Plan of next pond....thoughts? (long)

14 years ago

I am only in the planning stages of my next pond and most likely it will be a year or more before I can start on it. There are going to be some 'extras' on this pond that were not added to my current pond. I love my pond just as it is, so will just build another one. Keeping in mind that I am an amatuer plumber, I have tried to keep it as simple as I could while still hoping it will work. Some of the design principles go aganist much of what I have read, but for my yard and budget, I am hoping it will work.

Pond dimensions: 9 x 11 x 3.5 feet deep, approx. 2600 gallons, straight sides with no shelves but coping around all sides for rock to hide liner. It will be almost rectangular but with the corners curved to help flow. The long edge (11 feet) of the pond will be on the north and south sides of the pond. The bottom will be sloped toward the BD.

Bog/Waterfall Combo: The bog will be on the north side of the pond, about 15% of the pond. Bog will be fed through a PVC grid in the bottom and filled with gravel and planted. The bog will be about 12-18" deep, depending on a few factors. It will raised above pond level, almost like an upper pond. Between the bog and pond itself, there will be a barrier built from rocks and will have a waterfall rock to flow water to the pond.

I am planning to have 2 separate circuits. Circuit #1 is simpler and #2 is more complicated.

Circuit #1 will be a Laguna PowerFlo 5000 skimmer > pump > to 2 TPR's flowing into pond from the south wall of pond, one on each side of the skimmer which will be in the middle. This circuit is on the south edge of pond.

Circuit #2 will be gravity fed from a 3" aerated BD > SC with static basket > external pump > split to one GPR and the bog. The GPR will go thru the pond wall underneath the bog in the middle on the north side straight across from the skimmer. The filter pit for SC and pump and air pump will be east of the pond. The BD will be in the center of the pond bottom.

A few questions (of which there are many):

1) As you can see, I don't have a bio filter after the SC. Is that okay as I will have the bog? I am hoping to get my hands on a 275 gallon poly tank for the SC. Is that big enough to help slow the water enough so solids can settle out? There will be a static filter inside of the SC to help trap smaller debris.

2) As for ball and knife valves, I know balls are used to control flow and knives are used to shut flow on and off for maintenance. But where exactly would I put them and how many would I need?

3) How much flow would I need thru TPR's to help circulate water around the BD? How much flow to GPR? I know these can be fine-tuned using ball valves but what would be optimal?

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome. Thanks for reading.

Vickie

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Comments (4)

hardin
Original Author
14 years ago
Just realized the GPR in that location will not work as I had invisioned. Back to the drawing board. May move it and plumb as another TPR instead.
waterbug_guy
14 years ago
I don't know what a SC is but for settling I use the pond itself.

{{gwi:227226}}

I like simple.

For the TPR, a term I just learned, very little flow is needed. Something like a garden hose half on is enough to get the whole pond rotating. Placement is important of course. You can test location when filling the pond using a garden hose. Just takes a minute to get rotation and you can see junk (and there's always junk) on the bottom spinning around in the center of the vortex.
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hardin
Original Author
14 years ago
Yes, I like simple too. My current pond is as simple as can be, and easy to keep clean at only 2 foot deep. As the plan is to go deeper with the next pond, I need better setup, which is the reason for the bottom drain and the SC (settlement chamber). I am wanting to make a bigger home for my 3 koi. :) Everytime I turn around, something new occurs to me and the ponds plan gets modified, thus in turn gets more complicated. And I will be trying to teach and explain all the why's and how's to my husband. He is a good sport thou.
waterbug_guy
14 years ago
Your question on whether the settlement chamber is large enough...I don't think there's a right or wrong answer for that, the more reduced the flow the lighter the stuff that will fall out.

If I follow your plan, you'd be pulling stuff that has settled in the pond thru the bottom drain into a chamber where the stuff would hopefully settle again and be flushed at some point out a bottom drain in the chamber? Is there something special about the chamber, like a vortex or something, that it would be expected to collect more stuff than the pond already did?

I don't really see why the chamber would be helping anything. But I'm probably missed something.