SPECKETER,PAUL & RAQUEL 

Specketer,Paul & Raquel

Product Code: PSpecketer Price: Check Latest Our pond is now two years old combining an upper pond (10x7) and a lower pond (18x9) and two stream waterfalls connecting them for a total of 4500 Gallons. The upper pond is about 2 feet deep while the lower pond ranges from 2 1/2 feet to 4 feet deep. Thanks to Clay soil, there's no way I would think about hand digging this. After two years, I can say that it's not big enough! The lower pond should be at least 5' deep to ensure proper over wintering and an enjoyable swimming experience :) I also wish the lower pond had bigger shelves for plants and was at least double the surface area, but I guess all of this will have to wait until we rip it out and start over. This is our second attempt at a pond in our backyard. The first was quite small and used a 1800 GPH sump pump to feed hoses that spilled out from boulders stacked up to form a waterfall. Due to a leak, we ended up tearing it out and I was left with a blank piece of grid paper and my imagination to come up with this design. I highly recommend this process as it clarifies your design intent and gives you something to discuss with your spouse and eventually your landscaper. This current design uses a Cal Pump 4000 gph centrifugal pump sitting in a PSM SK900PRO SKIMMER. The flow travels through 2" PVC pipe up to a PF24DL PURIFALLS which you can see above the upper pond. Due to the large hill behind the ponds and heavy clay soil, we were forced to dig in drain tile on the back side of the lower pond to remove all the runoff from the boulder wall. ...This was hand dug for 50 feet in rock hard clay soil :( Some accessories I didn't buy with the original order that are important are the refill valve that allows automatic refilling of the pond as evaporation occurs. For the first year I used a Cal pump 4000, but recently upgraded to a swimming pool pump that puts out 10K per hour... I love it. Lastly, I installed the bottom drain line above the liner and punched through the liner at the skimmer level. Because of the design of this drain I'm not sure how effective it will be. PondSweep estimates that 10% of the flow to the skimmer will come from this “gravity feed" bottom drain, but I'm not sure If I'm getting any. I'd think twice about getting this option again. Besides it makes you provide some sort of support for the pond liner in that area as the default position is in the front near the liner. If you line your pond with boulders, this becomes a problem. We love our pond, but should have doubled the size -- you can never go too big. Paul & Raquel Specketer, Minneapolis, MN