Well, there are lots of ways to do everything, including building and maintaining
a pond. I have personally known many people that have built ponds with BD's and not one ever said they were sorry in doing so.
Many people that build big ponds without BD's
soon start to look into retro fitted BD's cause they have a mess after the first season.
The retro fitted BD's are not nearly as efficient and also unsightly (in my opinion)
Think about all the fish waste and all the other ogarnic matter that lands in a pond. How can that possibly be removed without a lot of work, such as constant vacuuming.. What do you think that does to the clarity of your water? People think skimmers remove the waste and debries, however the fish waste and all the other debries sink, they don't naturally float into a skimmer...
I can understand your hesitation, but disagree that the KISS methoud should apply here...I mentioned this before, a 3000 gallon pond is not like a 500 gallon pond.
How do you plan on cleaning the pond? Emptying it out each year, scrubbing it down and re-filling it? There is a well know pond building outfit, that does that with the ponds they install -- yearly maintenance is a big revenue for them.
You have an entire winter to research the best possible way to build a big pond,.
Take advantage of all the information on the internet from the pro's and also from the seasoned ponders that are generous with their pond experience and fish husbandry in a backyard pond.
More food for thought... a backyard pond is not the same as a pond in nature.
Raising fish in a backyard pond is not the same as raising fish in an aquarium.
