The Plan - Pond Doc's Pond Construction Education Center



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The Planning Step Decide What Type of Pond You Want, Where to Place it and Create a Realistic Budget

First, there's the dream. You imagine yourself sipping a glass of wine on a lovely spring evening beside your beautiful pond filled with colorful and playful koi and goldfish while the breeze carries the scent of a nearby water lily blossom... That's where we come in. Not into your dream, per say, but as an information source to make that dream into reality. The reality is that a koi or goldfish pond or water garden is something that does not happen naturally and does take a lot of thought and planning before any equipment is purchased or digging is done - if it's done right. Decide What Type of Pond You Want We are working with the three basic types of ponds most often built by the do-it-yourselfer. The water garden, the koi pond and the goldfish pond. What you want from your pond will determine which type of pond you should build. The Water Garden is basically a garden and doesn't normally have fish. Frogs will inhabit the water garden as will other home-seekers that happen to come along. The pond is built with plants in mind with plenty of plant shelves and most often located in the sun so that water lilies and lotus will bloom to their fullest. Although the water garden does not necessarily need biological filtration it can certainly benefit from mechanical filtration to keep it clean and healthy for any animal that drinks from it or child that plays in it. A true Koi Pond is built with the welfare of the koi in mind and plants are usually NOT part of the equation. Koi are playful so plants tend to become toys and, in their minds, the plants are there only for their amusement. The water MUST stay healthy and clear for koi to live without disease and problems to the koi-keeper. For that reason, biological and mechanical filtration are very important to the koi pond's design as is the depth and way the pond is constructed. A Goldfish Pond is a combination of everything. It can have plants and koi too. It's probably the most commonly built type of ornamental pond of all three types. It has to be built to sustain life in many forms. The best goldfish ponds incorporate good filtration techniques with smart design to achieve the perfect plant and fish ecosystem. Add plants to a koi pond or fish to a water garden and you basically have the same thing. If you want both a koi pond and a water garden you can split your pond into two sections. This works extremely well in an area where you have several terraced levels. The pond on the top level is usually smaller and can hold the plants. Then you can have a beautiful waterfall drop from that pond to the lower pond which could be filled with koi. This way, you can have the best of both worlds without losing your plants to the playfulness of the koi and keeping a clean environment for the koi. One word of caution - should you want to put the koi on the top level you should know that they do belly-surf down the waterfall and can easily injure themselves. Where Should Your Pond be Located? Once you decide what type of pond you want to build you should determine the best spot in your yard for it to go. The rule-of-thumb is to locate the pond wherever you can enjoy it most. Then all you have to do is plan for any problems you might encounter in that location. For example, if there is a lot of sunshine you will be getting green water within a week or two so you might as well plan to place a UV Light on your filtering system. If it's located under trees you most definitely should consider a skimmer to continuously "rake" the leaves off the top of the water. Many people build it right next to their decks so that they can hear the lovely sound of the waterfall while dining alfresco or easily toss the hungry koi or goldfish food while enjoying the company of friends. That's usually okay as long as there is some consideration taken so that people (and kids) don't simply fall into the pond. Beside the deck may not be the best place for a water garden if it's not sunny. Water plants generally do not flower well in partial to full shade. If you want a pond in the shade where you can enjoy sitting by it you might consider a koi pond or goldfish pond that has a nice-sounding waterfall or fountain. Falling leaves and debris from the overhanging tree limbs will add more organics to the water so you should also plan to install a bead filter on the pond for its ability to remove solids from the water. Here are a few suggestions of where NOT to install a pond of any type: In the path of rain runoff. Anywhere water collects after a rain. Over a septic tank. Where neighborhood children play or gather. Ponds on a Sloping Terrain The answer is "yes" even before you ask it. Yes, you can build a pond on a hill. It's done all the time. It does, however, require the construction of a wall on the low end so that the top of the pond is level. A pond on a hill is a perfect place for a waterfall to be built because the waterfall appears to be naturally falling from the top of the hill. It is more expensive to build a wall so if you want to build a pond on a slope you must include the cost of the wall in your budget. Speaking of budgets... *Create a Realistic* Budget Please notice that the word "realistic" is italicized. That is because it is very important that you are not misled by folks who say that you can build a pond for $200. Sure - you might find a little pond kit at Sam's for $200 but that's not the type pond we are talking about. We are talking about a real pond that can sustain fish and/or plant life. Those $200 to $400 ponds are really just water features, like a fountain. Like a car, ponds come in different price ranges. Unlike a car, you simply cannot pull up a "price" unless you contract with a pond builder. There are pond "kits" available but we do NOT like them. Ponds are not one-size-fits-all by any stretch of the imagination. We know they are trying to make it easier for you by creating pond kits and we've even tried it ourselves but what it all boils down to is that even the most thought-out pond kit does not fit every situation - even for two ponds of the same size! With that in mind, it's really tough to plan a budget so we've created a ballpark budget for different components to help you decide what size pond you can comfortably have and equipment you can afford. The ball park budgets below are for pond equipment only. They do not include labor, landscape materials (such as rock!!) or equipment rental. Oh, and before you get sticker shock -- remember that on most of these options the equipment is top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art and will create the lowest maintenance system you can get on a pond. There are ways to shave some of the cost if you opt for equipment that isn't quite as good quality (meaning it may be a lesser grade of plastic or have plastic parts that in other equipment may be made of metal) and requires more work to maintain. For the cost-conscience consumer who has more time than funds there are a couple of Economy Options that will give you a nice pond using equipment that is the best that we've found for the cost. You'll notice that none of our choices below contain submersible filters. We cannot honestly promote the use of submersible filters for anything but pre-filters for the protection of the pond pump. Another thing you won't see us give instruction on are the side-skimmer / bio-waterfall systems that are so prevalent on the market today. Click HERE to read what we think of those... Economy Pond of up to 500 Gallons (Liner, Submersible Pump, External Filter, Flex Hose, Plumbing) ....Approx. $500-$600 Add Ultraviolet Sterilizer + $170 Economy Pond of up to 1000 Gallons (Liner, Submersible Pump, External Filter, Flex Hose, Plumbing) ....Approx. $800 Add Ultraviolet Water Sterilizer + $200 Economy Pond of up to 2000 Gallons (Liner, Submersible Pump, External Filter, Flex Hose, Plumbing) ....Approx. $1000 Add UV Light + $400 Low-Maintenance Basic Small Pond of about 1200 gallons (Liner, External Pump, Drain, Bead Filter, Plumbing)....Approx. $1850 Add 1 Eduction Jet + $150 Add Fish Safe Skimmer + $175 Add Ultraviolet Water Clarifier + $300 Low-Maintenance Basic Medium Pond of about 3000 gallons (Liner, External Pump, Drain, Bead Filter, Plumbing)....Approx. $2000 Add 1 Eduction Jet + $150 Add Fish Safe Skimmer + $175 Add UV Light + 750 Low-Maintenance Basic Large Pond of about 5000 gallons (Liner, External Pump, Drain, Bead Filter, Plumbing).....Approx. $ 2300 Add 2 Eduction Jets @ $150 each + $300 Add Fish Safe Skimmer +$175 Add UV Light + $900 Double the 3000-gallon budget for 8000 gallons. Double the 5000-gallon budget for 10,000 gallons. Move On to the Next Step: If you want to continue with the Low-Maintenance Options for Your Pond and How to Build Them - Click HERE and You'll Begin the Low-Maintenance Doc's Dream System Course on Pond Building If you want to check out the Economy Pond Building Course** at Pond Doc's Pond Construction Education Center - Click HERE to see how to install a very nice pond spending the least amount possible and still incorporate maintenance-saving details into your design.		Answer These Questions Before You Go To the Next Step: What Kind of Pond Do I Want? Where Will It Be Located? *How Much Can I Spend?* Other Informative Articles on Pond Planning Pond Planning Pitfalls & Problems The Difference Between a Water Garden and a Koi Pond The Doc's Dream System -- A Construction Guide to Backyard Ponds *Our Project Pond:* We are going to create a low-maintenance pond together and follow our step-by-step process of building it. During this step we are deciding what type of pond it is, where it will go and we'll create a budget for it. Our Project Pond is a fairly large one so keep in mind that your expenses may only be half or less than what we are doing... Our project pond will be a true koi pond that will house huge koi so we will need it to be about 5500 gallons or so. We will want the best of everything on it. We want it to be low-maintenance and have enough biological filtration to comfortably house an extremely high fish load. We will place an Ultraviolet Water Clarifier on it to keep it clear and to help with destroying bad bacteria. It will have an external pump, eduction jets and a skimmer. Because I want a LOT of filtering on our Project Koi Pond I'm opting to go up a little above the 5000 gallon tier for budgeting purposes. (Remember, yours may not be anywhere near this cost!) The Basic System....$3000 2 ea. Eduction Jets...$300 Fish Safe Skimmer...$175 UV Light...................$1500 Labor & Expenses......$500 Rocks......................$1000 Total Budget: $6475.00 *Go To the Next Step:* *The Low-Maintenance Pond Designing Stage* *The Economy Pond Building Course*
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