My pond build from this past summer

Here is a pond that I did this past summer. I had a 220 gallon insert prior to going bigger. It was home to 55 gold fish - over crowded.




The old pond became a holding tank




While I was waiting for a backhoe to show I dug a 4x4x4 hole under the staircase for the settlement tank. The tank is 275 gallons






3 feet deep


I had some problems getting the settlement tank into the hole. The staircase needed to be lifted only a few inches.

The soil was like powder due to the root system. It took some work to work the roots and walls.




Started toying with a wall for the stream, it didn't pan out - looks wise.
The 4 inch bottom drain was plumbed in to the 275gal settlement tank. 1 1/2 pvc runs out by the shed from the tank to flush the fish poo. Also a 3/4 pvc line was ran for air supply to help draw in crud into the drain.


This is my DIY filters - 55gal drums - sand and gravel filters.


gravity return roughly 18 inches from pond bottom (TPR)


I used some old carpet to protect the liner, I also plumbed in a walmart pool, skimmer. Opposite side of the skimmer you can see a return from the sand and gravel filter.


the lower port under the skimmer is another return (TPR) and above that is a mid level pickup


liner in and getting filled


Within 20 minutes of turning on the pump it poured rain and well the water quailty got nuked. The pump is a es4500 (gph)


worked the wall for a small stream, ran 3in pvc pipe out to the filters min headloss.

275gal settlement, 2 55g sand and gravel filters, NO UV, pond went green to the point you could only see 2inches down, cleared up within 2 weeks, bottom drain is 3 feet down





My first koi

Thanks
The only monsters I'll have are koi, hope to see them grow 25-30 inches. The goldfish are getting rehomed this spring.

The skimmer works pretty well for what it is and cost. It was only 40 bucks. During the pond season (summer) it worked good. I was getting away with once a week maintenance - cleaning the basket. Before the fall season started I had picked up 14x14 netting from homedepot. I believe it's used to protect plants from the animals, cheap material. That saved me a lot of grief. This spring should be interesting with those dang falling helicopters. I don't think the net will block all of them nor those red buds.

I was going to drill out the bottom of the skimmer so it would accept a 3in PVC electrical connector (those screw together tight by hand unlike the white ones) The original plan was skimmer with no basket gravity flow into a drum with a removable net and then to the pump. I just didn't have much room with the settlement tank, pump and plumbing.

^Thanks everyone^
sharks with koi? I've never seen a Chinese banded hi fin shark.