First: I am having some trouble with perspective on your pond picture. I see your steps and presumably the top of the falls apparently in front of some cement bricks or something and a pile of liner. How much distance until the falls hit the pond hole? How long and wide is that hole? Does it extend to the right behind your pile of stones? I am having trouble seeing this as 2K gallons.

One reason for the falls to pond question, is that I am a huge fan of streams as a filtering mechanism. I do have a Skippy (google it), (hand made thing) filter, but I doubt it is doing much and btw it is never supposed to be cleaned; but my 25-30' long stream is a wonderful thing. I doubt your falls to pond distance is much more than 5' but that is better than nothing.

Anyway, I don't know anything about pressure filters and can't help with that. The pump and skimmer are generally together because it is convenient to pull directly to pump from skimmer, but a long tube-hose could be placed between skimmer and pump if you wished. The skimmer is supposed to remove all floating crud so the type of pump is irrelevant. However, you aren't required to have a skimmer.

Thank you for the reply, Chas. I hope this below is a better photo. It used to look like this:

As you can see, there did use to be a stream but it was so badly eroded on both sides it could not be used. There were holes in the liner, holes in the hose, etc. It's not visible in this photo but the downspout from the gutter also dumps a lot of water under that deck which then erodes the stream even more. The area was stable until we removed the English ivy that was holding things together because it prevented access from the equally thick growth of poison ivy. In fact, none of this would have been necessary if the poison ivy wasn't about to take over the whole area. It was an unholy mess.

In this photo below, all I have done so far is remove all the slate and the pond liner from the pond which measures 8 wide and 11 feet long, maxing out at 16 inches deep. The previous owners basically just piled up the sandy soil and stacked a bunch of slates on top. So it looks shallow here because it really is that shallow. It will have the same dimensions once reconstructed, but deeper.

Before I can even start on the pond, there are repairs I have to do on the steps and I want to build retaining walls behind the pond to contain the erosion from under the deck (not to mention redirect that downspout to where the water can be managed better. Basically, I'll be building terraces above the pond which will be at the lowest portion of that slope.

I know the entire thing will look hideous for a while but the long-term look I am after is a profusion of vegetation that will cover everything--the walls, the edge of the pond, even. I want only the water to be visible and only the front side of the pond will be approachable. I want the falls because I like the sound. I'm willing to rethink the stream, but knowing little, it just sounds like yet another thing I'll have to look after, considering the state the last one was in.

I'm going to read about the Skippy and sleep over it. I am not averse to DIYing the dickens out of this, if it will accomplish what I want at the lowest maintenance level possible.

Thank you for helping. This will probably take so long I'll have to freecyle the goldfish in the bathtub! (also came with the house)

Pagan

Before I get to the pond: I would think that a 100 foot roll of 4" drain hose could solve much of your erosion issue. With your slope I would think you could simply connect sections to any gutter spouts and lay the hose on the surface and direct all water down below your pond. OR you could direct it directly into the top or bottom of your falls and into your pond as long as you create a spillway somewhere along the bottom edge of the pond to direct the over flow water on down the slope.

Back to my fondness for streams: Here is a link to my thoughts on the subject. I have gone for weeks without messing with the stream, but from spring thru fall I often fooled around with it on a weekly basis. However, that was usually just grabbing handfulls of string algae out and tossing them into the woods; perhaps two to 10 minutes a week. The stream is usually not so attractive, but it certainly appears natural.

As I said before, I doubt that the Skippy is doing much. I brought it up mainly because it requires no care. I think you could do without it but I guess that you would need some filtering if you didn't use the stream idea at all. If I were doing your pond, I would simply increase your potential stream length by putting a curve into it; add plants in it; and call it your filter.

Well. I now love your stream too. That must have been the idea behind the 15-foot one that was originally here, except the original owner did not think ahead. Thanks for the info on the drain hose. I've been renting for decades and never owned a house so I did not know those things existed. I now remember why I preferred renting. The learning curve has been steep. But that's the solution to redirecting rain water to an area where I want it! I'm glad I won't have to dig a ditch under the deck.

I want plants to hold that slope together though--ground covers like juniper. They had used hostas, English ivy and poison ivy to do this but that just doesn't work for me. I'm not sure if the path that has formed under the deck was dug by the original owner (he'd done stranger things) or the water carved it out, but it does lead to the old stream--dumping water around and under the liner but not into it. Sigh.

Are string algae so bad for ponds? I like them. There is a pond in a local garden center with a lot of it but the water remains nice and clear---I just don't know what it takes to achieve that or if that is even a sustainable goal. From what I have read, people just don't like them.

Thank you, Chas.

Pagan

There are several threads on string algae here. You might want to use GOOGLE rather than the garden web search which is poor. Just add gardenweb to the search as well as what you are googling. We had a person named waterbug_guy who liked to actually experiment. He believed that string algae actually competed against the single cell pea soup types of algae to keep a pond clear. Of course you do end up with green stuff on rocks. I think it looks nice and if/when I get too much, I just grab it off or use a toilet brush to actually scrape it if necessary.

Yes, the 4" flex hose could direct your gutter water anywhere (like directly into the stream) as long as it is slightly down hill (or even slightly back uphill as long as the starting entry spouts are all still higher). Watch out; don't get the kind with holes all over; that is leach line for septic drain fields (and other situations) where one wants water to spread out.