Need advice for pond startup

[Shiftaltumlock]

OK, let me start by telling you that I am in North Central Texas.

It can get as hot as 110 in the summer. I have seen 30 days or more of temperatures over 100 with out a break. The winters are fairly mild. It can drop to the twenties or even teens here. Usually, cold spells like this last for only 2 or 3 days. The average temperature in the winter is in the 50's

With that being said, What type of setup should I go with?

I want the pond to be heavily planted. I want water lillies and pads and whatever else will thrive in my area.

I plan to make the pond in a kidney bean shape. Maybe 18' long by 10' wide at the ends, narrowing to maybe 6 or 7' in the middle of the bean.

How deep should I make it for my climate? How much sunlight should the pond receive in the summer and winter?

How do you figure how many gallons a kidney bean shape will hold?

Should I stair step the sides?

Should 1 end be deep and 1 end be shallow?

Should I build an underground bio-filter? I was thinking of something off to the side that was a bit lower than the pond. Maybe filled with peagravel.

Oh! So many questions!!!!!

 

[TJcanada]

You didn't mention if you were planning on adding fish(goldfish or Koi)...so I'm gonna assume you are by the sort of questions you've asked.

How deep should I make it for my climate? How much sunlight should the pond receive in the summer and winter?
If it gets that hot...the deeper you go the better imo(with fish). I venture to say 3-4feet minimium, but I personally would go deeper than that(6ft+). Suggest you factor in some sort of waterfall feature as well to help with cooling the water. In a sense you'll want lots of oxygen input into the pond when the heat is on As far as amount of sun...I would suggest some shade happens at some part through the day, this will help keep algae blooms at bay(but not a guarentee). Research the type of plants you wish to keep to find out thier light requirements...Lilies do like lots of light, but there are varieties that do well in shadier areas. The more surface coverage you can get from plants will also help with algea bloom control.
Good plants for competion would be watersprite,hyacinth,fairymoss, most any floater will do.

Should I stair step the sides?
I wouldn't...if you're keeping fish. Having a 1ft deep plant shelf around the edge somwhere for bog type plants would be ok, but the sides should either have a steep slope or go straight down.

Should 1 end be deep and 1 end be shallow?
You could do this...lilies like to be kept at about 2ft - you can progressively lower them to adapt to deeper over the course of a season though. if you do this 2 levels..have a gental slope to the deeper end to allow for dirt to fall/be carried to that area.

Should I build an underground bio-filter? I was thinking of something off to the side that was a bit lower than the pond. Maybe filled with peagravel.
If you add a waterfall feature, you can incorporate a bio filter into it. It best imo it have stages of filtration...prefilter(skimmer)/mechanical/bio - adding a UV to the system is something you could research. Think about adding a bottom drain or 2 - this makes for easier maintience and can be useful for a "gravity feed filter system"...you can take alook at my website to see how we built our(links in sig). I wouldn't suggest pea gravel for a media in pond filter use...it a heck of a pain to clean and to keep clean.

I plan to make the pond in a kidney bean shape. Maybe 18' long by 10' wide at the ends, narrowing to maybe 6 or 7' in the middle of the bean.
One thing you don't want to do is design a pond where flow is restricked and "dead spots" develope...if you plan on adding fish.

BTW if you don't intend to eventually add fish..then the deepness of the pond doesn't really matter - 2ft for your lilies is fine.

HTH, I didn't go into "great" detail with this post as I'm unsure what exactly your expectations for this pond you have planed are...

regards, TJ