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Journal Pond on a slope

Alex J said:
Looking really good, think you are doing a fantastic job, especially as you are doing it all your self. As has been said, a lovely view across the countryside too, reminds me of the Tyne valley where i used to live many years ago. keep up the good work:)
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It is the Tyne Valley!!
 
AndyMcD said:
Have you thought about the style of garden? Have you considered a Japanese Dry Waterfall (Google search), to extend up the garden higher than your pump may reach?

This website maybe interesting http://www.myjapanesegarden.com
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Thanks Andy
I did like some of the photos I've found but not sure the neatness will be in keeping with the garden :joyful:
Once I've rearranged some topsoil piles I'm hoping to have more of an idea as to my pond layout design. Essentially I'm thinking of a small upper pond near the stone wall dropping into a little water channel (can't really called it a stream!) that feeds into a larger pond. Because of the steepness of the slope I am planning on a retaining at the bottom section of this larger pond. I'll be sure to keep you all posted as I should have more specific questions about what I need regarding the actual ponds by then ...but thanks for all your kind words and support :)
 
Also, I think a Japanese style waterfall garden may add quite a lot in terms of material cost and weight on the slope (particularly if lots of big rocks).
 
Hi guys (and lasses), a bit of an update;

I've now finished the walls at the front, moving earth etc and am thinking about the pond and stream. This is where you come in. In the past I have given you some dimensions but can now confirm the measurements.

The distance between the upper and lower (main pond) is 5m. The height (pond surface to pond surface) is 1.5m
The main pond dimensions I'm thinking of going for is a pre-formed pond of;
At it's widest point - 2.46m, 1250 litres
Width - 1.57m, depth 61 cms ...the pink outline in the photo shows you the location

I'm thinking of going for a liner in the upper pond and the stream to link them both.

What pumps would you recommend for the specs I have given?
It's just going to be a wildlife pond - do I need a filter too, or do pumps and filters come together as one?
Is there anything else I'm forgetting?
Appreciate all your advice

(The pallets are going to be a hibernatular - a bug hotel!)

Front Pond1.jpg
Front Pond2.jpg
 
Hi Augusta see you have put a lot of effort into your great project.
Like the idea of the upper pond stream build for your small pond.
What do you mean by wild life. Is it having fish inside the pond. If so
I would have a filter for the fish, also pump. You need to work out head hight From pump to
Upper pond to lower pond and stream .work out how much friction loss. Because of swept bends
And stuff like this also how many litres your filter can run with the pump. I e. You don't want it to run dry. Or the opposite
Over flow. You can put ball or slide valves on pipe work to juggle the flow rate. But that will work the pump harder.
Are you having pump in the pond or dry pump. If you google. You can get pumps at any fish selling places.
And you can buy filters of all types. I have a large koi pond. So all my pond gear is bought at koi sights.
Rule of thumb for buying gear. Is work out gallonage or litres. What pond is going to hold.thats total upper as well. And pipes and filter. Then what ever the figure comes to then DOUBLE IT. Hope this helps all the best Fred.
 
Thanks for the reply Fred.
When I say wildlife I mean no fish. Just for frogs/newts/birds etc.
So would I need a filter or do the plants I put in keep the water clear "Flow rate, friction loss" oohh....starting to get complicated now! LOL
 
I would nt have thought you would need a filter. For a wildlife environment. Only if it starts to smell.
And say make your upper pond a type of filter. Still wild life.. But plants and gravle. And stuff like that. There is people on here who have wild life ponds. Maybe they can help more on this one. My game is mechanical filteration with bio.
For koi carp keeping. You have a beautiful garden there mate. Great views and the pond come stream will enhance it even more. But you will need a pump to move the water around. You won.t need one as large now your not filtering.
In my old pond I had 3 time pumps 2x filters . But one of them was a pump with uv inside. That looked after the green water side of things and grew it s own bio inside. Once the good bio starts breeding they will help clean the pond. But it takes time. All the best Fred
 
here is a web site whereb you can buy lots of stuff. cheaper the most places
http://www.pondkeeper.co.uk/oase-aquamax-classic-2500-pond-pump/p2123
if you look on there mate there are differant pumps. what i meant by friction loss when you have bends in hard piping you lose some
pressure. and also when you are running the water along way you also lose pressure. so in the pond world they call it friction loss. most
plumbers woorth there salt understand what it mean s. so just say a 5000 lph goes through pipes with bends in them IE a 45 bend or 90 bends the more
you have the more you lose. so say on my pond i have a 10000lph pump it now say becomes a 8000lph pump. so i always say buy double size everything that way your covering you backside hope this helps, all the best fred
 
frederick thompson said:
here is a web site whereb you can buy lots of stuff. cheaper the most places
http://www.pondkeeper.co.uk/oase-aquamax-classic-2500-pond-pump/p2123
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Are you sure they are cheaper? :D
That place say £99.99 for that Oase classic 2500 pump. That sounds good. :)
However, use of a search engine and at least 3 more places are selling the same pump for the same price Click here :(
Oh and not to mention that place charge £4.99 delivery (Two of the ones google lists are free shipping) which means that place costs more. :(
 
Haha Adah boy. all I was doing was giving you an example of a pond site. and it's good you look else where. so do I. and you don't t nessaseraly want that pump. just showing example. hello Martin long time no see. just trying to help the bloke out. site was as an example.
 
Thanks Fred,
I look forward to hearing from members who have wildlife ponds themselves. I did check out the website you suggested for the pump ....what does
Max Flow at 1m head: 1200 lph actually mean = think 'Ponds for Dummies' in your reply lol
 
Augusta said:
Thanks Fred,
I look forward to hearing from members who have wildlife ponds themselves. I did check out the website you suggested for the pump ....what does
Max Flow at 1m head: 1200 lph actually mean = think 'Ponds for Dummies' in your reply lol
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The way I read it is that with a 1m lift of the water you get 1200lph, so the pump will push far more water if it didn't have to push it as high. Most pumps tell you on the side how much the output drops with increasing head (vertical height difference).
Somewhere in the back of my brain I have that for a decent waterfall you need about 50gph per inch of width. For slower trickling water you could get away with less. I wouldn't go too deep or two fast with the stream though as birds love drinking from the shallow water.

If I were you, even though you are going for a wildlife pond, I would have some sort of filter on there. It could just be a box with some filter sponges but with moving water you tend to stir up detritus (which would settle in a still pool). You can hide it with plants or rocks and it would work with Fred upper plant filtering pond. You can partially Bury it in the ground and just have the output trickle into the pond.
 
in my opinion mort is spot on . nice one mort here is a rough guide..........
On every single water pump, flow rate and pump head are the two most important specifications. Flow rate is how much water can be moved in time period without any restriction. This value is usually given in gallons per hour (GPH), liters per hour (LPH). A benchmarking procedure would be simply to see how much water can be moved from one tank to another in a hour. Head is how high or hard water can be pushed at full load. This value is usually given in feet or meters. A bench marking test would be to see high the pump can push water in a thin vertical tube.

Its always more worthwhile to have more "feet of head" in reference to a pumps capabilities. Flow rate will follow if you've got good head pressure.

Feet of Head is a measurement of pressure though.....

It takes 0.433psi to lift a column of water 1 foot. That means 3 feet of head = 1.299psi

All pumps list their pump rate but not all pumps list their head. Why? Flow rate is usually a nice big number... but is an absolutely useless value without a head value. You will never use a pump in a watercooling loop without any restriction. Waterblocks and tubing bends all create restriction. For example, a pump lists its pump rate at 1000GPH but has only 1ft of head. Any type of restriction would seriously drop the actually flow rate. If there is enough restriction, the pump may not actually move any water. While the pump can push the water very fast, it simply cannot push the water hard enough.

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A easy way to think of "Head" is to think of it as pressure....Which it's not,but the higher the head the more easily a pump can can push more water through the loop
hope this helps you to understand a little better. so GPH is gallons an hour and LPH is Liters per Hour.

hope this gives you an idea how a pump is calculated all the best fred
i copied and pasted this from a pump site.
oh and by the way i would never think of people as dummies who want to be helped. where all here to help each other. and looking at your build so far. your good at other thing s we all have to learn sometime on differant subjects all the best fred
 
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Not mentioned above is the fact that there are different types of pumps. For a filter (as an example) you will need a pump that can handle solids (So it can pump the solids into the filter)
Likewise a pump with a fine mesh over the inlet is of little use if it will need cleaning every day, but yet the same type of pump would be great to operate a fountain.
You can also use "sump pumps" which will pretty much do almost anything............at a cost, they often have high energy consumption rates which is ok to empty say a basement after a flood, but too expensive to run all the time.

You should also choose a bigger capacity of pump than you calculate, this is simply because you can turn the flow rate of a big pump down, you can't turn the flow rate of a small pump up.

I would also suggest that you NEVER bury a normal pond filter unless it is a pressurised one which is designed to be buried. Reason being if there is even a slight fluctuation the water will over flow via the filter.
 
I'm assuming the "Pink" outline is the pond?
It is always beneficial to put in a concrete collar around the pond. (Like a small house building footing, about 3" deep 12" wide.
It really is worth the extra effort.
1) It gives you a fixed edge to work to when digging out
2) the edge doesn't crumble away
3) It makes levelling on a slope much easier
4) It will hold back the bank in this case.

5) If you set it into the ground say by 6" & your using a liner you can bring the liner up the pond sides across the collar then up again to soil level, then cover the collar area of liner with soil ,grass, rocks etc. No liner then is visible as water level rises & falls for a much more natural pond.

6) Hope that all makes sense!!

7) Water levels fluctuate a lot if you turn the fall on & off, it is surprising how much water is tied up in a water fall.
8) Water has an uncanny knack of finding ways to escape so line your waterfall at least twice as wide as the water you see to collect any wayward water.
 
good advice kipper. Like the bit about the collar. Good advice on the waterfall too.

Edited by: LondonDragon
 
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