Good morning, Good after noon, Good Evning.

[Beercan31]

I am very new to pond building. Live in the North East New Jersey. So far I have done everything wrong. I'm thinking I could get water to run up (humor)

I have 4 water falls, 1 large 4.5ft drop, 3 few inches drop. 2 ponds that have the ability to hold 700 gallons.

At this time I'm not looking at having live stock because of the depth of the ponds are only 19-22inches and have the potential of freezing solid. Yes I could run heaters and aerators (?sp) 24-7-365 but not looking for the higher energy bill and also knowing we experience power outages 3-5 times a year.

This is a work in progress.

I have viewed many posts and photos of the set-ups you here and I believe I am among some spectacular artists.

one question I'd like to ask is why are Protein skimmers not used in the filtering cycle

Photos coming soon.

 

[JRS]

Welcome! I have shallow ponds also, so I bring my goldfish in for the winter. Coming from an aquarium keeping background I have the equipment at hand. Some folks I encountered would buy feeder goldfish in the spring for their pond and bring them back at the end of the year to the pet store.

Because freshwater is less dense than salt water, you don't get as good results from protein skimming but it will have some effect. Here is a post where some have done it but not the prettiest setup:

Protein skimmer for freshwater tank!

I have a 150 gallon freshwater tank that wouldn't stay clear so I purchased a protein skimmer to remove the DOCs. It started pumping out a nasty yellow liquid on the first day. A while later I read protein skimmers were only for salt water and will not work for freshwater. I add one tablespoon...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

Check out the excellent results on this forum from bog filter installations.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum!

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome! We all start somewhere....

 

[j.w]

@Beercan31

 

[Stephen Noble]

Welcome Beercan! Interesting question about foam fractionators (protein skimmers). Are you experiencing excessive levels of DOC such as a large foam covering or just curious as to why fractionators aren't very common in ponds? Your ponds sound fantastic. Please post some pics. Cheers!

 

[Beercan31]

Thank you all for the warm welcome.

@Stephen Noble at this time I only have water circulating with sub-pumps ( 2) from the basement. No livestock or plantings. just figuring it out as I go along.

 

[Lisak1]

Welcome to the GPF!

Did you say you're using sump pumps from your basement to circulate your pond water? Can you explain how this is set up?

 

[Beercan31]

@Lisak1 because i'm still in the "build" faze 2 - 50' 3/4 id contractor garden hoses. this is not the permanent set up. eventually the pump system will be a 1.2hp 230volt 2.5" piping.

 

[Lisak1]

Ah. Gotcha. I was just going to say - don't rely on sump pumps long term. That's not how they're intended to be used and they will burn out.

 

[Beercan31]

its been some time. I thought I'd bump this post and update my progress so far. so much to learn, so much to read, so much to do.
Innovatory
2 ponds
2 waterfalls
1 equalizing tank
1 Hayward super pump
850 gallons

 

[Lisak1]

OK - totally not a criticism, but that is one heck of a lot of equipment for an 850 gallon set up. And no fish... why the intense filtration? Again - not criticism. Just curious?

 

[GBBUDD]

Well @Beercan31 i expected a conglomerate of vats liners and exposed fabrics. You have apparently taken your preformed pools about as far as they can be. Looks great and im not a fan of the preforms. I will say this though i believe you worked a lot harder at making preforms work to the degree that you have in comparison to using epdm.

Looks great .
How did you make your waterfall containment.

 

[Beercan31]

@Lisak1 I read your response on my phone and the first thought that came to me was with a Grinch smile, Go big or go home...lolol
I will give a tight wad a run for their money, the filter set up was on a Olympic size swimming pool scheduled for demolition and I was given permission to remove it before destruction. Yes I know the pump is capable of moving 127gal per min (not HR) and the filter is a diatomaceous earth set up and "if" used 24-7 will polish the water, yeah pretty much over kill filtration. most of the time the valve is set to recirculate. If you look at photo #2 you will see a pipe that runs in front of the pump back into the Eq tank this is a bypass valve to limit the amount of flow to the head of the water fall.
As far as live stock I do have a few sacrificial lambs. 5 shubunkins, hand full of feeder gold fish and 3 koi.

 

[Beercan31]

Well @Beercan31 i expected a conglomerate of vats liners and exposed fabrics. You have apparently taken your preformed pools about as far as they can be. Looks great and im not a fan of the preforms. I will say this though i believe you worked a lot harder at making preforms work to the degree that you have in comparison to using epdm.

Looks great .
How did you make your waterfall containment.

the boulders were placed by Mother Nature eons ago. i used a mixture of concrete and grout to seal larger cracks and voids between the 2 rocks. what you don't see is there is a 1/2" pvc pipe built in the spillway so the fall can be shut down and drained during winter freeze.
The black sealant you see is the same stuff you see the road workers use to fill cracks on the roadways. the stuff I have available to me stays semi pliable for years and will stretch without cracking. Jury is still out on whether this was a good idea or not. I am struggling with water quality issues right now but that will be another post later on, I'm still waiting for my bio filter to come on line, its only been 4 days since.

as far as using epdm, everything under the ocean stone is 5mil poly plastic and epdm. From the upper pond to the lower pond is a solid sheet of epdm. everything is set up (kinda) as a fail safe system if the pump fails no pond can empty out, if theirs a blockage between any pond it will flow out and head to the next that's where the EQ comes in to play it holds 100 gal and the water level will drop with out effecting the 2 ponds environments'

yeah I kinda over think things.............. sometimes