On Sun, 6 Jul 2003 10:21:18 -0700, "stricks760" wrote:
I'm planning a pond. The books say 'put in a bottom drain to make cleaning
easier.' The (few) people I've actually spoken to say 'don't put a hole in
your liner - don't need a bottom drain.

Quit talking to the ones who don't have one, and therefore don't have a
clue. ;o)

I plan for about 1500 gallons, 24-30" depth. Probably no Koi, because I've
heard they generate a lot of waste (and get huge).
What's the feeling on bottom drains?

Absolute MUST have! On my website I have a diagram of a retrofit *My
Filter*. But in a new pond I'd go thru the liner, the Tetra Bell is a very
easy one to install. This is so important to me that when we did my
Lilypond we installed one even though the filter is sometime down the road.
The Lilypond doesn't have much of a fish load and I remove all the fish in
the spring so they won't eat the frog spawn. Because I don't have the
bottom drain plumbed, I have to shop vac out the muck. It's a 6 hour job in
the spring, versus my koi ponds where I just open the valves in the spring
and turn on the pump. In the fall cleaning that filter is maybe 4 hour job
total that I can spread out over a week or 2. See the Demon Pond Filter and
My Lilypond for various pictures on the plumbing at website below.

FYI, Most of our bottom drains drain to the filter, and "Probably no Koi",
is rarely taken seriously in this group. ;o) ~ jan


See my ponds and filter design:
http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Wet!~
Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a
To e-mail see website