Thread: New/ old pond installation

Good evening all,

I have posted some stuff back in 2022 under my original user name Jazzagrm, but I can't seem to get back into that so I'm starting another post, hope that's OK ??

The pond is one that we inherited when we moved house but it was already overgrown and in a bad state of repair but is a decent size when full, around 13-14000lts.

The original intention was to get it back to it's former glory but that's proved harder than I thought for various reasons.

I'm now looking into expanding the existing- but leaking pond. I'll try and get the old photos back up so you can see what we've got.

I've tried patches to repair the leaks over the last couple of years without success so now is the time to change things for the better,

I managed to pick up a Kockney Koi 20000ltr box filter for free to replace an older, smaller one, and have an Aqua max Eco premium 20000 pump that have been running things for the last 2 years, I know the box filter is maybe not the best way to go but it fitted at the time.

The pond has currently around 15 small goldfish residing in it.

The plan is to increase the size of the pond to a maximum of somewhere around 40-50000ltrs, which will still fit in the footprint of where the pond is now.

So I'm looking into what I need to make this work, preferably re-using the Kockney Koi filter for part of the filtration if possible and also re-using the pump.

As I will be starting from scratch, fitting a bottom drain rather than having a pump in the pond would be doable as I think that's the best way to go ?.

As you might have guessed, I am kinda new to pond keeping, I used to keep tropical fish so understand the basics but I also understand this is on a much bigger scale.

Once I get some more photo's I put them up.

Many thanks

50,000 lrts 11k gal is big !! I have 9000 (2kgal ) and rum a 20,000 pump , if that's a true voloum you would want 2 drums 2 30,000 pumps use the 20,000 pump on a skimmer line to another filter . Unless am doing my maths all wrong !!!!



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It’s a big piece of water, I’d check your maths because I’m surprised you are maintaining the same footprint with such an increase?

I’m at 60k litres and run 2 burtons BD700 drums, 2 bio boxes each one 6ft long and 3ft wide with in excess of 1,400 litres of K1 plus 2 Momotaro Bakki showers, pump wise I have 4 EA 20k varios and 2 30k for the shower, 4 bottom drains but wish I had 6. In other words 50k will need a load of kit!

Fluke treatment and the likes may not sound important but at 50,000 and say it takes 3 chemical hits to get rid that outlay is gunna be massive , just to bare in mind going forward for running costs

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It's all about budget and life to me mate . Personally 5 to 6 k gal is a big nice pond easy enough to maintain if done right with the right filters ect . I have 2kgal as i have a tiny garden and it still takes 1/4 of the garden up not including the filter bay which is a BIG consideration as dj just said his filter bay footprint will be large than my pond and filter bay together. These drums pumps pipework ect aint small the 4inch ball valves are a canny size alone



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so to recap,
We have a fairly large garden and even extending the pond won't take up any extra space so that's not a concern, the filter setup can go where it is behind the bushes to the left.
The setup, filter pumps etc, hopefully you only do once plus maintenance and replacement parts etc, but the costs of the setup will be more, the larger the pond
Medication will be an ongoing theme, again larger pond = more costs.
Then there's the dreaded electricity running costs, this bit is probably the most concerning

As you say, I don't want it to take over my life but getting the balance right is difficult, I guess looking at the space we've got has made me think go large so maybe somewhere in between what we have and the extreme size might be the way to go.

If I were to keep the pond to a maximum of 30000 litres what kind of equipment would I need to run it efficiently.

I think given my starting point, a 'simple as possible' setup for the filter etc would be the best way to go, the dig out and reshaping is not an issue

To minimise the volume I could keep the depth down to say 1.2m, except for where the drain is.