New Pond Getting Ready Questions

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brianfl

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First, my wife and I are putting together a pond, rather a couple of adjoining ponds. We are going to house tropical fish. Both ponds will be using liners. Basically our plan is we will have one pond (approx. 7x7x2) partially above ground, we want to have one foot above and one foot below. The other pond will be completely below ground and will be 11 x12 x ???. We have had a lot of experience with indoor aquariums but this is our first outdoor venture. We currently have 4 indoors. Our plan is that we connect the two ponds by a canal (approx. 6ft long by one ft wide). This should create a natural waterfall (small pond being one foot higher than the large pond). We plan on using sand in both ponds. We will have a mixture of large rocks and tropical plants around both ponds. We also plan a fountain on the larger pond. We will have plants in both ponds. We haven't decided on the exact fish as of yet, although we will be transferring an iridescent shark, 3 bala sharks (may add 3 more), a black shark and a couple of plecos from indoors to outdoors. We will probably add some tinfoils and maybe some cychlids. We may also transfer some kissing gouramis.

First, my plan is to dig the holes with a bobcat which should speed things up dramatically.

Now on to some questions. We are going to use an inline system.
I like what I see with the sequence pumps.

What filter would work best with what we want to do? We will also be using a uv sterilizer which we use on our indoor tanks as well.

Second, with the natural waterfal as I think it will work, the pump would have to return water from the large pond back to the small. Can this be done using the same pump as the fountain?

Third, We are trying to decide on the depth of the larger pond. We are already thinking of have one part deeper for easier cleanup. But do we get an extra advantage of having an average depth of 3 or 4 ft vs 2 ft? I know it will be a lot more water which will change which pump, uv sterilizer,etc. we will need but are there any real advantages?

Fourth, Any recommendations on the types of plants we should use? There will be some shade but a good amount of sunlight. I was thinking anarchis to start with.

Finally, we are thinking of setting up a solar setup. Has anyone done this successfully with an outdoor pond? I think this would make sense economically. I am not sure the size we would need but I would like to power everything with solar.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 

125gJoe

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Solar system - in south Florida?
Solar powered Night lights ?

Maybe I'm not understanding ...... ?
 

brianfl

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No, I was thinking a complete solar energy setup for the ponds. I am thinking of putting up solar panels, an inverter and all the controls. I think eventually it would pay for itself, but it is looking rather expensive to do. Have you noticed a large surge in your electric bill with your ponds? It seems like the pumps throw out some pretty high wattage.
 

scott

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I was wondering the same thing. I want to set up a pond but the spot is in the back of the yard and my wife does not want me to dig it up to run electricity. They don't make solar powered pumps? Now I know how to make my millions.:)
 

125gJoe

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Originally posted by brianfl
...... Have you noticed a large surge in your electric bill with your ponds? It seems like the pumps throw out some pretty high wattage.
We have a small pond, so the pump doesn't seem to matter much with extra electric useage.

 

rjl420

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Originally posted by brianfl
We plan on using sand in both ponds. We will have a mixture of large rocks and tropical plants around both ponds. We also plan a fountain on the larger pond. We will have plants in both ponds. We haven't decided on the exact fish as of yet, although we will be transferring an iridescent shark, 3 bala sharks (may add 3 more), a black shark and a couple of plecos from indoors to outdoors. We will probably add some tinfoils and maybe some cychlids. We may also transfer some kissing gouramis.
first, you don't want sand in the pond. you don't need it, and it will need to be removed eventually. also keep the rocks/gravel to a minimum, a bare bottom approach is actually best. you don't want anywhere to allow debris and anaerobic bacteria to settle.

Originally posted by brianfl
First, my plan is to dig the holes with a bobcat which should speed things up dramatically.
That it should ;)

Originally posted by brianfl
Now on to some questions. We are going to use an inline system.
I like what I see with the sequence pumps.
I use a sequence. for the amps/volume rating it made the most sense to me. it does seem to use the least ammount of power. the one I use is ~4 amps.

Originally posted by brianfl
What filter would work best with what we want to do? We will also be using a uv sterilizer which we use on our indoor tanks as well.
I use a converted sand filter for mechanical filtration. the bio is mostly in the waterfall for my setup. I use Aqua Ultraviolet filters and UVs

Originally posted by brianfl
Second, with the natural waterfal as I think it will work, the pump would have to return water from the large pond back to the small. Can this be done using the same pump as the fountain?
yes. look for a pump with an appropriate head rating. it does affect the overall volume of water the pump is able to move. you can use a diverter (y valve or something) to supply water to the fountain, but keep in mind fountain are the biggest culprit of water loss (if that's an issue)

Originally posted by brianfl
Third, We are trying to decide on the depth of the larger pond. We are already thinking of have one part deeper for easier cleanup. But do we get an extra advantage of having an average depth of 3 or 4 ft vs 2 ft? I know it will be a lot more water which will change which pump, uv sterilizer,etc. we will need but are there any real advantages?

3 feet is the ideal depth for koi, since your setting up a tropical system a 2 ft depth is adequate, but keep in mind the deeper the pond the easier it will be for fish to avoid predators (herons, racoons, cats etc...).

Originally posted by brianfl
Fourth, Any recommendations on the types of plants we should use? There will be some shade but a good amount of sunlight. I was thinking anarchis to start with.
Anacharis is a good start, floating plants are also good for shade (hyacynth, lillies, watercress, primrose creeper, parrots feather) and marginal plants are good to create a perimeter around the outside, mostly for asthetic purposes, but also for hiding places for small animals/creatures/fry (bog lillies, umbrella palms, reeds, cattails)

Originally posted by brianfl
Finally, we are thinking of setting up a solar setup. Has anyone done this successfully with an outdoor pond? I think this would make sense economically. I am not sure the size we would need but I would like to power everything with solar.
Possible, not entirely feasable. you may be able to supplement your power supply, but I doubt you'd be able to run the entire system full time. maybe get a small solor powered pump to solely run the fountain since it won't use too much power and use some soloar lighting. the sequence pump alone will use 2-4 amps and I doubt a solar setup could keep up. you need at least one pump running 24/7 to power the filter and move water around to oxygenate it.
 

brianfl

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Thanks for all the info.

Rjl,

The aqua ultraviolet filters seem pretty pricey, I was looking at the utima for up to 4000 gal and that was almost $1000. I think for sure I will get a uv sterilizer from them. Any other recommendations on filters for roughly 2500 gallons? I was hoping to spend less than $300 for the filter. I think we will definitely go a least 3', it will be nice to give the fish a chance to get away from the predators. We definetely will get floating plants. Also, we are thinking lily pads will be nice.
 

brianfl

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One other question, guys. If I don't use a sand substrate (which I understand why), how we I do plants? Is it possible or should I stick with floating plants?
 

blitzen25bm

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put the plants in pots and then cover it with some pea gravel so they fish can't dig around in it
 

rjl420

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Originally posted by brianfl
Thanks for all the info.

Rjl,

The aqua ultraviolet filters seem pretty pricey, I was looking at the utima for up to 4000 gal and that was almost $1000. I think for sure I will get a uv sterilizer from them. Any other recommendations on filters for roughly 2500 gallons? I was hoping to spend less than $300 for the filter. I think we will definitely go a least 3', it will be nice to give the fish a chance to get away from the predators. We definetely will get floating plants. Also, we are thinking lily pads will be nice.
You can also make your own gravity fed filtration system or vortex systems. also there are bead filters which are somewhat cheaper than the AUV's. I live in temecula, where aquaultrviolet resides, so I get things pretty cheap from them :D. I actually have my waterfall setup to do the majority of the bio filtration, the AUV has been cut down to mostly mechanical filtration.

Try a google search for home made pond filters to see what others have done. you may also want to start a new thread to poll others methods of creating filters for their pond.
 
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