Novembergrl: I'll try to answer some of your questions. I have an 1100 gallon pond, deeper than yours but things should be similar except I'm in a lot colder zone than you. I suggest you get yourself a skippy or some other similar upflow filter. I use a 600 gallon per hour submersible pump. The pump is in a large plastic flower pot weighted with pieces of half brick so it sinks and stays down. I have a loop of black nylon cord through a cork for a handle that I use a stick with a hook to move it in the pond. I have similar handles on all my plant pots. I use those laundry bags to protect delicates stuffed with nylon scrubbies as the prefilter. By putting some 1-2 inch stones in the bags with the scrubbies, you can arrange them so that you can stuff them tight around the pot so that they serve as the prefilter. My pond starts in mid April and is taken down early November. I have to clean the pre-filter about 4 times in that period. When I first start the pond, I get the pea soup green algae bloom. My biofilter starts to work on it in about 2 weeks after which my water is clear. I get string algae but the cure for that is to have lots of other plants that are growing. I ensure they grow by giving them iron supplement which also contains some other trace nutrients they need. If the plants are growing properly, you should not have a big problem with string algae. I do have goldfish and yes, I get visits from Mr. and Mrs. Great Blue Heron sometimes. I do lose some fish but the depth of the pond makes it hard for them to take more than 1 or 2 and then the fish are scared and stay deep. They reproduce fast so I have no need to buy more. I also have 10-20 rosy reds which you might consider having as they are more colorful than mosquito fish. Activated carbon and charcoal are the same thing. A rule of thumb is hour pump should pump 50% to 200% of the volume of your pond per hour so a 600 gallon/hour for your pond should be good. You should be able to put a skippy behind your waterfall arranged so it feeds the waterfall. 14" is not very deep. You might consider digging the center of your pond down to 2' or so to give the fish more hiding places and also give your pump a deeper place to sit.

Hi bk, I wrote because I pondered doing the same thing for a couple of years before I learned enough to know better for what I wanted. There is not enough information to really help, but some things you need to be aware of are: *Your soil type: some silts are known for "self piping". That means water will find it's way out of/around anything without an impermeable liner.(I happen to have such a soil) *Run off is always uncontrolled, so you need to understand that water will try to get under/around the start of your collection point. There is really no way to avoid this, and it will require regular maintenance just like a roadside culvert. The water eats around the perimeters and it eventually has to be rebuilt. A hard and deep footer delays the onset of the erosion which will still continue, and be more severe with greater amounts of water. *Runoff is also fraught with quality issues because it is uncontrolled. You should not try to keep any expensive fish. *If you don't line the vessel (pond), you can not effectively clean it. If you are concerned about build up of water below the liner, put a drain tile below the vessel, and weight on the liner such as stone (and water of course!). *Silt coming down the drainage may be the toughest issue as you do not know how much, when, or what it contains. Washing the liner will fix the silt in pond area, but the pond will never achieve a balance. (And might not anyway due to the other charactaristics of runoff.) *It sounds like you are tampering with a natural drainage that may be regulated. One day you may be told to remove all your work. I suggest you check into this further before you start. If I "had" to do this, would go with the liner and the drain tile below the pond, capped on the upside beyond the edge of the vessel, and before the point of capture by several feet. The tile would be set in a trench lined with geotextile, and drain rock around the pipe. I would also set a footer for the collection point to hold back the dirt and guide the water to a channel onto the pond liner, with the liner coming up from the pond and over the edge of the footer as a start point/collection point. BUT-If I wanted a pond, I would build it independently of the drainage, and route the drainage around/under it with piping if that's where it "had" to be. Otherwise, I would build it on higher ground, off the drainage route entirely, and enjoy an all around, more stable situation in my pond! Using the drainage seems like a good idea at first, but the more you look into it, the less appealing it becomes if you in fact want a pond. If you really don;t want a pond, but just a place for frogs to congregate in your drainage, it can be made to work, it will just be constant physical maintenence and never be stable. -TT

Well, if you are going to bid him out, Please allow him to spray paint the plan on the yard first. That way you are more likely to get Apples to Apples bids. I think silent1pa might have forgotten the materials costs, or he might know more than he lets on ;-). Current labor rates for ponds in St Lou are between $50-80/manhour. Some people aren't good draftsmen, and I prefer that people/clients SEE the shape and size of the pond ON their yard. AND I would pay the first guy for the visit. Comparing prices on different ideas is useless and unfair. IF the materials costs vary by more than 10% (Including taxes and DELIVERY), then discuss that with the bidders. Each ton of rock I buy for a client requires at least 1 hour of labor to get the right rock. And in general it requires 2 hrs labor cost to have it delivered. It takes a Minimum of 1 manhour to put that rock in place from your curb. I'm currently doing a job where the clients are pinching pennies, and hiring cheap labor. I'm fine with that. Usually the client does not want to spend an afternoon shopping for rocks, arranging delivery, buying liner etc. ALL of that takes time. And time costs money. Just trying to explain what goes into a Professional Pond estimate. YMMV Greg

Hi Daniel, I think you are doing okay. It is a good thing to set things out and experiment before finally putting all in place permanantly. The only thing I would say is make it as big as you think you will want it, then increase it !! as no matter how much we think it is right we always want another bigger pond. I am on to my fourth now. I started with a tiny preformed kidneybowl shape and now have a 17ft by 12ft pond. (And I would like it bigger still but have stopped myself) I think the idea of your bricks hiding the liner so making it able to be a higher water level is an excellent idea. How will you actually get the bricks to seal onto the liner? I know that some people cut their liners and then realise that it is too short and others sometimes don't get the levels straight so have a lot of liner showing in places, which I think looks awfull. I will keep looking to see how you get on and wish you the best. The construction of my fourth pond is on my website if you want to take a look at it. I will link the site below. Alison Here is a link that might be useful: Alisons pond and garden