Pool to pond

[mochosla]

Hello everyone. I'm new to this group and I'm looking forward to learning as much as possible from you guys. While I do not have a pond currently, I do have a pool that I'm tired of. Nobody uses the thing, it's costing us a small fortune to maintain, and I'm simply tired of doing all the work and dumping so many chemicals into it. Especially, if it is not being used. I've been thinking about converting into a pond but I can't just let the water go green if I don't know what I'm doing. Has anyone here done it? Can you share some advice? My pool is about 18K gallons, it has an 8' deep end, and it has a kidney shape (I'm not sure that matters). Also, we live in the hot side of Los Angeles. so that needs to be taken into consideration. I have a few specific questions:

Do I need to dump all the water out and put new water in? I just exchanged the water so I'd hate to throw it all out.
How long will it take before I can add some plants and mosquito fish? I do not want the expense of koi fish, nor do we want the responsibility of caring for them. Low-maintenance fish are fine with us. But we do want a lot of plants.

Can I use my existing water filtration system? It has a variable speed pump but I figure the filter would get clogged up very quickly.

I've attached a picture of what the pool looks like.

Thank you all!

 

[JRS]

Welcome to the forum. No experience with pools myself but here some previous threads that may provide info and links to others.

Jumping in the deep end!

I've been searching and reading through the threads before making a post. I see a lot of knowledgeable people and I'm glad I found this forum. I have started a pool to pond conversion. Our pool equipment went out May last year and we were unable to find anyone willing to make the repairs. We...

www.gardenpondforum.com

Pond to pool conversion questions

Hello friends, I’m very inexperienced in this field so I thought I would ask the professionals. I recently bought a house with an old gunite pool and I am entertaining the idea of turning it into a pond. When we moved in it was stagnant and had some goldfish already in it keeping the mosquitoes...

www.gardenpondforum.com

Hoping to Convert an old concrete chlorine pool to natural pool/pond

Hi I’m hoping to get feedback and advice on the ideas i have. I’m looking to take an old pool (18x36’) and convert it to a natural pool with water plants, some frogs and small fish. Maybe a couple of turtles. Also looking for the water to be clean enough to swim in. I dislike chlorine pools. I...

www.gardenpondforum.com

Start of construction for 20000gal pool conversion

I've gone back and forth on various details since my last post, but the basic idea is still the same - upflow bog spilling into the deep end with an intake on the other (shallow) end. Progress is (slowly) being made on converting my 20000g pool, the foundations for a raised bog have been laid...

www.gardenpondforum.com

 

[GBBUDD]

Your probably going to trade chemical expense for electrical use. pools run 4 hours a day maybe 8 depending where it is. Ponds run 24/7 up to October or November to May. If your handy and you have a sand filter theres a possibility to convert it to a bead filter.
There is a video where Aquascapes converted a pool to a fish pond for ohio rescue . and they built the wetland filter at the bottom of the pool. i have no idea what maintenance he does with some monster fish and crystal clear waters . but there are many discussions to be had

 

[j.w]

@mochosla

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome!

No experience, here, so no advice, but I seem to recall that people have partially filled in their pools (to reduce the volume and depth). Just throwing that out there. No idea how they did it.

 

[mochosla]

Your probably going to trade chemical expense for electrical use. pools run 4 hours a day maybe 8 depending where it is. Ponds run 24/7 up to October or November to May. If your handy and you have a sand filter theres a possibility to convert it to a bead filter.
There is a video where Aquascapes converted a pool to a fish pond for ohio rescue . and they built the wetland filter at the bottom of the pool. i have no idea what maintenance he does with some monster fish and crystal clear waters . but there are many discussions to be had

So, good point. However, I have a solar system and power utilization is not a big concern. Also, I believe the size of the pool pump, vs. a pond pomp is substantially different. I have a 1/2 HP pump and it runs 8 hours a day. My filter is an elements filter so it may not work.

Thank you for your message.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to the forum!

I have never done it either.

Start a construction thread, we love to virtually help.

 

[GBBUDD]

At 18k you will want to turn over the pond at least once every three hours. if you didn't have a pool with no obstacles it would be once every two hours or more.