How many gallons (cubic feet * 7.3) do you estimate for your pond?

The pond is going to be raised around 2-3 foot above ground level.

Are you going to create a 2-3 foot embankment? If not, what will you
do to make the walls of the pond hold all that weight? Concrete walls?
Something else?

I was wondering if we need to dig below the surface at all as well?

No, not at all.

But given the above, you might do better with a compromise of some sort.

Stand up. Look at your hip. That's probably about 3'. Do you want a burm
or wall /that/ big? If so, whatcha planning?

While no one thing is "essential" in pond building, your life will
be a lot easier with a sumped bottom drain feeding to some kind of
settling tank (designed to be periodically purged), especially if
your pond is large. The function here is to make the settling tank
the main thing you clean, and not your pond.

As a lurker, I will assume you know about "veggie filters", "bog
filters" (of both the up well and down well variety). Try "bog
filter" on google and "veggie filter" on google groups (rec.ponds)
to read various statements about each of these.

When you dig, you might consider laying down a bit of extra plumbing
at some locations if you think you miight want to add something later.

A little preplanning will allow you to change your mind less painfully
later.



C//