have a prayer of getting power to. So are there any things I should or
shouldn't be doing in getting the pond ready?

You haven't mentioned what you want to achieve. Be that as it may, it's
my suspicion that you're going to need to talk to an expert for a water
feature of that size. Often, filtering with any formal techniques is nearly
impossible, unless you have a rich man's budget. More natural techniques
like appropriate planting are followed, as well as perhaps circulating the
water somehow, by adding whatever you can afford in the way of low pressure
high volume pumps (e.g., http://www.azponds.com, see the "Sequence" brand
pump for a good example of pumps to move maximum amounts of water for minimum
watts). Forget the idea of turning over your volume once hourly, that ain't
gonna happen here.

Typically with large natural water features, from the reading I've done,
one of the very best things one can do is install a central fountain that
draws from the deepest point in the pond and blows it straight up out of
the water. This circulates the water at the bottom, which is ordinarily
quite stratified and very low in oxygen.

The other thing that I'd say here is take care with some of the standard
water gardening plants (water lettuce, hyacinth, parrot feather), they are
likely quite invasive in your area and if they get established in your
pond, you'll have no end of headaches.


C//