Maryland Newbie

[Thatguy]

Hey everyone. Hope all is well in this challenging time. I’m new to the pond world. I bought a home this summer that was a foreclosure. Amongst many of the things that were broken and needed TLC and a bunch of money was an little outdoor pond.

I consider myself a experienced pet owner. I’ve had dogs, cats, iguanas and fish most of my life. I actively raise and breed cichlids. I don’t sell fish and don’t over breed. I’ve had a few that I’ve breed to add to the colonies but that’s been for fun and the love of fish.

I need a little help from the forum on how to help me get this pond going. I know this so far the pond has a intake that has a hose for a fountain(there is currently no fountain),two buried pipes exit the intake. One is a overflow drain and one goes to a water fall setup that runs down some rocks to the pond. The intake(skimmer) has no pump. I’ve done some research on purchasing a pump to get the water moving and here is my dilemma. The pipe going to the waterfall is a 3 inch female fitting. There isn’t a pump I can find that seems to be plug and play in this setup. I’ve added a picture. Any help is greatly appreciated.

The pictures I provided are when I first bought the house. The pond has been cleaned out some and is now home to a few hundred tadpoles.. Thanks again

 

[poconojoe]

What's the black box? A skimmer or just some sort of pump vault?
I think the large black fitting is one half of a union. The other half is probably still on the missing pump. A union would allow an easy quick way to remove the pump without having to unscrew fittings.
There is a reducing bushing between that black fitting and the black hose. The black hose may be flex PVC, which can be glued directly to a normal schedule 40 pvc fitting.

 

[poconojoe]

I see purple PVC glue there, so I'm guessing the black (maybe half of a union) is glued onto the (white) reducing bushing, not threaded on. Try unscrewing it.
If it's glued on and you can't find the other half of the union, maybe purchase a new union and hope that half of the new union will fit the old one. If that doesn't work, as a last resort, you may have to cut the black hose off of the (white) reducing bushing. That's a tight space to cut in. A sawzall would work best.
Then get a new reducing bushing to fit your new union. You'll need PVC primer and glue also.

 

[Jhn]

Welcome, Looks to me like the black box is a skimmer, I can see the weir opening where the face plate is bolted on. Looks like an old aquascape skimmer box. My guess is that had a check valve that ran down to the pump looks like this (typical on aquascape ponds)


As @poconojoe suggested if you can’t fInd this piece I would just cut it off and get a 2” union then glue it back on.
That pond looks like it needed some serious tlc.

 

[Thatguy]

A Checkvalve for eliminating back flow. That’s exactly what is! Looks like is was an aquascape kind of pricey.

Any recommendations on a pond pump that would create decent flow in a small pond like this?

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our group!

Can you give us a idea of the gallons the pond holds?

 

[j.w]

@Thatguy

 

[GBBUDD]

Agreed it effeminately half a union not a three inch pipe. But i would probably just replace the set up as if the pond has not run in a while the teflon and bushings will dry out and the last thing you want is to have a leak and come home from vacation to a empty pond.

 

[BobDE]

Welcome! What part of MD do you live in? I use Webbs Water Gardens for most of my pond needs.
I must warn you that ponds are addicting. Do a lot of looking, thinking and planning before you start!

 

[GBBUDD]

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/some-very-impressive-pond-builds.26353/ here's a collection of some of the best videos for ideas . https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/some-very-impressive-pond-builds.26353/