New to the forum and building my first BIG pond...

[mikecoscia]

Get a submersible in the deep end and with your waterfall at the top of the shallow end, as DrCase pointed out, this will flush the solids down to the submersible. I would run that back up to the waterfall which will give you more flow, hence circulation.

The waterfall on the shallow end will just be a small pre-formed, it will not be a filter like my main falls. Would it be better to have the pump at the bottom of the deep end feeding the filter box of the main falls, and the pump in the skimmer feeding the small falls on the shallow end? Or does it not matter.

 

[DrDave]

I would have the falls with the most flow at the shallow end to get the maximum flush down. The intake would be at the deepest part. If your main falls were a 55 gallon bio filter, the fall would be about 36" before the water surface. I cascaded mine to get areation.

 

[mikecoscia]

I would have the falls with the most flow at the shallow end to get the maximum flush down. The intake would be at the deepest part. If your main falls were a 55 gallon bio filter, the fall would be about 36" before the water surface. I cascaded mine to get areation.

That would be ideal, but not possible. There is not enough room in the shallow end to move my waterfall filter box, it's pretty large and I only have a few feet to work with in that area. I designed the pond so the largest falls faced the back of the house and spilled into the deep end to stir everything up and the smaller ones flushing everything down, hopefully I didn't screw up to bad and it will work out okay.

 

[addy1]

You are doing great! we still don't have ours running, too darn hot to work on for too long.

 

[mikecoscia]

You are doing great! we still don't have ours running, too darn hot to work on for too long.

Thanks and same here! It has been one brutal summer here in Jersey, most days have been in the 90s with very high humidity. Good thing I have the summer off (I'm a teacher), I am going to need all the time I can get to finish this thing!

 

[DrCase]

You didn't do wrong you have a great pond
We are just throwing in ideas
If you use 2 pumps send your skimmer water to the unfiltered small fall end
Keep the pics comming
How many gal is your water fall filter ?

 

[DrDave]

That would be ideal, but not possible. There is not enough room in the shallow end to move my waterfall filter box, it's pretty large and I only have a few feet to work with in that area. I designed the pond so the largest falls faced the back of the house and spilled into the deep end to stir everything up and the smaller ones flushing everything down, hopefully I didn't screw up to bad and it will work out okay.

With the miracle of Plumbing, anything is possible, you just need to think outside the box.

 

[mikecoscia]

You didn't do wrong you have a great pond
We are just throwing in ideas
If you use 2 pumps send your skimmer water to the unfiltered small fall end
Keep the pics comming
How many gal is your water fall filter ?

Thanks! The filter will support up to 10,000 gallons according to the manufactures website. I originally estimated my pond size to be 10,500 gallons using a simple online calculator, however I just used 36ft x 13ft with an average depth of 3ft. Last night I tried another that calculated size by making a rough sketch on graphic paper and counting how many squares full squares and half squares where outside the pond. Using that method I got around 7,000 gallons.

Oh well, its 7:00 a.m. here and I am going to get to work. I'll take some pictures before I get started and post them at the end of the day.

 

[mikecoscia]

Just got home, long day. Rain last night added a few more inches to the pond which was nice, however the edge of the pond was no longer level. I had a feeling it was going to off, but could not tell until it was mostly filled. The sucker was level a month ago, used a laser level and laser sensor a friend in the construction field lent me. Well I guess with me waiting so long to put the liner in and all the rain we had, soil just washed away in some areas. So yeah, the front and left side of the pond where around 5" to low..... Luckily I had a enough soil in the yard and just raised the edges up, I like the water line being a little higher than the yard anyway. Of course since the edge was off so was the skimmer! So I had to drain around 8" of water out this morning so I can take the thing out and add dirt. That took most of the morning and than I filled her back up. Here is how I left her before going home...

Taken from the low end looking into the deep end. I will be placing the second smaller falls where I am standing.

Taken from the deep end looking into the shallow end. Dug out the area for the falls and placed the waterfall box there, so you can see where the main falls will be going now. Only thing that has me concerned is the skimmer, now it looks to high! I think it's just the size of the box however. Here is close up picture...

As you can see the water is just about starting to push into the mouth of the skimmer, and I still have another 5" or so of water to fill. I placed one of my cap rocks next to the skimmer. The water line will be prob around the middle of the rock. So I think the skimmer will be fine, just looks so dam high for some reason. Guess time will tell.

Also ordered my second pump today and some 3" and 2" flex pvc tubing for the two pipes. Hopefully they come soon so I can get everything running!

 

[addy1]

there is always tweaking, and you are looking good there. Neat area for the waterfall

 

[DrDave]

Beware of runnoff into the pond.

 

[mikecoscia]

there is always tweaking, and you are looking good there. Neat area for the waterfall

Thanks, hope it turns out as good as the vision in my head...lol.

Beware of runnoff into the pond.

The skimmer has knockouts for a runoff hose, and right behind it happens to be a French drain. Going to connect it right up to that.

 

[addy1]

Will you be shutting it down in the winter? The skimmer, pump etc?

My build was just a vision, a vision with liner at least now!, with a few sort of drawings, hard to explain to hubby. He wanted the drawings so did a few for him, of course it does not even really look like that now, except the location is somewhat the same.

 

[mikecoscia]

Will you be shutting it down in the winter? The skimmer, pump etc?

My build was just a vision, a vision with liner at least now!, with a few sort of drawings, hard to explain to hubby. He wanted the drawings so did a few for him, of course it does not even really look like that now, except the location is somewhat the same.

Not sure, guess I will see how it goes. It would be nice to save some money on the electricity bill though...lol.

 

[addy1]

Not sure, guess I will see how it goes. It would be nice to save some money on the electricity bill though...lol.

We have a skimmer also, this is my first pond in a freezing area, so just need to remember to purge the lines so you don't have pipe freezing, breaking issues.

I have also heard the skimmer needs to be empty of water.

We are trying to set ours up so we have one purge opening to draw the water from the lines, if we turn off for the winter.