Hi from France

[mybrotherjohn]

Hi

I'm a pond newb.

I live in France with my wife and a goldfish which has a name but which I have a forgotten. We inherited it from a neighbour's fairground win when we still had children but which has outgrown it's tank and the children have gone. I'm building it a pond to give it a little more room than the current 4x2 fish lengths that it has to swim about in now. The pond hole is about 6m (yards) long x 4.5m (yds) wide by 1m (yd) deep with a shelf at the near end so any frogs/toads that might end up in the pond can avoid drowning and what will be a waterfall at the far end. I estimate it is 1.5 cubic meters (or yards).

I have a liner 1mm epdm, a pump and a UV filter that some bloke I know sold me for a reasonable price and I have bought a filter box on ebay which (I hope) is coming next week. I'm looking to get some underlay as we have a couple of three year old peach trees that my wife grew from the stones of commercial peaches perhaps 1-2 m (yds) away and a laurel hedge along the right hand side. I guess I'm going for some thinnish stuff as there are not too many stones in the clay hole (although if anyone has any thoughts I'd definitely consider them. Thanks in advance). I've also been told that I will need to oxygenate the water even though I plan to have a waterfall so I will be slowly looking to buy some sort of air pump as I construct the pond.

That's about it!

 

[j.w]

@mybrotherjohn

 

[GBBUDD]

Welcome
The question about aerating is true but it depends on One how many fish , what type, and how large. aLSO HOW LARGE IS THE WATERFALL AND HOW MANY GALLONS PER HOUR are going over the falls.

 

[JRS]

Welcome to the forum. I think the waterfall alone will be fine for aeration unless you plan on stocking it real heavy, especially if the pump is at the opposite end.

 

[mybrotherjohn]

Hi. Thanks for the replies.

At the start I guess there will be one fish ~250mm (9") in it. The one in the tank. I have to say that I can't believe that we wont get more as my wife was a zookeeper in another life. The current fish is , I think, a goldfish so I guess we'll be going for other goldfish friendly, hardy fish as later-life mates for it.

Pump will be under the waterfall but I will try to engineer the pipes so that it draws water from another part of the pond for circulation purposes.

Pool volume is 1.5m3 (400 US gals). I would like to aim at a change at least every 8 hours (about 200l/h or 50 US gals/h). The pumps I have are both unrated but since they were in much larger ponds before, I am expecting this will be achievable. That said, the bloke I bought the stuff off suggested that I put in place a dual return - one over the waterfall and one by pipe as the waterfall would promote evaporation during hot days (not to mention heating the return water up).

Air Temperature can get up to 38ºC (100ºF) during the summer and has been as low as -15ºC (5ºF) during the winter although not for 10 years now. More normally the winter temperature is 0ºC (32ºF) or a little higher.

Cheers

 

[addy1]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[GBBUDD]

Pump will be under the waterfall but I will try to engineer the pipes so that it draws water from another part of the pond for circulation purposes.

Pumps under waterfalls if the intake is not brought out away from the falls will pull in air and depending on how much can be very beneficial as it can work as a venturi chewing up air and blowing it across the pond. This is however dangerous as if you pull in too much air the pump can run dry/ run at reduced rates thus costing in less efficency or a blown motor. But at 450 gallons those pumps are not astronomical and it's more about what works than it is what's best.

 

[mybrotherjohn]

Pumps under waterfalls if the intake is not brought out away from the falls will pull in air and depending on how much can be very beneficial as it can work as a venturi chewing up air and blowing it across the pond. This is however dangerous as if you pull in too much air the pump can run dry/ run at reduced rates thus costing in less efficency or a blown motor. But at 450 gallons those pumps are not astronomical and it's more about what works than it is what's best.

Interesting point. I hadn't thought of the air getting into the pump but it makes sense. I'll bear it in mind, however I'm not expecting the waterfall to create too much turbulence and aeration.

Thanks.