Small Ponds

These pools are in easiest to install and range from fifty to six hundred gallons. They come in various sizes and shapes including rectangle, kidney, and square. Purchasing is a matter of convenience, since they can usually be found at local home and garden stores, including Lowe’s or Home Depot… even Wal-mart! Because of using much heavier PVC than a liner, their life expectancy can range from twenty-five to thirty years.

Another fiberglass product that can be used is an old hot tub. The jets can be plugged up, or can be used for filtration. The nice thing about a hot tub, is that it already has a bottom drain installed.

To install your preformed pond, you will need to measure around the tub with a garden hose the dig six inches beyond that point. Place sand in the bottom of the hole (about two inches deep), then place the tub on top of the sand. If you are using a black preformed, you can bury the entire pond, but with a hot tub, only part of it has to be in the ground. In fact, both of my hot tub ponds are buried to the big step with dirt and rocks around it as an elevated pond.

For a one hundred gallon preformed pond, you would need a fifty-gallon per hour pump with a small mechanical filter and small biological filter. These two filters can be connected to use the same pump.

Stocking of a one hundred gallon pond would consist of one water lily, six bog plants, and three bunches of submerged plants. Forty-eight inches of fish could find a wonderful home in this pond!