# 5000 gallon pond



## baz11 (Feb 12, 2008)

I want to build 5000 gallon pond I want it to be big but dont know how deep or how longit needs to be need help with that I also want to know thetype of filtration am I going to need I also want a water fall first and foremost what are the dimensions that I need to dig to make the pond


----------



## fishwolfe (Mar 27, 2005)

before you start digging you need to check with your home owners insurance and the city in which you live.out here i could only go 2' deep unless i put up a 4' fence around the pond,that was from the city.my homeowners said nothing deeper than 1' and smaller than 700galllons or my insurance would go up,and it was a big jump in price.
heres some helpful sites;
http://www.justliners.com/aboutus.htm
use the liner sizing button to figure out your pond size.theres filters on here too.
http://www.nhbirdsnest.com/construction.htm
interesting basics on this site.
most the time the pond is dictated by its surroundings.


----------



## dolphinlover (Apr 3, 2008)

We have a 9000 gallon pond, and have had it for 15 years.
A few things to bear in mind.
Like was mentioned above, here we have to have a fence around our pond, with gates that cannot be opened by children, ours is not a solid fence, but had to have the fencing no more than 2" apart so a child could not get their head through the boards.
Also if you have raccoons in your area, the pond needs to be at least 2 1/2 to 3' deep otherwise the raccoons will eat your fish.
We found lots of helpful books at our local hardware store, that helped alot in the planning and building of our pond.
We have also found out (the hard way) that ponds are very expensive and labor intensive to maintain.
We found that a 120 watt uv filter was a must if we ever wanted to see our Koi, without it our water was always green and murkey, no matter how many pumps and filters we had running.
With all of this said, we really enjoy our pond and our Koi, just know that it is a labor of love.


----------



## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

A 5000 gallon pond would be 668.4 cubic feet. If you make it an average (and typical) depth of two feet, The pond would have a surface area of 334.2 square feet. It could be a square pond 18.28 feet on all sides, or a long rectangle 33.42 feet long and 10 feet wide. For the first pond you'd need a liner 23.28 feet on all sides. for the long pond, 38.42 by 15 feet. Or you could make a pond 8.73 feet deep and 8.73 feet on each side. This would be a bad choice since it would require a liner 27.19 feet on all sides, bigger than the liner needed for the square pond, have less carrying capacity for fish, be more of a hazard, and require extensive shoring and support for the walls. and this does not include irregular shapes, connected ponds totalling 5000 gallons, an infinite variation. A long rectangular pond is probably the best bet in some ways. You don't need to splice liners to get width, and can plan the width of the pond based on the liner so there is no wasted liner scrap.


----------



## a_c_arnold (Mar 7, 2008)

Here's my pond, it's about 2000 gallons. It's about 2 1/2' deep at the edges to 3 1/2' feet deep in the center.


----------



## fishwolfe (Mar 27, 2005)

any pics dolphinlover?


----------



## dolphinlover (Apr 3, 2008)

This picture does not show our waterfall, which is at the upper right hand side of the pond.
Some of our Koi are over 3' long, and we have about 45 right now.
:fish:


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

we have a 1000gall pond out in the back yard and that is as big as we could go without getting into all kinds of other ****!
we have 2 kio and 6 goldfish!
the only time we see our fish is in the sprng when the water isnt green  !
ours is in the shape of a dog treat! (somebody wanted to be creative :dancing: )
ours is 1' deep in one end (the fsh love the shallow part) and then drops off into 2 1/2' - 3' @ the other end!


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

this is my fav goldfish named Sassy (neice named it but it is still my fav!)
i couldnt get a good pix of the pond, the sun is hitting it wrong and reflecting back on my camara.
the gold fish is up on the bank and she is almost too big to fit up there!
and the net is there because birds keep eating the smaller goldfish :x


----------



## fishwolfe (Mar 27, 2005)

maybe we should have a pond section?i started a pond but ran into solid rock about 2' down.not sure if i wanted to go through with it, so now i have a 10'x8' hole in my yard :roll:


----------



## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

fishwolfe said:


> maybe we should have a pond section?i started a pond but ran into solid rock about 2' down.not sure if i wanted to go through with it, so now i have a 10'x8' hole in my yard :roll:


 Two feet is deep enough for a pond. Solid rock is a good base. If you want it deeper you can bank up the sides with the dirt you dug out, but a gradual bank looks nicer than a steep obviously artificial one. Rocks can make part of it look natural even if very steep, but always nearly bury the bottom rock which makes it look natural. You could wash your exposed rock bottom, make concrete walls and use a pond paint to seal it rather than using a pond liner. There are some good books out there. Helen Nash is a good author to choose. Peter Robinson is another good one, especially if you want to explore the planted pond's possibilities.


----------



## fishwolfe (Mar 27, 2005)

i didnt think of sealing the rock,interesting.the wife just was comenting about fill it or finish it,so i guess im going to get back on it :fish:


----------



## baz11 (Feb 12, 2008)

well I started to dig up the pond its going to be 10 by 10 and bout moving from 2 feet at one end to 5 at the other will start to put pics up as I start to make progess. any suggestions on to the best way to make the hole or just get a shovel and start digging.


----------



## fishwolfe (Mar 27, 2005)

backhoe?dynamite?i just layed a hose out in the shape and started digging.plus my dog helped


----------



## herny (Nov 30, 2007)

all i have to say is to post some pics plzzz


----------



## Squinchy (Nov 30, 2007)

My family has a 9100 Gallon pond and i agree with dolphinlover, get a good Uv lamp, it dose wonders!
Here is the pond


----------



## 18fisher (Mar 2, 2006)

here's some pics of my pond its about 10,000 gallons it varys in depth from 1.5 3.5
hope this helps




































they made a home this spring. 18 fisher :thumb:


----------



## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

Mallards come to our pond each spring, to eat as many of our Japanese snails (for eating algae) as they can find, and to poop in the water, turning it green and fertilizing the algae and the duckweed they can bring with them on their legs and feathers. They seem to be ineffective predators against the fish and plants.


----------



## pondmom (Feb 13, 2004)

Here's my pond.
It's 16' x14'x4Â½' deep. It's a bit over 5000 gallons. To completely fill this pond takes 6 hours from empty to full. It's all worth it to me :fish:


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

OMG I LoVe your pond (pondmom)!

I like all of the flowers and plants, how do you keep your pond clear? Ours turns *green*  every summer.


----------



## fishwolfe (Mar 27, 2005)

that is an awesome pond! :drooling:


----------



## dolphinlover (Apr 3, 2008)

how do you keep your pond clear? Ours turns *green*  every summer
The only way I have found to keep the pond clear, and not looking like pea soup, is to have a UV light installed, they are spendy but that is the only way to keep a pond crystal clear that I have found.
:fish:


----------



## Desi&lt;3 (Feb 13, 2008)

How does it keep the pond clear? Wouldnt it make the green worse? 
Does it have to do w/ the UV?


----------



## cholile (Oct 28, 2007)

these ponds are fantastic


----------



## dolphinlover (Apr 3, 2008)

The water is pumped through the Ultra Violet Light, which kills the free floating algae (which is what makes a pond green), the water then is returned to the pond through filters.
On our 9000 gallon pond we have a 120 watt UV light installed and the pond is crystal clear all year round.
Before we had this light, our pond was only clear in the winter, and looked like "pea soup" in the summer, we could only see the Koi at the surface. We really were upset not being able to enjoy our pond in the summer time, so we finally broke down and installed the UV light.
UV lights "kill" algae, they do not make your pond green.
Here is a link to where we bought ours, bear in mind tho, if you have a large pond like we do, these lights are expensive, and you have to replace the bulbs every year.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... atid=14229


----------



## SirSmapty (Nov 28, 2005)

fishwolfe said:


> maybe we should have a pond section?i started a pond but ran into solid rock about 2' down.not sure if i wanted to go through with it, so now i have a 10'x8' hole in my yard :roll:


Haha, I had a similar situation.I dug a huge hole in the yard and ran into the tree roots. I wasn't about to hack through them to get the pond in, and wasn't going to put a pond on top of the root, since it would just grow into the pond for water. So I had to put all the dirt back in and work on getting the grass to grow back in that spot.

On the upside, I know my tree can't ever tip over as the root base is a good 20' from the trunk of the tree.


----------



## sben763 (May 12, 2008)

The algee can also be controled by a D E cake filter for swimming pools with the right set up you can go from pea soup to cystal clear in less than 3 hours. and you dont have to run it 24/7 to keep it clean. put a timmer on it to turn the water 10 times a day

Edit after looking at the price of the 120watt it is about the same inital investment or a little more for the D E filter but from then on only the powder to buy!!!


----------

