Pump size?

[haver79]

Hello all, Newbie here.
Ok so I have used a 150 gal stock tank for the past 2 summers as my tiny pond. Figuring this would help me decide if I wanted to explore this new hobby further. So now I have what looks like a giant monster hole in my yard waiting for liner. Might be small to many of you but looks HUGE to me! 11' by 11' about 3 1/2' deep. Waiting for liner right now as we have had a lot of rain and its just been too muddy to get the liner in. Hoping my sides dont cave in. So far its holding up. Planning on stock tank filter on one corner of the pond. Small falls back to pond. Best we figure if I use a submersable I will need about 15' of flexable tubing across pond bottom, up to skippy so maybe 8 foot of height out of pond to filter. My biggest delima right now is what size of pump. Thinking I would use a submersable pump. But really am clueless on size or brand.
Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[CountryEscape]

Welcome aboard! I saw your other intro post, but figured best to answer on here, since you said you were moving your post to appropriate forum.
I have a 19x9 pond with waterfall and skimmer. Skimmer has 1600 gph pump in it that pumps the water into a plant bog on the far side of the pond. I have used flexible sump pump tubing (black) from Menards for all of my plumbing except the PVC in the bottom of the pea gravel plant bogs. Works great, no issues with it freezing. Skimmer line is in the water, comes up to go into the bog, and ran it almost all winter long. Then I have a 4200 gph (my pond is about 4,000 gal) submersible pump that sits on a milk crate on the bottom of my pond. I almost never have to clean off the basket on the pump, and since it's not on the bottom, no worries about sucking anything into the impeller that sinks to the bottom. That pump has line running along the side of the waterfall and then into skippy, which is the top of waterfall. I had that flexible line coming out of the pond on the outer edge of waterfall, but it kept freezing up and stopping the pump last winter, so moved the line to the inside edge of the waterfall, and dug it down into the inside wall (wall between waterfall and bog, all liner underneath), plus wrapped it in insulated tubing.
If you use submersible pump, be sure to not have it on the bottom of your pond. People on here will stress that, because if the wind blows and your fountain is spraying out of the pond, and you're gone all day, you may come home to empty pond. If pump is above bottom, at least there will be enough water to save the fish. This happened to me in January, line came apart, pond drained down from 4' to 16"! All fish were fine, and I'm on well water, so slowly filled it back up in 2 days time. Lost nothing, even lilies that were out of water on a 32 degree night were fine.
Good luck with your build. Be sure to take pics of every step of the way, and ask questions whenever you have them. We all have pics that we can show you what we mean in particular, so ask away!

 

[dieselplower]

I estimate that at 3,175 gallons and that's about the pump size is suggest. Maybe more due to the vertical rise which will slow down the flow.

 

[haver79]

Thanks Country, I did see your pond build post. Looks awsome. Hope mine looks half that good when done!
So I will definately put pump off of pond floor if I decide to use submersable pump. Mind if I ask what brand of pump you are using? I had myself talked into a Laguna max flo but now maybe not. Sounds like Sissy had lots of problems with hers.
I would like to have a skimmer but was hoping to get by without one, at least this year. Trying to keep a reasonal budget here. So main submersable would do all the work. I dont think I would mind cleaning it on once in awhile but dont want to be dragging it out every few days or every week for that matter.

 

[CountryEscape]

I have a Laguna Max Flow, and love it! Very dependable, and I think Sissy said she maybe got lemons. I even have a second Laguna as a back up. I keep the "cage" on the pump, and that catches anything large. I never pull the pump more than once or twice a year to clean it. I can also use a net to swish things off of it. I have a Laguna 4200 Max Flo on the goldfish pond, too, and that pump runs the large bog (3'x17'x16" deep). Again, have the pump in the pond, on a milk crate.
You can easily get by without a skimmer, but once you have a skimmer, you won't want to do without one. I don't have many trees on my property, and farm land all around me, so not much worry about leaves. The good thing about a skimmer is that it grabs floating stuff before it sinks. Without it, you just need to be on the lookout for leaves that collect on the bottom, and net them out. Maybe you don't have leaf problems, though. Also, when I mow my grass, I'm very careful to blow the grass away from the ponds. I'm anal about it, I admit it. LOL Keep as much stuff out of the ponds as possible.
A skimmer is something you can add later. I have mine "inside" the pond liner, just dug a shelf for it to sit on. So, keep that in mind as a possible addition next year. If you have a corner of your liner that you can "extend" past the edge of the pond, you could add a skimmer easy enough next year. I could show you a pic of my skimmer in the morning, so you can see what I mean by "inside" the pond. Lots of ponders have the skimmer opening on the pond edge, and the skimmer itself on the outside. I think they have to cut the liner and fit it to the skimmer housing. I preferred to not cut my liner, figured less chance of a leak. And, my skimmer is a fairly cheap one, but does a great job, IMO. I can tell you the brand of it as well tomorrow. I have the same one in both of my ponds. Skimmer on goldfish pond pumps to top of stream, also has a 1600 gph pump running it.
Oh, and I failed to say that my 4200 Laguna on the koi pond is also split off and running a bubbler fountain.

 

[CountryEscape]

And, as Diesel says above, if your pump is more power than you want, you can "T" off of it and run something else. In fact, a large pump can run several items - spitter, fountain, waterfall. Just have a way to adjust the flow to each of these items.
And, yes, your pond will be unique in your own way, that's the fun of our ponds. We all have a different "vision" and just knowing that you built it yourself is what makes them so darn enjoyable. I just say I got the bug and am now addicted. People say, "Oh, I want a pond." That's just talk, but REALLY wanting a pond is dedication and love for the fish and water and plants and everything that you will create around it. It's our outdoor palette!

 

[haver79]

Thanks Diesel I think I will check out 3 to 4000 GPH pumps.

Thanks for all the info Country. Lots for me to learn here from all you experienced ponders.

 

[addy1]

I prefer external pumps, but you do need to pull them for the winter.

Post some pictures as you go along, we love to watch a build

 

[haver79]

Pump is ordered. I decided to go with a submersable Laguna 4280 model. I guess I just liked the thought of hooking up the hose and sticking it in the pond. Hope it comes soon as we decided to go ahead a fill the pond today. So we installed the underlayment and the liner and filled her up. So tomorrow I will be working on getting some rocks on the shelf we made to hide the liner.
Hubby has the skippy almost done. He still needs to make something for the water to exit the skippy. He would really like to attach a weir of some kind but we may end up just drilling holes and using pipe to exit.
Still a lot of work to do.

 

[sissy]

yeh ce you got all the good pumps and left me the lemons .I went back to my harbor freight pump and the smart pond pump .I have a 2150 but it pumps 2400 gph after I checked it and a 2900 gph .If one pump ever goes out i know I have a back up one .

 

[haver79]

Well I sure hope mine is not a lemon! Keeping my fingers crossed. :cheerful:

 

[sissy]

After the first delivery of my pump ,opened the box that said max flo and it was a jet flo and called sent it back second one was getting hot and shutting down and third one the same except it did not come back on ,so they gave me my money back .I know haro said that the ones in china they are making have problems and the ones made in Italy I think are better

 

[sissy]

Besides that put the watt tester on it and it said on box it uses 115 watts well it was using around 145 watts .Harbor freight one uses 150 watts and is over 3 years old and no problems yet .

 

[CountryEscape]

Haver79, do you know that another ponder on here builds and sells weirs? I got mine from him and it's great! Really heavy duty. Until I decided on side and got it delivered, I just tipped a small tote so it would overflow on the waterfall end back into the pond. Put filter media in that for the time being, and then it started the biological growth as well, until I had the Skippy ready to go. Just a thought! And, the only time my pumps have stopped running were when the water line froze solid. Started right back up when everything thawed and I plugged it back in, though. Be sure to put a one-way valve or whatever they are called so the water doesn't drain out of your Skippy if you shut off your pump. I hated to have the Skippy drain back into the pond, since it was higher and water siphoned backwards. Now that doesn't happen. However, put the one-way valve in last year at the top of the skippy, which turned out to be a mistake. That valve was in the weather, froze, and this spring I noticed there was a hairline crack, so had to replace it. Ended using one that could go in the middle of the Skippy barrel, so it would always be under water, and it's now in the PVC line, rather that outside on the flexible water line. We shall see if that helps. Good news is IF it cracks from cold, it's won't leak anywhere but back into the Skippy.
Great build photos! What are you planning to put in your pond? Koi, goldfish, lilies, ....?

 

[haver79]

Thanks Country
Just thinking goldfish for now. Koi are harder on plants. I have 2 lilies that are doing well. I had 1 lilie that I devided this spring. I have some water hynacinth and some curly rush. Thats all I have right now.

Koiguy is the one who makes the weirs right? I thought about that. Wonder is he is still making them.

Im sure I dont have enought media for my skippy either. I bought some blue furnace filters from Lowes and 3 floor buffer pads and considering a layer of lava rock. But I will need more of something for sure. What do you use in yours? I think sissy likes to use lava rock in hers.