S shaped Pond - Construction Ideas ?

[Andy41]

Hi Guys,

It's been a while since i posted.... the house is almost completed, and i'm now into the serious Garden / Pond planning stage.

I've made some rough calculations and would like your thoughts on a few things.

So, first the basics.... the Pond is going to be about 4800 Gal (US) about 18,000 liters. It will be in sunlight for most of the day, with about 50% of it in shadow for a few hours in the evening. The pond will be S shaped, with the middle of the S narrowing down for a small bridge to cross the pond. I'm planning on making the sides about 45 degrees, and having a large planting zone / bog / waterfall at one end of the pond, and all the filtration at the other end. The pond will hold about 50 goldfish (average 3" long) at first, but later i want to stock Koi as well.

I've used the calculations for the skippy filter i found elsewhere on the forum to calculate how big the filter should be. However, if I assume the skippy filter does all the work then i end up with a massive filter volume that is impracticle. I've therefore assumed that the planting in the pond does 50% of the cleaning work, and the skippy takes up the remaining 50% (I'll actually oversize it so it can cope with 60% of the workload).

From what i've read on here the simplist setup is : bottom drain - land based pump - Vortex - Skippy Filter 1 (55 Gal) - Skippy Filter 2 (55 Gal).

My questions :

1. I'm very neverous about the bottom drain.... cutting the hole in the liner and having pipes under the pond are risks.... does anyone have an alternative ?

2. Does the setup i've described seem reasonable, or have i forgotten a key element?

3. How would you recommend having the return feed? At one end of the pond, or at multiple positions around the pond?

4. What do people recommend for planting? Are certain types of plants better for extracting nutriants quicker than others?

Any other tips / suggestions are welcome.....

Cheers,

Andy.

 

[addy1]

Welcome back Andy, glad to see you returned.

1) you can do a retro drain, a drain that sits on the bottom and the piping runs up the side of the pond.
2) To me it seems reasonable, but I will let the koi keepers check it out.
3) You mainly want your return feed on the opposite side of your drain, skimmer, it helps push the junk to your drain
4)Lots of things you can plant with, but with koi not in the pond unless you protect the plants.

Doing plant rings, netting around the lilies etc.

 

[sissy]

Thats what I used on mine as I did not want to cut my liner either and to me a lot easier and I could move it if I felt it was in the wrong spot as the pipes just slide easy across the bottom of the pond just have to go slow when you move it .I just need to find out how some pump air up through there drain .I like that idea .

 

[Andy41]

Hi Addy, Sissy....

I'd never heard of a retro drain.... but a quick Google search shows this....

http://www.kitsukoi.co.uk/files/409_aquosis_retro_drain.jpg

An inverted bottom drain essentially..... i like it! This solves all my worries.

So Koi eat any plants that are in the pond? Interesting. I'm going to have to rethink the planting areas then.

Another question..... i live in Austria, and finding a decent plumbing supplies shop has ben a challenge. I bought some stuff over the net but that shop has closed now... can anyone recommend a good supplier website?

cheers,

Andy.

 

[addy1]

What kind of supplies andy, pump drain etc?

Koi are pigs as far as pond plants are concerned.

 

[Andy41]

everything reall Addy.... piping, especially 1.5" to 2", retro drain, ball valves, vortex tank, pumps...... i'm going to need a good source for all of it.

cheers,

Andy.

 

[addy1]

Ebay is a good source for some of the stuff, shipping will add up getting things shipped from the states to you. Ball valves, piping is best from a hardware type store. Here home depot, not sure if you have them there.

Pump, wait until you know the size of your pond, to size your pump right. No clue on vortex tank.

 

[sissy]

pond depot has a good supply online pumps parts and adapters and they at least have decent prices

 

[sissy]

I found the best places to find some parts are online at any irrigation sight or garden supply houses seems most of the pieces there are the same used on ponds bulk reef supply .com has great prices also