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Any pond builders out there?


NoobtoSalt

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I went ahead and ordered a pump tonight. It's a mag drive style pump called an alpine cyclone. Went with a 6550 gph so in case I decide to split it off for something else I have that option. Also ordered 25ft of 2" no kink tubing. Should get me started for now.

 

 

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Will try.  My tank is battling AEFW and others....once I can get a handle of it.....I hope or hope not to tear it down.  

Nice Pond! But I'm curious how do you keep the Hawks from taking off with those Koi? Is there none around?

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With that much flow you might have to frequently change out the skimmer box filter so the pump doesn't drain the pump well faster than the water can flow back into it. You will find this especially true when you have trees with falling leaves around.

 

You could just T some line off for an extra water feature or circulation if that is the case.

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With that much flow you might have to frequently change out the skimmer box filter so the pump doesn't drain the pump well faster than the water can flow back into it. You will find this especially true when you have trees with falling leaves around.

 

You could just T some line off for an extra water feature or circulation if that is the case.

I was planning on a possible extra feature and figured why not. Plus I will add a ball valve of some sort to adjust the flow.

 

 

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We would recommend the intake to a filter be as fair from the filter as possible for best results. If an intake doesn't have a filter, say for the water fall, it would be fine closer by. If that's an intake over on the wall by the filter, you could extend it down and over across the pond with PVC.

 

We highly recommend a veggie filter with bog plants, soil, and a gentle flow threw it. In all our time services ponds, veggie filters make the more improvement for filtration and clarity of water.

 

If you could, also add a sterilizer for clarification.

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I have a uv filter that I may add inline to this but haven't decided yet. As far as the plumbing is concerned if I wanted to just do a single pump would I be better off caping off both the hole in the bottom of the pond as well as the side and allow the return to be the waterfall? Also is the hole in the center something I could potentially add a water feature to add additional oxygen to the pond?

 

 

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You could cap off the pick-ups, assuming they are pick-ups and just make sure the one pick-up you are using is as far as it can be away from the inputs. You do need to trace each line to find what they do.

 

You would have the pickup on the other side of the pond, to the filter, through the UV, to the waterfall.

 

If you were to use take intake at the bottom, you could turn that into the slow flow veggie filter right in the middle of the pond. Build a trellis and put in your bog plants, volcanic rock.

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/ClearPond.html#veggie_filters

 

This is what will really make the biggest difference.

 

Its recommend to have more than one pump, just in case.

 

 

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So I capped off the return and the intake that was plumbed prior. I added the pump inside the skimmer and had to add a ball valve to turn the pump down a lot. Bought some plants today to jazz it up a bit and will buy some koi for it in a few weeks once things settle in a bit. I may need to find a pond forum since i spent so much money on this I might not be able to do a reef or fowlr for awhile..lol

 

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Garden pond is the one without bottom drain(s).   Bottom drains should be located at deepest point at bottom of pond  and only way to get fish waste out of the pond.

I have been designing and building ponds for 15 years now and I have yet to see a bottom drain be a successful means of detritius removal.  It will either plug up with leaves, plant matter, or other random debris.  Bottom line is this....  If you don't think that you will have to get the shop vac and pressure washer out at least once a year and spend around 6-8 hours of your time removing "fish poop" and other organics out of the rocks at the bottom, along with the waterfall, you are sadly mistaken.  It comes with the territory and it is just like your reef...  cutting corners or half assing it will not yeild satisfactory results. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Added 3 koi today but all very small about 4-5" or so. Also bought 4 water lily bulbs to grow.

 

Anyone know of a reasonable place to buy a few larger koi without breaking the bank?

 

 

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We stumbled upon a "barn sale" up in Battleground a month or so ago and they also had TONS of Koi in a huge pond and several holding tanks. Water was literally churning with them. They had some that were not premium by their definition for as low as $35 for some larger 8+ inch ones. Price was all about how premium they were. I'll have to try and find it again, not a store front or anything but the owners are into it. Probably wouldn't mind someone dropping by on an afternoon weekend.

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We stumbled upon a "barn sale" up in Battleground a month or so ago and they also had TONS of Koi in a huge pond and several holding tanks. Water was literally churning with them. They had some that were not premium by their definition for as low as $35 for some larger 8+ inch ones. Price was all about how premium they were. I'll have to try and find it again, not a store front or anything but the owners are into it. Probably wouldn't mind someone dropping by on an afternoon weekend.

I may have stumbled across them on Facebook. Looked like some pond plants and koi.

 

 

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We stumbled upon a "barn sale" up in Battleground a month or so ago and they also had TONS of Koi in a huge pond and several holding tanks. Water was literally churning with them. They had some that were not premium by their definition for as low as $35 for some larger 8+ inch ones. Price was all about how premium they were. I'll have to try and find it again, not a store front or anything but the owners are into it. Probably wouldn't mind someone dropping by on an afternoon weekend.

 

I bought a few from this same guy when we tried to keep the pond that came with our house, he had great deals and was really nice. Did you see his ponds in front of his house? 

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I bought a few from this same guy when we tried to keep the pond that came with our house, he had great deals and was really nice. Did you see his ponds in front of his house?

No he did say that the "premium" koi were in the front. We were just looking at all the barn sale stuff and the huge ponds. Found it on gmaps...yeah...those are big ponds LOL

 

If I were you Jesse I'd check it out, selection is insane in the membrane.

 

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No he did say that the "premium" koi were in the front. We were just looking at all the barn sale stuff and the huge ponds. Found it on gmaps...yeah...those are big ponds LOL

 

If I were you Jesse I'd check it out, selection is insane in the membrane.

 

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Sweet thanks. The 3 I got yesterday were only about 4-5" and I have 10 more in order that will be 6"-8" but want a few larger ones and don't want to pay $100 plus per fish.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Still haven't bought any fish. Figured I'd give it another week or two. But in the mean time I know with this hot weather I'm going to have to top off a lot of water each day. I don't have a sprinkler system and I'm guessing I'm topping off at least 50 gallons per day at this point. Any suggestions on how to setup a top off to a hose or something? I haven't seen anything like that online yet

 

 

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