A Cunning Plan!

As previously detailed, when building a pond you not only have to take into consideration the actual build (materials that form the actual base and wall structure), but you also have to design and plan your filtration system at the same time, as both elements go hand in hand together. With so many factors to inwardly digest not to mention all the different pieces of equipment that are available these days, planning a pond & filter system is enough to give any perspective Koi keeper nightmares!

After many, many hours of deliberation (and then some), a cunning plan has finally emerged from the depths of pond planning despair ........

After considering a multitude of options, variances and connotations, my plan was finally revealed to a fellow Koi keeper who'd had previous pond designing/building experience. As there's no right or wrong way to building ponds or designing filter systems (although i will add here that there's plenty that can actually go wrong and there's certainly plenty of Do's and Dont's), I simply wanted to ascertain if they thought my plan was "do-able". After some further deliberation over a pint of cider (which I find always aids the thought process and gets those creative juices flowing - or was that the thought of another pint?), we decided to tweak the original plan and therefore came up with version 3 patch 1.2 or now abbreviated to v3.1.2.

v3.1.2

• Aerated bottom drain through 4 inch pipe to Vortex.
• From Vortex to Nexus 200
• From Nexus 200 to dry pump
• From dry pump to UV
• From UV the pipework then splits into two
• One branch leading to Fluid Bed
• The second branch returned direct to pond via tangible return
• From Fluid Bed return to pond via tangible return.

• Wall mounted skimmer to dry pump
• From dry pump to Multicyclone (potentially)
• From Multicyclone return to header pond.

• Header pond to have 2 inch bottom drain to aid cleaning.

The next part of the plan is to set some time aside to re-take measurements out in the garden again in order to hopefully finalise the overall shape and dimensions of the pond, which will then allow the calculation of pond volume etc. This will also then allow us to contact companies for quotes on the costs involved either getting the pond fibre glassed or having a box welded liner produced.