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  • Results 1 to 10 of 10

    Thread: Newbie building my first pond!!!!!!!!!!

    1. #1
      tbabbs04 is offline Junior Member
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      Newbie building my first pond!!!!!!!!!!

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      This is my first post on the koiphen forum.. I have been researching quite a bit on here for couple months.

      Today was a great day to finally move some earth!! Here is my plan for this build any suggestions would be greatly appreciated my budget is limited since my

      wife and I are expecting twins ;-) Anyone have thoughts on making ponds safe with young children around??

      My plan is to run a 3inch B/D that is connected to 2 static pre-filter "kent wallace design" the barrels I made are DIY version and will be at the level of the

      pond. I will also be using a Helix pond skimmer and bio-waterfall filter. My goal is to run b/d through the 55 gallon static prefilters and then connect skimmer to

      external pump & then run to my waterfall filter... I live in northern nj so any tips or tricks for winter i'm open to any ideas that might help my build.

      Thanks,

      ~Tim

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    2. #2
      FIT BMX's Avatar
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      Looks like as good start, is that your Terramite? They are a great machine!: D:

      As for safety, put a good fence (3-4' tall) around it, with a spring closer and child proof latch. So this way it will always close behind you!
      The fence will look bad, but in five or six years it will be gone.
      I know someone personally that lost there two year old to there water garden. They had a cover for the pond just because of there child. But they had it removed because they just remodeled there pond, and he was going to reinstall it that weekend. But that one week they had it off was all it took............ His wife had taken there child outside to play, when she realized she forgot her tea. She stepped back inside, and in less than three minutes there two year old had drown.
      It does not take long, so make sure you have a good fence!
      Gallagher.

      "I always put off what I can until tomorrow, because a little part of me says I could be dead by then!"

      "When I die bury me deep, lay my bicycle at my feet, strap a helmet to my head, so I can ride when I'm dead."

      "The artist must possess the courageous soul that dares and defies."
      kate chopin.



    3. #3
      Ramzy's Avatar
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      Welcome to koiphen. Here you will learn a lot.

      Yes a fence or a raised pond, and never leave the twins unattended outside.

    4. #4
      tbabbs04 is offline Junior Member
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      The terramite is a great machine it's my cuz husband machine ... was some really hard ground to dig.

      Thanks for fence idea I never really thought of doing. Sorry to hear about your friend.

    5. #5
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      It is something all ponder's should keep in mind, even if you don't have kids!

      If your cuz ever gets tired of that Terramite setting around, he can keep it at my house!
      Gallagher.

      "I always put off what I can until tomorrow, because a little part of me says I could be dead by then!"

      "When I die bury me deep, lay my bicycle at my feet, strap a helmet to my head, so I can ride when I'm dead."

      "The artist must possess the courageous soul that dares and defies."
      kate chopin.



    6. #6
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      How big will your pond be? Can you explain your filtration a little better? maybe a drawing? Sounds like outside of a prefilter your only planing on a waterfall filter of some type?

    7. #7
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      I'm shooting for 4-5 gallon pond. I will take a picture of the layout for the 2 barrels which will be located at the opposite end from the skimmer of the pond. I was going to mortar in place some type of cement wall which waterfall would be stacked on top of. The 2 barrels have removable lids so I can clean out laundry baskets filled with bacti-twist or sponges from dollar store. I was thinking of filling in filter pit with crushed stone to hold everything in place... The helix waterfall biofilter would be plumbed after external pump which is pulling from both barrels and skimmer. Bird man I really like your Sand/Gravel design but wasn't sure how to tie into my BD. I didn't want to send bottom drain directly to pump that is why I went with static-prefilter design.

    8. #8
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      A prefilter is good, both skimmer and BD should have some kind of prefilter, even if it's just the priming pot/strainer on the pump. S/G filters need to be pump fed so they can be supplied by the the BD pump or the skimmer pump. A pair of them will easily filter a 5000 gallon pond and will provide both mech and bio filtration.

    9. #9
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      Name:  barrel 1.jpg
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      Here is a picture of the barrels for prefilter... I was going to construct some type of wall in front of them and then back fill everything w. stone.
      If I were to put in a 3rd barrel that was s/g design were would I tie that into or would you recommend going with a different layout for b/d.
      The skimmer has some filtering ability with it's design it flows through floating weir & matala rounds. I was going to have waterfall hide all my plumbing and set my sequence pump w/ priming pot below ground. The B/D and bio-waterfall with both be aerated.

    10. #10
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      birdman i will be using a strainer pot before pump. would you recommend using 2 s/g filter instead of the 2 static prefilter??? or would you just run b/d right to primer pot and then tie in 1-2 sand gravel filters. I really only need mechanical filtration because waterfall will provide bio filtration.
      Do you think this design will work ok for prefilter.... I wasnt sure where to put air pump and external pump. I was going to dig out
      a small chamber behind pond after really looking at the hole I think pond will be way less volume more like 2-3k gallons ;-)

      Thanks for advice...

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