Pond design

[reefgirl189]

Can anyone recommend a good pond design company or forum/website where I could learn to do it myself? I'm looking into getting a large acreage pond done next year.

[MitchM]

I find this to be a good pond forum:

Garden Pond Forums (http://www.gardenpondforum.com/forum/3-garden-pond-forums/)

[mandyplo]

Well hello reefgirl!! I see I'm not the only marine & pond duo on here. I have a 3000 gallon koi pond, working on putting a video together of it at the moment.

Edit: sorry just realized you asked for a site recommendation, not a novel from me lol.

Ill get you a picture tomorrow of mine, it's still a work in progress but I watched some laguna pond design DVDs before building this puppy and I found they helped a lot.

There's a lot of things you have to take into account before you start digging. For instance:
An area that gets partial shade and partial sunlight throughout the day. It depends what type of pond you're interested in (fish, plant etc) but if you want fish chances are you're also going to want to have a decent amount of plant coverage for protection. Having plants means you need some sunlight, but too much sun = algae problems.

Another thing is determine your design first, shape of the pond how deep how wide/long, gallons... You want to incorporate many shelves to put plants on. I thought I made enough in mine and im kicking myself for not making more shelves.

Also plan where you would like to have a waterfall, and then you have to consider that the skimmer should be as far from the waterfall as possible (maximum filtration/water movement).

Whatever you do, don't buy anything until your entire pond is finished being dug, shelves put in and all. (when I say shelves I just mean digging them). Once you're happy with the design then you should buy your skimmer, filter/falls, pond liner, felt underlay or whatever you choose to go with all at once. I say all at once because you want to build/landscape your waterfall into the pond liner to be sure that no water is being lost anywhere. And you also want to attach your skimmer to the waterfall at this time aswell.

As I think of more I'll add them to this thread. Im sure there's lots more I'm just too tired to brainstorm.
Ill get you that pic tomorrow :)

[mark]

check out Dez's backyard thread, believe he worked with a designer.

[reefme]

Also check with Blue Planet Water Features.

[mandyplo]

Another thing you should consider before digging is ( if you're considering having fish/plants) how deep you are going to make your pond. If you want to keep big fat koi in yours like I do :D then you probably will want to keep them in the pond year long, throughout the winter and all.
I live in northern Ontario and the temperatures get very cold here in the winter. I made my pond 7-8 feet deep so that it only freezes about 3 feet down, and the fish can live underneath the ice. I keep a little heater in there to keep a hole in the ice so harmful gases can escape and don't kill my fish. I also keep the filter falls running all winter for aeration. If you make it deep enough you can also sink your plants to the bottom for the winter. In the spring bring them back up to your shelves and they start growing leaves fast!! This way you don't have to worry about bringing anyone inside for the winter and your fish will grow much bigger ! :) you do not have to worry about feeding the fish over the winter as their metabolisms slow down so much there's no need.

I've done this for two winters now and it's the easiest, most maintenance free way.

[reefgirl189]

Another thing you should consider before digging is ( if you're considering having fish/plants) how deep you are going to make your pond. If you want to keep big fat koi in yours like I do :D then you probably will want to keep them in the pond year long, throughout the winter and all.
I live in northern Ontario and the temperatures get very cold here in the winter. I made my pond 7-8 feet deep so that it only freezes about 3 feet down, and the fish can live underneath the ice. I keep a little heater in there to keep a hole in the ice so harmful gases can escape and don't kill my fish. I also keep the filter falls running all winter for aeration. If you make it deep enough you can also sink your plants to the bottom for the winter. In the spring bring them back up to your shelves and they start growing leaves fast!! This way you don't have to worry about bringing anyone inside for the winter and your fish will grow much bigger ! :) you do not have to worry about feeding the fish over the winter as their metabolisms slow down so much there's no need.

I've done this for two winters now and it's the easiest, most maintenance free way.

This is what I was looking for! How deep does it need to be to overwinter them. We are looking at a 15K to 20K gal total water volume so there's no way to overwinter the fish unless I put a swimming pool in the basement.

The only problem I'm having so far is placement of the pond. I don't have any suitable area with adequate shade and will probably have to build a structure to provide some relief from the sun. We're going to buy some trees but they won't be big enough in time to provide shade for the future pond.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/christinadouma149/IMG_4548.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa293/christinadouma149/IMG_4550.jpg

[Dez]

I have a 24" deep pond in Edmonton and I overwinter my fish in it. There's a pond build journal somewhere on Canreef in the Lounge. Mine's only about 4000 gal. There are many different ways to over winter the fish in a shallower pond. Mine is 33' x 17' with many koi. It is in sun for most of the day and I have clear water. Filtration is key-to create an ecosystem. Tests have shown that it is difficult to grow algae in full sun in aged healthy pond water. Hope this helps. I've been ponding for 7 years now.

[gregzz4]

Dez's pond thread :smile:

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=78410&highlight=dez+pond

[reefgirl189]

Dez's pond thread :smile:

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=78410&highlight=dez+pond

Very well done and looks stunning! Dez, do you find it to be very much maintenance? What do you do to winter them?

[Dez]

I have an air pump in my shed an I cover the pump with a Rubbermaid container and blankets so that the heat of the pump warms the air and have it teed off to two air stones in the pond. I also have 2 heaters which only kick on at 6 degrees Celsius about 2 feet away from the air stones. If it snows, then I'll shovel snow from my patio onto the pond for another layer of insulation.

As far as maintenance, I back flush my filters once every 2 weeks 10 mins. And then I'll empty the skimmer net and wash the brushes at the same time, another 10 mins. In the fall, every day I'll skim the surface of the pond for sea leaves.

[mandyplo]

Hi reefgirl! That property looks awesome for a nice big pond :) if you don't have a lot of shade available just make up for it with shade providing plants (lilies are great for this they get massive and also help protect your fish from birds flying over and sun damage) I have 5 lilies in mine and just one of them covers about about 15 square feet it's just huge the leaves/pads are larger than a frying pan. This one plant alone I'm positive has protected my fish from all the eagles hawks blue herons and kormorans that fly over. Before I acquired this plant I was losing about a fish a week and they would just disappear so I'm assuming it was birds... Since I got this one plant no one has gone missing.
Shade and coverage is not only to prevent algae growth it has many other crucial purposes.
It depends where you live, but I've always been lead to believe that the deeper the pond the better... For many reasons, if it's shallow it's free game for any big bird to jump right in and go fishing. You'll find the temperatures will rise much faster in a more shallow pond, but if it's deeper your fish have an escape from the sun and heat. If you have it only two or so feet deep and you live somewhere as cold as I do, it's going to take a lot more work and energy to keep it from freezing. My pond easily freezes two feet down in the winter, I would need a much more powerful heater or many more heaters to be able to keep my fish in it in the winter. And that would be expensive. It's just easier for me anyways to have it deeper and have no worries of freezing all the way through.
Where abouts do you live reefgirl? And don't worry about shade for now, as long as you plant some trees around it and provide ample plant coverage :)

[intarsiabox]

[QUOTE=reefgirl189;732755]This is what I was looking for! How deep does it need to be to overwinter them. We are looking at a 15K to 20K gal total water volume so there's no way to overwinter the fish unless I put a swimming pool in the basement.

The only problem I'm having so far is placement of the pond. I don't have any suitable area with adequate shade and will probably have to build a structure to provide some relief from the sun. We're going to buy some trees but they won't be big enough in time to provide shade for the future pond.
QUOTE]

As far as placement goes it looks pretty flat and treeless so a 15-20K pond will have lots of evaporation and you will want an auto top off installed. Might want to consider that in your placement plans. I had a much smaller pond than you are planning and it involved topping up with a garden hose for an hour every week because I didn't install an auto top off as I didn't think evaporation would be as much as it was. A depth of 3' is recommended in Alberta for over wintering fish. I had small goldfish over wintered at this depth for three years without doing anything to the pond. Larger fish would probably need an air pump and a small floating heater to keep the gas exchange going in the winter. A pelican ate them all in the 4th year. Netting may also be required as I would think your proximity to Cold Lake would bring in plenty of fish loving fowl. As far as the pond itself goes there is not much to it, just make sure the top of the hole is level all the way around or it will be very noticable when the water is added.

[mandyplo]

Yes, thats another thing, I don't know if this is possible at all for you but we have our sump pump pipe running into our pond (since only fresh cold groundwater goes through our sump pump). This way when the sump pump puts about 5 gallons of water into the pond every hour it keeps the pond topped off, then we built a little run-off area and a creek for the run-off to flow into (to prevent the pond from ever overflowing). Have been doing this for a few years and its worked like a charm, never had any problems.

Here are some pictures Reefgirl:
http://i.imgur.com/5wLMF.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YjAxL.jpg

Here is the giant lily-pad I was talking about, with frying pan-sized leaves.

http://i.imgur.com/k7slb.jpg

Hard to see to the bottom of the pond from a photo, but the water is crystal-clear.

http://i.imgur.com/Z1IEy.jpg

[MMAX]

Here's a link to my pond thread.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=78916

Everything was done by myself, just read and gathered all the information I could on the subject and went for it. On a pond the size you're planning, I would probably hire someone...I made a few mistakes here and there but mostly it's been trouble free.