Starting Year Four .....

[malatu]

if you plumb the B.Ds together to one pump you will want to put ball valve on the closest one to the pump to control flow as it will naturally want to supply the most water to the pump due to having the least travel and resistance to flow...the valve will allow you to equalize flow or regulate it to your liking.
same thing on your skimmers might be wise!!

The bio falls will be about at the beginning of the stream, about 30 -40 feet from the skimmers and bottom drains. Would separate water lines connect to the bio falls or would it make sense to have lines from the bottom drains and skimmers feed into one 4" line and then to the bio falls (my ignorance on the subject now becomes evident!).

 

[hewhoisatpeace]

You'll want to be able to isolate each skimmer and each bottom drain, like Addy said. I hate big ball valves, they are restrictive and a pain in the ass to turn. My suggestion is gate valves. They're not restrictive at all, and always easy to operate. Biggest I could find was 3" when I did mine, but I know 4" are out there. You'll have to make PVC valve stops for them, so they don't close accidentally (real easy).

What pumps are you going to use?

 

[hewhoisatpeace]

That bio falls is not going to be enough for this pond. You might plumb the skimmers to this, in 4" PVC, and pump the BD's to a separate biological filter, in 4" PVC.

How much water do you estimate this pond should hold, including the stream?

40' of pipe will + head height + fittings + biofilter will be a big pump. I'd really consider keeping your pump supply lines below water level, with a pump at or below water level, so you don't have to put swing check valves on your supply line.

http://www.performancepropumps.com/artesian_home.htm

I use this pump with no sound and low amp draw.

 

[malatu]

You'll want to be able to isolate each skimmer and each bottom drain, like Addy said. I hate big ball valves, they are restrictive and a pain in the ass to turn. My suggestion is gate valves. They're not restrictive at all, and always easy to operate. Biggest I could find was 3" when I did mine, but I know 4" are out there. You'll have to make PVC valve stops for them, so they don't close accidentally (real easy).

What pumps are you going to use?

Haven't decided what pumps to use as of yet. Like I say, we are figuring out things as we go. Although, I've printed out quite a few threads from this forum and I know there are some suggestions regarding quality pumps.

I've calculated the approximate gallons of the pond to spec out the volume of water need for turn-over, but would it make sense to buy one of those water meters you can hook up to your hose and meter the actual amount of water used to fill the pond before actually purchasing the pumps? Maybe an actual gallon amount isn't that important.

 

[malatu]

if you plumb the B.Ds together to one pump you will want to put ball valve on the closest one to the pump to control flow as it will naturally want to supply the most water to the pump due to having the least travel and resistance to flow...the valve will allow you to equalize flow or regulate it to your liking.
same thing on your skimmers might be wise!!

Sounds great! How do you know the flow is equalized when adjusting the valve. Is it one of those things you "just know" through sound and feel.

 

[hewhoisatpeace]

Knowing what you've got is very important. Filtration, medication, and pump flow rate are all tied to water volume. Why buy a water meter? Write down your water meter reading, fill pond, write down new water meter reading. Subtract old reading from new reading. Your water company provides a meter already, may as well use it.

 

[malatu]

I'm estimating between 7 and 9 thousand gallons. I don't have a meter for I'm on a well. Wont the 30 ft of stream bed assist in filtering the water?

 

[koiguy1969]

take a 5 gallon bucket and fill it. time how long it takes. time how long it takes to fill your pond, and convert to minutes. if its 1 minute to the bucket and it takes 3 hours to fill the pond ...the math would be: 3 hours is 180 minutes and your getting 5 gallons a minute...
180 x 5=900 gal pond.... just a simple example to show the math...
thats how i did mine i filled a 5 gallon bucket in 40 seconds that means i got 7.5 gallons a minute. my pond took 2 hours and 40 minutes to fill, which is 160 minutes...
160 min
x7.5 gpm
__________
1200 gallons

 

[malatu]

take a 5 gallon bucket and fill it. time how long it takes. time how long it takes to fill your pond, and convert to minutes. if its 1 minute to the bucket and it takes 3 hours to fill the pond ...the math would be: 3 hours is 180 minutes and your getting 5 gallons a minute...
180 x 5=900 gal pond.... just a simple example to show the math...

You/re a genius! Thanks!

So if I'm understanding you guys correctly, it makes sense to do this BEFORE buying the pumps?

 

[koiguy1969]

oh ..if youve got them, once theres enough water to safely do it,you can start your pumps .. fill the pond with them running so you measure the full systems capacity

 

[hewhoisatpeace]

Stream will help, but not enough for a 9000g pond to use a filter falls alone. You need a 150g stock tank by Rubbermaid, and loosely fill that sucker with Scotch-Brite green scrubber pads (or dollar store versions) after plumbing it. The Koiguy filter in the DIY stickies will show you how to plumb it, just use bigger pipe.

Yeah, you need to have a good estimation of pond volume prior to buying a pump, that's one of the variables you'll use in deciding how big your pumps are. Did you check out that link? Those pumps are awesome! I don't know if DoDad carries them, might ask him about pumps, too.

 

[malatu]

Stream will help, but not enough for a 9000g pond to use a filter falls alone. You need a 150g stock tank by Rubbermaid, and loosely fill that sucker with Scotch-Brite green scrubber pads (or dollar store versions) after plumbing it. The Koiguy filter in the DIY stickies will show you how to plumb it, just use bigger pipe.

Yeah, you need to have a good estimation of pond volume prior to buying a pump, that's one of the variables you'll use in deciding how big your pumps are. Did you check out that link? Those pumps are awesome! I don't know if DoDad carries them, might ask him about pumps, too.

No, didn't check out the link. I'm digging and hauling soil and sand off site. I'm just stopping inside using the head and checking this site. I appreciate all the good info. It's one thing reading about others' challenges and solutions, but when it's your own things all of the sudden become real! I can barely sleep at night!

 

[koiguy1969]

if you use the stock tank filter as your waterfall filter / basin i build custom weirs (spillways) for them....
https://www.gardenpondforum.com/waterfall-weirs-diy-filters-t5243.html
i believe the 150 tank will accomodate a 16" wide weir, as shown on page 2 of weir thread...

 

[malatu]

if you use the stock tank filter as your waterfall filter / basin i build custom weirs (spillways) for them....
https://www.gardenpondforum.com/waterfall-weirs-diy-filters-t5243.html
i believe the 150 tank will accomodate a 16" wide weir, as shown on page 2 of weir thread...

Thanks for the link koiguy!

Ok ...let me think out-loud ..... I am going to have a bio falls/ filter at the top of the 30' stream. At the bottom of stream will be the falls that empty into the pond. What I am hearing is the basin for the pond could be another bio falls. So the skimmers could be hooked up to the bio falls at the beginning of the stream and the bottom drains could be feed the end of the stream (falls basin). Or would you simply pipe everything to the top of the stream and simply let all the water filter though both the top bio filter and the pond basin (bio filter).

Or simply have a the bottom drains piped to a separate filter outside of the pond.

As you can see, I'm still getting my arms around this ecosystem. And it appears we have lots of options.

 

[malatu]

That bio falls is not going to be enough for this pond. You might plumb the skimmers to this, in 4" PVC, and pump the BD's to a separate biological filter, in 4" PVC.

How much water do you estimate this pond should hold, including the stream?

40' of pipe will + head height + fittings + biofilter will be a big pump. I'd really consider keeping your pump supply lines below water level, with a pump at or below water level, so you don't have to put swing check valves on your supply line.

http://www.performancepropumps.com/artesian_home.htm

I use this pump with no sound and low amp draw.

Are you using the Artesian Low RPM?

They look fairly high quality (coming from someone who doesn't know squat about pumps). The only other pumps I looked at were from Aquascape. If I were to solely go by price, the Artesian pumps appear to be better than the pumps I looked at and priced. I believe the other pumps I looked at were Aquascape Pro and Aquasurge.

I've read anywhere from once every 1 - 2 hours the water in a pond should be turned over. Is that a general accurate. Is once every hour that much better than twice and hour?