Its amazing what you can accomplish when you don't spend all your time reading posts on Canreef
I have been working on a project that had been planned for a few months now, the rebuilding of my pond. I figured that since I lost all my fish to a predator last summer, this was the perfect opportunity to do it, plus I got a good deal on some of the equipment when Big Al's closed out back in February.
I started by digging out the old preformed pond and enlarging the hole to increase the capacity a bit. Its not a big pond even yet at about 300 gallons.
I got the Savio surface skimmer with UV filter and the new pump from Big Al's. All the plumbing is done in PVC. I ran a water supply line fronm the house faucet so I don't need to drag out the garden hose to top up. Also put in a float valve to maintain the water level. I ran a second set of power plugs over to where the filter is to power the pumps and UV.
I laid down two layers of the underlay material since there are lots of sandstone bits in the soil, and I don't want one cutting into the 45 mil EPDM liner.The liner is continuous to the top of the falls so there are no seams to potentially fail and leak.
I am using a Rubbermaid brute container for my Bio-filter at the top of the water falls. I had the container on hand, it used to be my RO/DI container. I made the bio-filter according to the directions for the Skippy filter design I found on the web.
I had to go out to the new community nearby to hunt for a few more chunks of sandstone to finish around the pond. I found a huge area where they had been dumping fill material and there were plenty of rocks to pick from. Came home with half a truck load and laid them around the edge to conceal and secure the pond liner.
I planted some new plants to finish up the landscaping and put in some low voltage lights for night time enjoyment. After a few weeks I added a few water plants and some new fish and its looking really good.