My first pond!

[RocketSurgeon]

I picked up a 300 gallon stock tank.

I have my plans drawn out below:

As I have no clue what I'm doing, I am looking for helpful suggestions.

Please ignore the crude, non-artistical drawing.

Thanks,

Rod

 

[RocketSurgeon]

Well, no one has come back with any do's or don't's, so I guess that is authorization to proceed.

 

[Wiggles92]

Looks fine to me except for one thing: Put the pump inside the pond and skip the bottom drain and piping. Have the pump connected to the top of the filter and have it drain by gravity power back into the pond. You can also skip the ball valve and piping on the left (drain?) if you have the pump in the pond.

 

[Pyramid_Party]

What are you thinking about stocking? Adding any plants?

 

[RocketSurgeon]

Looks fine to me except for one thing: Put the pump inside the pond and skip the bottom drain and piping. Have the pump connected to the top of the filter and have it drain by gravity power back into the pond. You can also skip the ball valve and piping on the left (drain?) if you have the pump in the pond.

2 ideas brought me to this conclusion:

A. I've read several posts about having the filter before the pump.

B. This design is what I'm comfortable with, since I have used it on aquariums.

Is there a big difference between gravity feeding the tank, versus gravity feeding the filter?

This way, I pump water up to the top of the water slide, instead of having to raise my filter and support it higher.

 

[RocketSurgeon]

What are you thinking about stocking? Adding any plants?

Originally, Koi...but I've read that my tank is not the best choice for them. So, maybe goldfish it is. We will need to have plenty of plants as well. I need to get the tank installed and the filter connected and running. I also need suggestions about what type of plants to add in and around the tank.

 

[Pyramid_Party]

I think Koi/Goldfish eat lots of plants. That is why you never really see plants that many plants in a Koi/Goldie pond. Would you be interested in native fish? How about small sunfish? You can try Water Hyacinths, Parrot's feather, Anacharis, Iris, Cattails, Dwarf Papyrus, water lettuce, frog bit, Lillies, water hawthorn etc.

 

[RocketSurgeon]

I think Koi/Goldfish eat lots of plants. That is why you never really see plants that many plants in a Koi/Goldie pond. Would you be interested in native fish? How about small sunfish? You can try Water Hyacinths, Parrot's feather, Anacharis, Iris, Cattails, Dwarf Papyrus, water lettuce, frog bit, Lillies, water hawthorn etc.

Well, I want plants, so I guess I need to research more fish...

I have read where koi and plants do not play well together. I have not read anything about gold fish, but maybe that was implied.

Thanks for the plant list. I don't remember sunfish being colorful. They might be hard to see with a grey tank as a background...

 

[BlindSight]

hows it going? Working on my 300gal rubbermaid pond up in Denton Tx. Have heard of people just making hangers to hang pots around the edge so they can be in the pond but not easily eaten by the inhabitants.

 

[Pyramid_Party]

Actually Sunfish ARE colorful. Look up Pumpkin seed sunfish, Dollar sunfish, blue spotted sunfish, etc. There is many more too. Can even add lots of small fish like killifish and darters that will color is up too. They will breed and with the sunfish some will get eaten too. Could be a nice cool small ecosystem in there.