I made ours big enough, but we were digging in sand and when we put the epdm liner in
the sides slumped. we had to use block to get straight sides. on our newest (6 year
old) pond I just built the sides with stud walls and plywood. so much easier, so
much cheaper.
those "shelves" seriously reduces the volume of the pond. is easy enough to set
containers to hold plants.
I am still grappling with the problem of leaves getting into the first two ponds.
nature loves to fill in ponds with debris ... that is what swamps are. so using nets
to control leaves and predators needs to be built into the design.... unless somebody
doesnt mind mucking the ponds out all the time.
easy care filtration is the next. I dont want crystal clear water, so my veggie
filter is just the easiest there is in my new pond that is also netted. INgrid

DavidM wrote:
I should have made mine much bigger. Currently about 800 gallons.
I should have put in less shelves and more deep water. 1500 gallons is
what I want now, not places to put plants.
- Are they using an off the shelf "high-tech" filter?
No, they had a basic sand filter with plants growing in the top. Use a
method that you can see has worked for many years. I struggled with an
OASE filter for the first three years, it needed cleaning every week in
summer. I now use a homemade filter based on the Skippy design (see link
above if interested). It was fantastic last summer.
- Do they run outside every day to test the water quality and take
notes? No, but I was stressing out at every water change. Expect to
learn from mistakes in the first year.

Have fun,
DavidM
-also UK



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