filters are very simple. The water is forced into the bottom, of the barrel. There is a 8 inch gap that the water creates a vortex in. Then it filters upwards through lava rock, river rock, pantyhose full of plastic Easter grass, scouring pads, and finally through more river rock.

There is also a clean out valve on the barrel. This proved to work great on the last pond. This is a pipe with a valve that is also forced down to the bottom of the barrel. When the valve is open it creates a path of less resistance for the water and the water will push up the pipe faster than through the filter media. In the past by opening this valve once every two weeks, my filters stayed very clean. It is how I drain the 10% for my water changes every 2 weeks.

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Questions?

 

[j.w]

Sorry to hear that about your pond and most all your fish. Why do these kinds of things happen when we leave?
Glad to hear you have a nice plan worked out. My pond is not fancy like yours will be so I can't help you w/ design ideas but will be interesting watching you build your nice new one.

 

[Tula]

Very sorry to hear about your pond and loss of fish. Glad at least your one female survived. Kim

 

[addy1]

That looks like it will work well! Sorry about your loss, pond drainage.

 

[markd]

With a clean sheet of paper, I would think about a bottom drain and/or skimmer (unless you have no trees?) and filtering before getting to the pump to keep the biological media cleaner. I would also look at a trickle down type rather than an upflow. There are a bunch of good posts around on the topic.

 

[GreatDanesDad]

I dont have trees that are a real problem, but I do have a hyibiscus (sp) that bloom in the hundreds and the petals end up in the pond, so I have designed in a skimmer. As for a bottom drain, I feel that they create more problems than they fix. I have a good dirty water pump to drain the pond and it sucks out any crap very easily. I it cost me 30 bucks new. But cutting any kind of hole in my liner just seems like an added risk that after my last experience I won't take again.

As for the flitering can you explain trickle down vs upflow? I use the upflow because I can force thousands of gallons through the 110 gallon filter. Wouldnt i overflow any trickle down design? Also the waterfall filter is only a secondary filter. The main filter is the 20 foot by 3 foot bog. The pipes running under the bog deposit most the waste there rather than in the barrel filter.

 

[markd]

I'm not an expert, but this is what I've seen-

Theory with the bottom drain then mechanical filtering (settling tank, sieve, etc) then pump is that the pump won't have a chance to chop up the waste before you remove it. Should help keep it out of the water column, and keep it from clogging whatever biological filter you have (bog, media, etc).

Trickle/shower/waterfall filter shouldn't be easy to overflow. The advantage is that there is more oxygen for the bacteria.