Pond design

[MitchM]

I find this to be a good pond forum:

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 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]

Originally Posted by 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 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.

[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.