I never thought fish had any "feelings" until I had a pond and saw for myself. It might not be the same way we "feel," but they certainly seem to experience some sort of excitement, and sometimes it really DOES look like they're having fun to me. Sure makes it a lot harder for this old fisherman to go fishing, now (I think I've been ONCE since I put in my bigger pond, and that was just an hour or so off a dock). Thanks for the story, Bonz! Jeff

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 Joanne: Here's a suggestion. Are you able to use those big gray construction blocks to line the hole? You can use long rebar in the blocks for reinforcement till you get the size you want, then backfill the block holes with soil. You can even step the construction blocks to give you shelves if that's what you want. You don't need to go to the top of the hole with the blocks. Once the blocks lining the hole are the size you want lay the liner over them (be sure liner is larger than the hole and you use an underlayer so the blocks don't tear it). Once you lay the liner over the top layer of blocks, lay a layer of flat stones/rocks on top of that, then fold the liner back over the 1st layer of rocks. Add another layer of rocks then backfill around the construction blocks. This may even give you a raised pond edge to avoid overflow into the pond while hiding the liner. You can backfill up to the edge to give it a sloping effect. Now you can plant flowers in the backfill. Just an idea you may want to consider. This way you won't have to wait till next year. Hope this helps. Good luck no matter what you decide! Jenny

Thanks everyone. rferg my sc measures 42" square inside dimensions, 42" deep in the center but the bottom is "coned" to the centre--a foot up from the bottom. It holds 300 gals metered but that is to max full on my pond which is actually 6 inches down from the top edge of the sc. This is only because I set the savio skimmer too low--if it was set higher I could fill my pond more. Pond is 2500 gals metered max full. Pump is Sequel 4250GPH. The sc draws from a retrofit bd, (over the liner) 4" line reduced to 3" just after going through the pond wall. Reduced as 3" gate valves are cheaper. My pump draws from both the skimmer and sc. When both are running I think they balance out. If I run only the sc it draws down too quickly--might get air in pump. I think this is because my bd is not sitting down tight on the liner and maybe because the valve on the outside of the chamber (before the pump) is leaking. There's not alot of flow rate/loss on the out of the pump as is 2 lines each 2". If I remember correctly from Mikes calculations my flow at the waterfalls is about 3600 GPH with head/friction loss but that's split between the two falls. My flow on waterfalls is less than I'd like because I have two fairly large falls. I'll take a picture and post of just running one fall. Because the sc valve is leaking and I have my old Sequence pump that works but has a bent shaft so leaks when you first start it up and flow is reduced a little on it that I'm thinking of switching the plumbing out next spring and run the two pumps--one on the skimmer and one on the sc.Oh and I want one of those Aquaart retrofit bd as are supposed to be the best for over the liner.Long story short--when looking at pumps look at what flow you want on your waterfall. It's easy to valve the flow down on the outside (can't reduce on in!) but if you don't have enough flow you're stuck with that.