Thread: Need a bigger pond!

Pond is currently sat empty ready for a refurb and complete overhaul of the filtration, I’ve recently been offered some nice fish around the 60cm mark from someone looking to close their pond down, I’ve got something like 1600 gallons and wanting to increase the volume, the garage window in the pic is coming out and the plan is raise the pond walls by 300mm giving me another 300 or so gallon moving the viewing glass up by the same measure or getting a bigger piece of glass, I could possibly extend up the garden but I’d only be able to hand dig it and probably only get 3’ down before I hit stone, so very difficult to calculate how much I’d gain gallons wise plus I’m looking to move the filtration from out of the garage to the top of the garden somehow as I’ve now got kitchen appliances that need to go in the garage, washing machine etc
any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated
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Had a bit of a rethink, my initial idea of extending the pond upwards is a lot of grief to gain 350 gallons and really it’s at the right height to see the fish when we’re sat on the decking as it is, so I’m now thinking of making it longer and gaining a fair bit more water, the downside is I won’t get down to the bottom of the existing pond by hand, there’s maybe 3ft before you hit stone, not bad to get out first off but then it’s get solid so it’s pot luck what depth I’d get down to as the bed rock goes up n down here, I might get lucky then again I might not, so questions are if I end up with what would be a shallower end could I slope the base towards my bottom drain and have my inlets this end to hopefully flush any waste down to the drain? Don’t know wether that would work or not, alternatively I could build a pond garden/bog filter a block higher than the pond and have the water from that feed into my pond, perhaps an easier job but could I then calculate the water in the garden, in with the pond to give a total volume for stocking the number and size of fish I can keep?
I’ve attached a pic of my pond as it was with water still in it, I’ve since got rid of the cherry that’s top end of the pond and put a 6x4 shed up with a view to using as a filter house but it takes a lot of room up without serving any great purpose because there’s not much that will fit in it filter wise.
a quick calculation, if I come up the garden another 2mtrs at 1mtr deep I gain over 1,000 gallons of water
if anyone’s got any ideas I’d be glad to hear them
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Both ideas would work well. For big fish, I'd say you need the surface area so even if it's shallower, an extension would be ideal.

Looks like you'd still have a decent foot print for an extension and a Filter pit at the same depth. Then all you'd need is a little lean to roof over it.

Originally Posted by Alburglar

Both ideas would work well. For big fish, I'd say you need the surface area so even if it's shallower, an extension would be ideal.

Looks like you'd still have a decent foot print for an extension and a Filter pit at the same depth. Then all you'd need is a little lean to roof over it.

It’s not as big as it looks above the pond, for instance if I put a pit in to house a 220 I’d only be able to extend the pond a couple of foot and not gain a deal.
think realistically I’m going to have to bite the bullet and house the filtration in the garage, maybe putting some ventilation in to keep it dry in there.
im really leaning towards the pond garden veggie filter idea but can’t find any info on the construction side of things, ideal depth, how much flow etc

I visited a pond the other day and he had his bakki shower weir exiting into veg filter, which was probably only a couple of feet deep. The plants hid the bakki shower and the water was crystal clear. Worked well.

Having spent four years battling with a concrete box full of water and never once getting the water right or the fish happy, if I could turn back the clock I’d have built something like this setup in the link, makes all the sense in the world to me now but you live n learn.
now revamping and trying to put right all the mistakes I made in building the pond and the filtration I attempted to use which was never going to be anywhere big enough for a pond with koi in, not to mention having no plants at all in the system.