Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Help needed from Afghanistan

Welcome back and thanks for your service... Let us know how your project progresses!

Welcome back and thanks for your service. Sounds like a awesome piece of land to play in. Is there anyway to get pictures from a distance to kind of see the area. Would be a neat picture if possible.

..

here are some pictures to give ya a better idea of the terrain. the pic with me with my arms out is the spot i like because of the rock features around it, i would say its about 100ft lower then the pvc pipe i used to measure the flow.

with that said i am not sure that the site i like is on my property or the national forest. so i may have to go just a bit lower.

the last pic is the view from my new house :-)

Looks really nice, kloot! Love the view from the house especially! In the second pic, it looks like your water has absorbed into the ground pretty well by that point. How far down from your PVC is that pic taken? If the source wasn't off of your land, you might consider pouring a concrete "stream bed" for the water into your pond to minimize water loss over that distance, but that probably isn't an option for you, huh? On the other hand, if you're piping water from the national forest, what would prevent you from just running the PVC farther down onto your land, where you could bring it right into your own manmade stream bed? You could even go with black PVC to minimize the visual impact. Just thinking out loud with ya, as it sounds like a fun project!

actually the pic is a bit misleading, water flow actually increase as it goes lower. at the bottom of my property where this little stream meets with the big one on my boundry it measures at 10gpm.

I have thought about flowing it through the pvc to my site, which would allow me to produce power, to power my auto feeder, but i dont really want to take water away from the land in between, so i will probably go with solar instead (may need to knock some trees down though).

Kloot if you need to run a gravity siphon from the larger stream the most cost effective pipe would be 2" schedule 40 plastic pipe, it's less than 4 bucks for each 10ft length and they glue together great.
My 2" pipe runs 300ft from above a waterfall down to the pond with a vertical drop of about 12ft., the outflow is 60gpm.
The gravity siphon would probably work year round in your climate and even if it occasionally froze it wouldn't be for long.

Cool! One requirement to sustain your posting privileges on the forum is that you MUST include pictures of the progression of your project for us to enjoy!

Well, it's not really a requirement for anything, but we sure do like pictures - it's a lot easier and more fun than actually reading for some of us!

while i was in AF i thought that the little stream was seasonal, however i have been told that it has been running at the same level yr round for the last three years, so i would rather build my pond with the little stream rather then pulling from the big one just because of where i would like the pond situated.

my goal is to create this: utube

so if i can intake 4.5 gpm, lay some pond liner, have a water pump and filter run off solar, do ya think i can make this happen?

It all depends , 4.5 gpm might be enough but with trout you still have to monitor the water temp and O2 content of the water, you want temps below 68f and O2 atleast 5ppm.

temp and ox levels wont be a problem, i have read research for the area say mineral levels are excellent in the area in which i can reuse the water three times with a four foot drop.

my biggest concern is building a proper dam, and having that water as clean as in the video with only solar power for electricity.

As you mentioned a pond liner would be a good way to go for having clear water but how large and deep of a pond are you planning?
You mentioned solar power for the pump, how is your home powered?

5ft in the middle and shallow next to rocks on the edges. pond will be about 500ft from the house through heavy woods, probably not idea to run wire there.

fish would be harvested in the fall. looking to stock with 70 fingerling.

If your inflow was sufficient and it dropped over rocks to aerate the water you probably wouldn't need mechanical aeration, and as for filtration a couple of siphon drains in the deepest part might remove enough of the waste.
A lot can be done with solar but it can be expensive as you probably know.
It sounds like a fun project and a lot of enjoyment comes from experimenting with ways to improve the pond.

500 ft from the house should not be a problem assuming you only need 110 volt service. Just run 220 volts out to the pond site then split it down to 110 volts. You will loose 60-80 volts traveling over that distance depending on the size wire you use. If you only need 110 there will be enough after you split it to deliver a full 110 volts. My power for my pond runs 330 ft to the water and i did it the same way as above. Runs lights, radio, and feeder with no problem after i split it down to 110v.

Kloot, welcome home and thank you for your service. About your water flow issue...you bring back any demo? C4 perhaps?