Duck Pond construction, filter system, uphill pump, waterfall

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Dotknott, it's funny you say that because I've come to the same conclusion all on my own despite my best efforts and plans. I thought the two pump system would work as long as both pumps are the same size as well as all the inlet and Outlet hoses. I was severely mistaken! Therefore, I have removed one pump and simplify the entire system that include simply one pump the store-bought filter system. Even then had to play with the inlet and Outlet hoses to make sure more water wasn't going into the pump than it was able to pump out. The whole system was a lot more complicated than I anticipated. Hopefully this system does a good enough job filtering the water, if not I still have that extra pump and lots of extra hoses and pieces to make another filtration system! More pictures when I get close to the final product.
 
SO this is still an issue. Even though I went to one pump, the water still drains into the holding tank faster than it can pump out, until some feathers clog the drain, then it works pretty good for a few days, then the pump basin dries up. I remove the feathers and the vicious cycle starts all over. I'm into it far to change the system now, so I'll live with it.

Lessons learned: Make the pump go directly out of the pool, don't bother with the drain and catch basin. Don't mess with two pumps, it will never work. Make everything as gravity fed as possible, since pumps can be erratic depending on the length of pumping hoses and pressure being generated. In other words, Keep It Simple Stupid!
 
Draining from the bottom into a holding tank, then pumping up a hill into the filter before waterfalling back down. Not really sure why I felt it necessary to drain out first, I think that mentality was left over from the original plan and I never changed it. Now there is a hole in the tarp, the pond is full and my ducks love it, so I'll be dealing with it. I'll put up a pic of the finished product.....
 


The half 5 gallon bucket laying on the side was my attempt to slow down flow to the drain, I cut it at water level and filled it with lava rocks to catch some debris. That really didn't work, so I removed it. Benny is watching carefully to see if we keep messing with his pond or not!
 
That's a nice looking pond!

Okay. so there's some kind of overflow from the pond to the buried tub?

The buried tub houses the pump?

Pump pushes H2O uphill to other container.

Other container empties from bottom waterfalling back down into pond?
 
Exactly! Haven't buried the hoses yet, and I'm still a little anxious about burying the tub with the pump in it. But so far so good, seems to be working well, though the water is still murky and dirty
 
I'd change the top container to fill from the bottom and empty from the top. Also in bottom container raise the pump off the bottom a little bit (this will keep some of the larger things, sticks, leaves etc from clogging the pump as much.

You want one or both of those to act as a filter. You want to fill them with something that will allow colonies of beneficial bacteria to grow (BB) as well as something to remove smaller particles. I've not done this for a pond, just really big aquariums. Bio balls may be cost prohibitive based on how big your filter is, but look at them to get an idea of what I'm suggesting. Aquarium shops sometimes sell large sheets of filter pads or bags of floss. Those should be able to remove the smaller particles.


BB should keep the Ammonia from getting out of control in the pond.
 
Birchymm said:
That was my initial idea, since that would be a lot easier. I guess I might be overthinking, but I figured that pumping dirty water uphill to be filtered would be silly. But I still might do that since I cant get this two pump equilibrium thing figured out. I have one more idea, and if that doesn't work, I'll be going to one pump and put the filter at the top of the waterfall.
Click to expand...

i know this post is a few years old, but i was wondering if all this worked?? i'm trying to figure out a pond for my ducks..
 

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