General ?'s - Pond Overflow

15 years ago

Thanks to all who give suggestions / answers. I am new to the site and looking for a little information. I have to relocate a pond and am going to increase the size. I have had my pond for about 3 years now and these are some issues that I have come across. I will post them separately.

2 Â Pond Overflow. When we get a heavy rain, the water level in the pond overflows and if the water sits there too long, then the rocks at the edge tend to sink and the edges collapse some. Should I put in some type of water overflow? I know the new location is not in the way of the drainage, but I don't want to run in to the same problems if it somehow collects water.

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Comments (6)

horton
15 years ago
If it is a concern, then by all means allow for a low point where the water can drain out safely.
"Horton"
tomkaren
15 years ago
My skimmer had an outlet built in for an overflow line. We ran a pipe into a pit filled with stones and gravel,coverd with weed block then dirt. Came in handy recently when TS Fay gave us a quick 8 inches of rain.
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When I rebuilt my pond, I could not convince my hubby to put in a real bottom drain. He had a very bad knee, has since had it re-placed. But due to that fact he did it the easiest way for him. So I tried the retro that you are talking about with the inverted disk. I kept having my fish sucked up it and finding them dead in the primer basket of the pump. I tried several things to try to fix this. Nothing worked. Until I decided to use a long peice of the pipe across the bottom of the pond. We drilled 1 inch holes through the pipe spaced about 6 inches apart. Alternating top to bottom and side to side. and attached to the pipe coming up out of the pond with an elbow. This is a 2 inch pvc pipe. The draw is evened out over the length of the pipe and makes it less strong to pull any fish into it. Plus they are too big. This goes up through the bog filter which is a large poly tank filled with a ton of gravel before it overflows back into the pond. I get all kinds of debrie and even pea gravel that the fish have rooted out of the plant baskets and pieces of anacharis in the primer basket of the pump. I have to empty this basket at least weekly. It is probably not the best or most attractive solution, but I am pleased with it. Only thing is I should have used black pipe, because the white still is visible against the black liner. But when the plants are covering the pond in the summer it is not as visible. Glenda
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bunik
15 years ago
I designed my pond so that when the pond hits a certain level from rain it drains directly into my cattail bog. As in the post above, I also used cinder blocks to separate. I have pictures of my bog and pond on my pond/yard blog see link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Open to the Sky
lsst
15 years ago
I did a pipe boot through the liner with a 2 inch pipe for an overflow. It has worked very well.
garyfla_gw
15 years ago
Hi
I got into ponding via the backdoor so to speak lol, The original purpose of the outdoor pond was to collect rainwater for my aquariums. I could build a 5x10 pool for about the same cost as a couple of rainbarrels, Rainwater is directed by roof gutters underground so I wouldn't have to step over them ,to the pool . Worked great until leaves collected in the pipe . So put in a filter system. That stopped that problem. Built the pool above ground so to avoid groundwater flowing in.Of course who can have a "pond" without stocking it ??lol
I grosssly underestimated how much rainwater came off the roof during a rain lol During one exceptional rain had fish as much as three doors away.lol.Washed out about half the plants. So put on a valve to cut the water in half. Then the drought hit lol Had to add tap water which of course defeated the purpose of the system in the first place.
One thing remains great through the years. I have a sel cleaning pool except of course I have to have screen to keep the fish in.
Two years ago I add a 150 gallon aquarium to the system
so would also have a self cleaning aquarium.. Noted that even during aan average rain more than 700 gallons of water was exchanged within about an hour.. Perferated pipe solved that problem and overflow from the aquarium is controlled via a standpipe. Drought continued lol. Got a wild idea of
heating the pool through winter and allow it to flow via pipe through the shadehouse. I would have a heated GH at last lol. Worked great until temps hit 30's .Had to add bubble wrap to pool.stop the circulation and waterfall. So air temps fell to ambient anyway. So I can keep the pool at any temp through winter at tropical temps but as a radiant heat source it sucks lol.
I still have a built in watering system for the shadehouse with a semi hydropnic system so not a total loss I'm thinking lol
About two weeks ago the aquarium started a slow leak. Since it's built into the wall fixing it will be almost impossible without destroying everything. At this point I'm thinking paludarium or if totally wrong about the seriousness of the leak, terrarium lol. Tropical fish will go into the heated pool.
Good luck with your "overflow" lol gary

General ?'s - Pond Overflow

Comments (6)

horton

tomkaren

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