i don't know the exact volume of the pond, but it is somewhere around 1500-2000 gallons. This project started in february 2015. That is when we started digging and i got the fish in the pond in april of this year. I have had small ponds and little above ground ponds for a while. The first pond was a 50 gallon formed pond that i had a few years ago, but there are raccoons that would keep eating my fish. The filtration system in that pond was crappy. It was just a little submersible pump inside of a little box with some filter pads and a few bio balls. It had a fountain coming from the pump and it just sat on the bottom of the pond. One night the raccoons, tipped it over and drained the pond and got all of the fish. I ended up putting down those screw in dog tie up stakes and securing a metal gate over the pond. I finally decided to move the fish into a 55 gallon tank. I removed the filter from that pond and all i have in there is a water lily and about 10 mosquito fish. I decided i wanted to build a raccoon proof pond that did not have netting or anything else over it. My pond is still a work in progress. I took the photos a while ago. Now, i am building a chicken coop right next to the pump/filter enclosure. I am going to put cedar on the walls of the pump and filter enclosure and the chicken coop. I am also going to put a tin roof on both. The pond goes half above ground have below ground. The 2x6 shown in the picture that is screwed down to the wood is only there to hold the liner down. I am going to center a redwood 2x12 over that as a bench seat, and it will also prevent raccoons from grabbing fish. I have had the fish out in the pond for over a month and i have not had any issues with raccoons. I used 45 mil firestone pondgard epdm and that felt underlayment. The pond is 5' x 10 ' x 4.5' deep. I have had some problems with the filter. It is supposed to be a moving bed filter and i cut corners and i used cheap bio balls instead of kaldnes and i used a crappy 4 lpm coralife pump. I am replacing the bio balls with k3 kaldnes and i am replacing the coralife luft pump with a hakko hk25l pump that pumps 35 lpm. My pump and air diffuser came in the mail today and the k3 kaldnes came a few days ago, but i am still waiting on the tubing. I have also had to remove some leaves from the pump. I have a priming pot that i am going to install. The pump is an advantage manufacturing es3500. I have a bottom drain and i used all 2" sch40 pvc.
