StuartLawrence27 said:
I appreciate the help.
The soil is not sandy but there are a decent amount of roots where I want to put the pond. The area I want to put the pond had a lot of vines and bushes which I cut down. How much digging should I do to make sure that there are no roots that can make a hole in the liner? The pond will be about 4-5 feet from trees but they will not be overhanging the pond. Would you suggest that is far enough?
Do I need to purchase the waterfall and skimmer and hook up the plumbing before I dig the hole? How deep a hole do I dig for the waterfall? At what point do I need an electrician?
Can I mix Koi with other types of fish (tad poles, turtles, mosquito fish). Is 4 feet deep sufficient for Koi or do I need deeper? How many levels should be in the pond? How wide should the deepest point in the pond be?
Thanks.
I've never really seen any need to "buy" a waterfall, there are a lot of DIY ways to build and plumb a waterfall without purchasing any sort of specific waterfall box.
You'll want to put some type of underlay beneath your liner, especially if you are worried about roots or have very rocky soil. You can "buy" some ridiculously priced liner underlay, but again, if you want to save money and end up with something that will offer better protection, go to a big flooring store and ask about picking up some used carpet. Often they'll take you to the their dumpster in the back of the store, they are usually too happy to have people grab the used carpeting and roll end bits of carpet out of there. The last time I did that the store manager told me they charge him $500 to get it dumped, so the more he can get rid of for free the longer it is before he has to pay that 500 bucks. Anyway, it makes great underlay for the liner, in fact you can generally get plenty of carpet underlay while you are in there dumpster diving.
As for the size and shape of you pond, everybody has different ideas about shelves and levels, but nobody but you really knows what you want as far as plants, fish turtles and other aesthetics. For sure most people will agree that you want to have a deep area to your pond, I would recommend at least 4ft deep, and please don't put any rocks on the bottom, save them for around the edge and along your shelves. And that brings up another thing, when you are leveling your pond please build a shelf area on the shore for rocks to sit just below the water level so you can hide the liner along the shoreline. IMHO nothing detracts more from the aesthetics of a pond then seeing the black rubber liner all around the shoreline.
You obviously have access to the internet, check out the pond forums and youtube, look at as many ponds as you can and copy the features you like. It you aren't sure how they are built then ask, but don't just ask how you should do it, because everybody will give you different answers. Find out what you like and want first.
When I first started getting into ponds, and wanted to keep turtles in it, lots of people told me you "can't have turtles in a pond, they'll make a mess, they'll eat all your plants, the'll eat your fish, etc...". Things is there are plenty of people who do have turtles in their ponds and they don't necessarily do all those things, and I did end up keeping turtles in my ponds and never really had any of those problems. So be sure to weigh and reason all the advice you get.
Can you post a picture or a video of a pond that you like and you'd like to build? If you can do that then you'll get more useful advice on how to proceed with your pond build.
