Well, being sorta outdoorsy I took a project on myself, built a small 500
gallon pond into our front and poured a patio around the house sideof it and
a bluff of boulders and olive trees on the frontside to make a waterfall
into it and provide privacy from the street. Built the pond out of concrete
pretty much like you do a swimming pool. Plastered a coat of mortar on the
inside. I use a cal pump, submers. and it pumps about 400 GPH to the top of
the waterfall, about 5 feet.
The fish love it, the plants love it, the crusteans love it, never have any
problems. Only that it leaks, splashes and evaporates at the rate of 10 to
12 gallons a day. I rectified this by adding a drip irrigation to one of the
water plants that I matched the drip to the rate of leak so now I never have
to change the water out or add any to it. It has a complete change at about
40 days.
"Megan Wilson" wrote in message
...
I guess by budget, i actually was thinking about how much i would have to
start out spending, not how much i would need to limit myself to. And i
can't run away, i've got a serious case of overcrowding in my small indoor
pond and i'm too attached to my fishies to give them away, so bigger
outdoor
pond it is. so, thank you for the warning, but i think its too late for
me,
perhaps we can save someone else?

megs

"Just Me "Koi"" wrote in message
...
Run! Escape! Don't get into this hobby! Flee!

Imagine the hole you are digging. Forget the fish, the water, the
liner!
Cut out the middle man! Just dig the whole, and take your cash by the
buckets and throw it into the hole! Forget budget! And if you do a
budget,
then multiply whatever you come up by 3, that may be enough to get you
started!

But should in case you do go through with this potentially addictive
hobby,
then be prepared to bond with your pond like a cheating spouse!

Looking forward to hearing from you soon about green algae, string
algae,
dying Koi, Heron, Ick, Fluke, Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, Kh, Gh,
Spawning,
Koi food, .....on and on and on!

I really really do love my pond and Koi, but like a weed grass they have
invaded my life!

--
_______________________________________
"The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is
like an eggs-and-ham breakfast:
The chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'."

http://community.webshots.com/user/godwino

"Megan Wilson" wrote in message
...
Hello all!

I am really and truly just starting out, as in no hole as been dug,
but
the
area where the pond is going has been roughly surveyed. Last spring i
built
a small 100 gallon indoor pond, but i did it very quickly with out
doing
much research. this time i want to do it right, and i'm trying to
figure
out
how much money its all going to cost me so i can make a budget. Since
i
don't have any sort of hole dug, i can only go by my theoretical
dimensions
to guess the volume. My concern right now is pumps (which is better
submersible or not, and how much its going to cost). and as you may
have
noticed i'm starting to ramble so i'll cut it short. My questions are,
what's the best way to approximate volume (using some online
calculators
i've gotten numbers ranging from 1,500 to 11,000 gallons)? and would
anyone
be willing to provide me with the pros and cons between the
submersible/non-submersible pumps, or at least point me in the
direction
of
finding such information? thank you in advance!

megs