Teach me about backyard ponds....

[Audi0s]

Well the house has been great so far, luckily Ive been busy at work so I dont have too much time to dwell on the fact I dont have a crazy reef tank to stare at. Steph mentioned something about a pond, and it got the gears working in my head, nice pond/patio. My father dropped off leftover pavers, so Id like to build the patio around the pond. Im considering the idea of tucking it in a small corner near the foundation/basement doors, but I wonder how close I want something like 2-500 gallons near the foundation. The pump and wiring can all be hidden and run right into the basement. The other option is putting it on the other side of the planned patio, but the back of the waterfall etc would be exposed to the yard behind it. Not neat. I know tough to visualize without pics but just starting to get the ball going on this. Thanks in advance
John

 

[kschweer]

If you get pictures and some plans/ideas let me know. I know a good amount about installing ponds. I'd be happy to give you some advice

 

[MadReefer]

Watching this thread as maybe I can learn something too. I have a 160g preformed pond that I can never keep clean.

 

[AJ1080]

First things first,

What are you planning to keep in it? Gold Fish or Koi?

That will help determine the size of the pond you are going to need.
Electrical requirements are something else you will need to take into consideration. You may be able to hide all the stuff in the basement but you may have to take the winters into consideration when you will need some sort of device to keep a hole in the ice to allow oxygen into the water. You could probably run an extension but its hard to tell without seeing where the pong will be placed and how everything will be hidden.

Depending on what type of water fall you are going to put in you may be able to cover up the back of it. I have a small prebuilt waterfall with slate rockrunning up the back to cover the boxes up. If you going with all pavers that may not work for you.

In terms of how close you want it to the foundation? I would keep it atleast 5 feet away. I know in the summer some of the storms has caused mine to almost over flow and I dont need that much extra water running down my foundation. Thats just my personal opinion.

I vote for some pictures so we can see what your working with

 

[The_Codfather]

Well the house has been great so far, luckily Ive been busy at work so I dont have too much time to dwell on the fact I dont have a crazy reef tank to stare at. Steph mentioned something about a pond, and it got the gears working in my head, nice pond/patio. My father dropped off leftover pavers, so Id like to build the patio around the pond. Im considering the idea of tucking it in a small corner near the foundation/basement doors, but I wonder how close I want something like 2-500 gallons near the foundation. The pump and wiring can all be hidden and run right into the basement. The other option is putting it on the other side of the planned patio, but the back of the waterfall etc would be exposed to the yard behind it. Not neat. I know tough to visualize without pics but just starting to get the ball going on this. Thanks in advance
John

PM sent

 

[Lostinthedark]

I built this about 6 feet away from my foundation. 2 feet deep and maybe another foot higher then ground level so it wouldn't be a trip hazard.

 

[reefsandrotts]

The best advise I can give is to check out aquascapes website to get an idea of the type of pond you may want,
you can also see if they have a parade of ponds in your area to see what others have done with their ponds.
If your using a preform waterfall and dont want to see the back of it I would suggest building a wall behind it either using dry stack stone or wall block like the
grinnel momouth block and plant items to either soften the wall or hide the all together.
One think I will tell you is ponds are like reef tanks,you get what you pay for,if you need an installer let me know I can put you in touch with one.

 

[adesimone1]

We put a large pond in our backyard last summer it is 12'x10'x28". It was dug out by Anthony and myself and a little
rototiller. Anthony did most of it. The liner is a 60'x20' billboard sign triple folded. We have a waterfall. We have 3 koi and 7 xxl goldfish plus babies. Our pond runs all year long including the waterfall. We are looking forward to showing it off at our May meeting

 

[kschweer]

20'x60' liner that's one expensive piece of rubber.

 

[adesimone1]

You wouldn't believe how much we paid if I told you

 

[howze01]

Hey John! I just helped someone with their pond yesterday. Tore it down, cleaned it and redid it. I used to have a couple that I set up and serviced when I was doing aquarium servicing. Granted it was a pretty long time ago but I would imagine it all pretty much still applies. If you need any help with anything lt me know.

Like AJ said a five foot buffer or so should be fine. You can also fill in around the sides of the pond (not directly, a foot or so away) with some gravel so it drains there instead of at your foundation. Bigger is better too. Make sure you'll have some space around it for some landscaping too.

 

[kschweer]

I know exactly what it cost...lol. I build ponds. Sounds like you have a pretty nice pond there

 

[adesimone1]

How does 60.00 sound

 

[kschweer]

Sounds like it fell off the back of a truck

 

[adesimone1]

It's billboard the guy we bought from had 2 and only needed 1 so we got a good deal

 

[kschweer]

That's pretty cool. I don't think I ever heard of that. So billboards are rubber?

 

[adesimone1]

No they are similar to a tarp but they don't leak we tripled ours up just in case. The one side is the actual billboard for Roth institute and the other side is black. Works perfectly you can buy them online. We were lucky to find one for sale on Craigslist.

 

[kschweer]

That's pretty cool. I just cleaned a pond today that we didn't install that was that kind of material.

 

[Audi0s]

Thanks for the quick replies everyone. I was planning on doing Goldfish, I dont think Ill have the room to do a Koi pond, although it would be nice. Ill take a few pictures of where Im planning on putting it to give everyone a better idea. I definitely want a waterfall, love the sound of running water. Costs are already adding up to a reef tank status, but of course you cant cheap out. How long does it take to set up and cycle? How warm is the water in winter?
Adesimone did you just search billboard on craigslist? And did you put a liner over the bilboard, using the billboard as more of a form?

 

[Audi0s]

Lostinthedark has the size Im thinking about. How many gallons?