This is our pond in the back yard. We had it put in by a local professional team. The dirt we have is pure clay and is like digging into abobe when it is dry and when wet you can make bricks or throw pots on a spinning wheel. They dug the hole and hauled away the clay.
Typical of someone installing it for someone else they did the fastest and easiest plumbing hookups for the pump. It was PVC pipe all glued in place. Of course when the pump dies it was an ordeal for me to replace. I put in a quick connect for the pump so it is easy to remove and clean the gunk that collect on the intake.
There is a dual filter at the waterfall side and the intake basket has a net and a filter. We have to clean the filters about once every two weeks.
The first year we had it we waited a few weeks before we added fish to give the alga time to season the water. The toads found the pond and we had hundreds of baby toads. And I do me hundreds. We spent a few few evenings rounding up the baby toads and I took them to a local creek. They would have had mass die offs in my back yard with that many. Now the Koi keep the toads and frogs in check. The Koi will eat the toad eggs and young tadpoles.
The dachshund in the photos was convinced we put in the perfect playground just for her. She would spend hours out there hunting for bugs and lizards.