Desiging New Pond Need Advice

JH

AC Members
Sep 11, 1998
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I am in the process of looking for a new house and I am starting to plan my new pond. I just got rid of most of my fish earlier this week so I wouldn't have to temporally house a large amount of fish. Because my current pond is mostly above ground I don't really have any experience with waterfalls and skimmers even though I have read many books and visited tons of websites.

As far as the size of the new pond in planning goes I really don't know yet it really depends on how much space we will have. I am hoping for a pond around at least 2000-3000 gallons. What I have planned so far is to build a skippy filter. I was thinking of using probably a 100 gal stock tank, but may go with the 150 just because of the larger size. I think I have the design concept down for that. I was also planning on using the Little Giant Professional Skimmer. The 3000 gal one that skims up to 300 sq ft. I am a little lost on which pump to use. I have been looking at the Pondmaster Mag Drive pumps particularly the 36 (3600 gph) and 50 (5000 gph) models. I understand the pump can be housed in the skimmer behind the media so I am trying to figure out which pump would be best.

Is this pump a good choice for the money and will it work with what I am wanting to do? I have never used this brand before. I have two becketts right now, the 210 gph and the 535 gph. I plan to use these as backups when needed. My goal is to buy a pump that is rated higher than what the gallons in pond is. Example: 2000 gallon pond I would use a 3000 gph.

I don't plan on having a big waterfall. It would only be as tall as the stock tank itself. That is I believe approx. 2 ft maybe.

I guess I should mention that I am going to try and build this pond for as little of money as possible but at the same time try not to skimp on filtration. If I figured right (for a 10' x 12' x 3' pond) for liner, pump, skimmer, filter, tubing, etc. it would be approx $900 -$1000. I'm going to try and not spend much more than that. Landscaping would be extra $.

I am a little unsure on alot of the details right now so I would appreciate any suggestions. Sorry for being so long.
 
It sounds good but you should have the size firmly figured out before you pick a pond. If the pond has less gallons than the gph of the pump, your water will move way to fast. But if you were having more than one water feature (waterfall, sprayer, spitting turtle, etc) you could get a slightly higher gph than your pond's contents.
 
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