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this project has taken us a long time to get to this point all my fish are indoors this year so we can do a pond expansion this is old pond. this is what I hop it looks like

the demise of the old pond

this is old cement pond just this spring

my new pond dementions ar 25' x 35' x3.5' a little biger than I wanted but we'll make do. I figured it out to be 22.000 gallons so soon I be buying a koi kam I can't wait

my poor hostas

still alot of work to do but we will get there soon but first we are thinking bottom drain or not to drain thoughts?

Looking good Laura,

One suggestion. When you get ready to fill it, go rent a water meter so you will know exactly how many gallons of water the pond will hold.

Please continue to post photos!

Bonnie

Oh and I am so envious of what looks like good soft dirt.

I do miss our good dirt we had in MI. Here we have the hard as nails red clay


Bonnie

the dirt was sandy til it rained alot now its a little hard to move. we will be getting a water meter and a koi cam. but for this week all work must stop as I am leaving to go to seattle wa on saturday, to see a friend I haven't seen in several years. I will be gone for 10 days and my family will watch the my guys and girls dogs, cat, birds, snake, mice, koi, 5 fish tanks , 1 salt water tank. my monkey will go to boston to stay. what alot of guys to get ready then come back home to finish the pond never ending.

I like having a bottom drain. There are several very bad ones so choose carefully.
If you are on city water you can use the city’s meter in a pinch. You just have to remember to not use water in the house at the same time. It is valuable to have a dedicated meter in the long run. Makes it much easier to add specific quantities.

I'm a big fan of a bottom drain. It saves me a lot of time by taking the 'dead' water and drebris from the bottom of the pond. Without it, I think I would be vacuuming and doing more water changes. I have mine feeding into a solids seperator followed by my bio-filter.

Murph is correct. If considering a bottom drain, do some research first. Not all drains are created equal. In our original pond we had an issue with frogs always getting caught in the drain. Real pain to clean out.

Also, if you think you need more than one drain I would not connect them together via a "T". I would home run each drain seperately to a chamber.

Consider where in the pond you would locate the drain. To be effective, try to scallop the bottom of the pond and position the drain at the bottom of this area, which help guide the dirt into the drain. Try to avoid locating the drain on a flat surfaceg

A water meter is great to have. Though they can be expensive, its the only way to accurately tell you how many gallons you have. I also find it useful if I need to add any sort of medication.

Steve

thank you I have well water and a water softening system.but I have a meter lined up. my pond has a slope like a swimming pool. it starts at 12" then runs into 4' were the waterfall is. I haven't done the plant shelf yet. the electrician is coming thursday. we won't bury the line til I buy my Koi Kam from Bonnie. I will have some lights in the pond also. the skimmer is going on the shorter end we will have awsome waterfall flo. we will have to use fishing line to chase mr dirty bird away "blue heron" Last year dirty bird landed in my yard and was swallowing my japanese one and only female sanke. I made it off my deck to get within 3' of this bird it looked at me says haha and flapped those wings and was gone with my girl. only if I saw it a few minutes earlier. but I have a fix for them this year comming no free lunches. (Bonnie i will do the koi kam when I get back from vacation). I have a line on some bottom drains but was trying to think of the best one?

In our intial pond we used a Tetra bottom drain with a dome. The drain connected to a standard 3" PVC tubing. Overall I thought the drain was pretty good.

I can only speak of my personal experinece with this drain. our main issue was we had problems of frogs squeezing under the dome and getting sucked into the drain. Depending on the size of the frog, some made it all the way to the end where we found them in the leaf basket and others got stuck somewhere in the middle, making it quite a challenge to clear them out.

We also experienced a check valve failure which caused issues of maintaining a prime for the pump. Because the check valve was located under the pond it made it impossible to service. Had to install a second valve along the line.

If installing a bottom drain also consider how you can service it. When we installed our new pond we wanted a drain that was easily servicable.

Again, from our experience I would always include a bottom drain in a pond, but others may feel differently.
Steve

It has been a while since our nieghbors stopped us from building the pond. the pond I wanted isn't the pond I got but it is finally in the progress of being built. I went to my neighbors house and told him point blankly that I have cancer and for him to go to hell if he /she thinks that they are stopping me from putting in a pond. I told them what size and they all agreed so my pond is a little smaller but it will serve the same purpose bigger waterfall thou. I will be adding pictures soon yaaahhhh