pond without pump and filter okay for awhile?

[robotcholi]

Hey guys,
I'm thinking of purchasing a big piece of pondliner from BIGAL and dig up a hole or maybe build a brick wall up from the ground and lay that pondliner over and use that as a pond for now until i get some more $ for the pump and filter. Do you guys think it's okay to do that for awhile? The pond maybe around 1000 gal. Is the natural biological filter within the pond sufficient? Please assume I am a total newbie because I am one Thanks guys for the help.

Oh yeah btw, did you of you purchase pondliner from BIGAL? They said extra shipping charge will apply but I don't know how much that is.

 

[robotcholi]

oh yeah one more question thx

How would i go about bringing out electricity to power the pump? Pondmom had talk about a GFI but i don't know how those work. I've seach google for some kind of diagram as to illustrate how the wire should run and stuff to no avail. How did you bring electricity to your pond? Please be specific as I've no clue on how to do this safely. Or maybe the power cord will be really long for pump that i don't know so i can just bring it inside the house and plug it in? TIA for your kind help.

 

[RogerMcAllen]

You do not want to have a pond of stagnent water. At the very least put an aerator in there to get some surface agitation and to move the water a bit.

As far as power, find an electrician. What we did at my place is ran some plastic conduit from our power box out to the pond, we just trenched it down a couple of inches with a sod cutter, nothing major. GFI is mandatory, which any electrician would be sure to do. You will be glad you did move an outlet out near your pond as you start to get multiple things that need to be plugged in.

As far as shippin, it might almost be freight charges. Pond liner is heavy stuff.

 

[robotcholi]

oh thx Roger. So basically the plastic conduit is like a plastic pvc use to run spinklers right? And yeah, i just found out about the shipping charge for the liner; it's about 55 bucks. Once again, thx Roger.

 

[RogerMcAllen]

Yea, plastic conduit is more or less the smame as pvc, it has one end male and one end female so they fit together well without connectors.

 

[wiz561]

eish! Plastic!?!?!

Hi! Do yourself a favor and don't use plastic pvc for conduit for electricity! I've never seen this done before, and I wouldn't recommend starting out with it.

I'm not electrician, but I do know my way around electricity. What I would recommend doing is buring the cable in the ground and running that out to the pond. I believe you can purchase electrical cable that is ok for burial, but I'm not 100% sure. If I were going to do it, I would use steel conduit and you have to bury it below the freezing line in the ground. I believe it's probably about a foot or two deep. In addition to that, I beleieve for outdoor conduit, you must use rigid, but I would check with home depot on this one...

As far as GFI, I would try to do a google search for GFCI. GFCI stands for Ground Fault Circuit Interrupt. It's extremely easy to wire in and the sockets should come with instructions. They cost a bit more, but can save your life.

The only time I've seen plastic pvc piping used was on sinks and water lines. Steel conduit sounds like it's harder to work with, but believe me, it's not. They sell all sorts of bends and fittings so it's so easy to work with it now.


Good Luck!

 

[RogerMcAllen]

What they sell is plastic conduit, as opposed to steel, specifically for outdoor use. You can find it right next to the regular stuff. I did not just bury some pvc pipe in the ground.

 

[pipermurphy]

PVC pipe is okay for direct burial, there are two main things to keep in mind.
1. Make sure you use electrical PVC fittings. I've personally seen Home Depot
sell sprinkler 90's and you can't pull wire thru them.
2. Each area of the country has different depths of frost line, ie Vail CO would be
deeper than Orlando FL., check with your elect board, they will tell you.

The GFCI can be on a breaker at the panel or on the remote outlet. Your choice.

Also Roger, it is easier to buy couplings, rather than worry about the bell ends.

Also, WIZ there is direct burial cable or you can use sealtite, the easiest way and probably cheaper is with PVC. Plus steel conduit(called rigid) should not be direct burial, it will rust when in constant contact with mosture, plus with rigid you have to cut and thread it to length.

 

[Guest]

I got a licensed electrician to run my electic out to the pond are receptical. He used the pvc designed for electrical use, and buried it about 3 inches deep.

My sincere advice is to use a licensed electrician, unless you SERIOUSLY know what you are doing with electricity. it is not something to mess around with.

Wiz, sorry but I disagree with what you said. There are many aspects of "water hobbies" that can be done in a different fashion, but electric, I don't mess with it, and I would never give the type of advice you did to anyone here in the forums.

 

[wiz561]

I don't want to turn this into a flame, but I did say that I was not an electrician and to check with home depot. If I ever have any questions before i start a project, I always do research and talk to a few people before I do it. I find the people at home depot are an excellent source of information, along with many time life books. The best thing to do before you do a project is to research it and find out how numerous people have done it in the past, then make a decisision....or call somebody in to do the job.

 

[Guest]

Wiz,

I Went back and read my response, the wording was rather unfriendly. My apologies for that. I just have strong feelings about electricity (had a fire from it once), so that came out much harsher than I intended. Again, sorry about that.

 

[RogerMcAllen]

Yea wiz, dont' take the wording too literally in the pond forum. It is a much smaller board, so we don't really get a chance to talk to many more people than the active members. A few of us pondies get a little too passionate sometimes. I have done the same thing in the past, just keep posting and you will get into the flow.

 

[AngelFishFan]

I can agree on that one... passionate is an understatement...

 

[pipermurphy]

Hey Corvuscorax(can u explain that name) did you mean 3 feet and not 3 inches?
Also, I would take the people at Home Depot, esp electrical dept with a grain of salt, like anywhere else, they are fallible, there are some really knowledgeable ones out there, but many don't know the finer aspects of the trade. Do research.

 

[Guest]

No sir, I meant 3 inches.
I used an electrician I've used for 5-6 indoor jobs, he does everything, has been in bidness many years. He said 3-4 inches deep was cool, I went with it. It's been, 7 years or so, no problems with it. The GFI outlet let me know when my pump went bad just late last fall. I'm going to replace the outdoor box myself sometime soon, it has a crack in it. Not really where rain can get in, but I figure that's long enough to get a new one. I have enough confidence in my own abilities to do small stuff like this now.

Corvus Corax-- the scientific Latin name for Raven. Started with that handle on NFL football boards (quick, guess my team!), and I use it, or some variation thereof, on all boards since. It's a pain to type, many folks use corv, corvu, even cvx, I'll figure out when you mean me, no worries!

 

[Guest]

good idea
youre the master of distaster