Hello, I’m in Pond Rehab!

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That is one neat pond!

Welcome to our forum!

A external pump, would work great, you could pull water from the lower pond, plumb it to send water down via the upper pipe. With the way it is built you could hide the new lines.

Or see if you can find the input line in the lower pond, get a submersible pump, pump it to push water into the lines. See if you get water coming down from the top.

Thanks for the welcome! The only pipe or opening in the lower pond is a vertical pipe I thought was to prevent the pond from overflowing. The top of it is always just above the water lever so I don’t think it was hooked up to anything — or am I wrong? Maybe I should run the garden hose into it and see if and where water exits?
And how would I hide the lines? Any idea what kind of pump, how much power, do I need a slimmer or other equipment? We are total amateurs. I’d love to get a shopping list for everything I need from an expert because we don’t know what we don’t know! Also, I’ve heard the electricity bills can be really high. Any idea how much it costs for 4-5 months of operating it (without fish)? We should probably figure that out before we buy all the equipment.

Thanks again!

 

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Welcome to the forum! You have a 'goldmine' of a pond. It reminds me of something one would find in a nice Vegas hotel. Absolutely investigate and let us know. We are a very friendly group so no worries. Can you box it up and send it to me?
Again welcome!

Thanks so much, Stephen! We think it’s pretty cool but the frustration of trying to figure it out and what to do has been discouraging. Any advice is appreciated!

 

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Wow, what a lovely pond.....welcome

Thanks, Tula!!

 

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Thank you!!

 

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Very cool water feature! And if it doesn't leak after all these years, then someone did a great job building it!

I'm with @addy1 - an external pump is probably the way to go. But keep poking around and see if you can figure out where they had the pump. Something had to move the water from the bottom back up to the top. I'm not sure what that "spigot" is for but I question whether it was part of the pond plumbing.

Thanks! I’m pretty sure the plumbing (spigot was the only word I could think of!) was for the pond as it sit at the top edge of the waterfall wall. It has two holes where it looks like hoses would attach. When we first looked at the house before buying it there was a statue sitting over it but that statue disappeared before we took ownership. I’m thinking we’ll need to set up our own system and forget about what’s existing. We just need to find out how much it will cost to operate and what we need to buy. Any advice is appreciated!!

 

[bagsmom]

Oh Wow! I'm looking forward to seeing how this all turns out. That is a beautiful water feature!

 

[addy1]

Any slight chance the original owners would chat with you about it? Maybe call the realtor and ask?
I was getting calls about my house in AZ after it was sold for a few months.

 

[Lisak1]

Thanks! I’m pretty sure the plumbing (spigot was the only word I could think of!) was for the pond as it sit at the top edge of the waterfall wall. It has two holes where it looks like hoses would attach. When we first looked at the house before buying it there was a statue sitting over it but that statue disappeared before we took ownership. I’m thinking we’ll need to set up our own system and forget about what’s existing. We just need to find out how much it will cost to operate and what we need to buy. Any advice is appreciated!!

Ah! A statue makes sense! They had some kind of plumbing leading to a statue. It may have spit water over the side into the water feature, or it was not connected at all. I'd keep looking - somewhere you should find some kind of plumbing or electrical that might give more clues. What fun!

 

[JamieB]

As for what you need, that’ll depend on what you want to do. A pump is a given. Keeping the water moving keeps bugs from breeding. Do you want plants like water lillies? Do you want crystal clear water? Perfect clean bottom? Personally, id add a mini water lilly, spitting status, and just net any leaves out. As small as that is, one hour a week in the summer if that, maybe once a day in the fall, and some other water friendly plants. The plants pull nutrients from the water to prevent the dreaded algae blooms, a small pump to move water to the statues, for sound and movement, and a pool net to remove debris that falls in. Do spend the money for a good pump, but you’ll have to pull it and any plants for winter if it is just 18” deep. Otherwise it will freeze in winter.

 

[Gemma]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

 

[GBrant]

Oh Wow! I'm looking forward to seeing how this all turns out. That is a beautiful water feature!

Thank you! Stay tuned!

 

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Hi and welcome to the forum!

Thanks, Gemma!

 

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As for what you need, that’ll depend on what you want to do. A pump is a given. Keeping the water moving keeps bugs from breeding. Do you want plants like water lillies? Do you want crystal clear water? Perfect clean bottom? Personally, id add a mini water lilly, spitting status, and just net any leaves out. As small as that is, one hour a week in the summer if that, maybe once a day in the fall, and some other water friendly plants. The plants pull nutrients from the water to prevent the dreaded algae blooms, a small pump to move water to the statues, for sound and movement, and a pool net to remove debris that falls in. Do spend the money for a good pump, but you’ll have to pull it and any plants for winter if it is just 18” deep. Otherwise it will freeze in winter.

Thanks for the great advice. We don’t need crystal clear water and yes, some plants would be nice. No fish. We want to keep water moving, avoid green slime, create sound to drown out the noise of our neighbor’s pool equipment and to actually use and enjoy this focal point of our yard. Do we need a skimmer (and what does that do?) and how much power in a pump if we want to push water up about 6 feet (7 1/2’ from bottom of pond) to create a moderately vigorous flow for the most splashing sounds? Thanks!

 

[JamieB]

A skimmer is something I’ve never used, it drains just the surface of the water to pull in floating debris, typically used before the pump. Most are built in, but there are free floating skimmers. I’m running short on sleep, so can’t say what size pump you’d need. It’s based on the gallons of water in the pond. If you google pond volume calculations, you can input the dimensions and depth, it’ll say how many gallons you have in your pond. Then find a pump that will move twice that volume in an hour- gph. That’ll give you food flow.

 

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Great! Thanks for the info. I’ll plug in my numbers! Hope you sleep well!