Had to Subscribe. After fixing a dry rotted hose this morning, I later realized that a may have dropped a rock in the pond, tearing the liner and created a mid liner water bubble. I thought I may take this time to redo the pond, get the pump out hte pond & into a skimmer (finally). Since I was gonna have to lay a new liner anyway, I just needed to see what I was looking at as far as difficulty. I appreciate the two options in the vid. Wish you were in the Maryland area to knock it out for me! lol
I'm planning a pond that needs to be simple and inexpensive. It's getting more complicated as I go along! I'm wondering, could I do a simpler intake bay using a submersible, smaller pump (with a cage type housing built around it) and put it in a chamber without all the fancy plumbing connections? I love the idea of how an intake bay functions but I'm wondering if I can simplify the set up? Thanks for this great video!
I built something similar years ago. I used plastic milk crates turned upside down, with rocks and gravel on top for the intake bay. Pvc pipe ran from under the milk crates to the pump placed at the top of a small waterfall. Hid the pump behind a rock. Easy to get to the pump for maintenance. Worked great.
This is a great video! Thank you! Do I need both an intake, bay and a skimmer? I’ve always had a skimmer, but last year lost a lot of baby fish to the skimmer… I think an intake bay looks nicer and would protect my fish. Should I get rid of the skimmer or do I need both?
@@pondscapesaz my pond is about 18,000 liters. It has a bottom drain and a skimmer. The skimmer gets clogged during the fall. Would four Aquablocks be sufficient?
Baruch David Greenman there are a lot of things to consider to size the amount of aqua blox in your pond. With a heavy debris load and this size of pond I would install a minimum of 9 aqua blox.
@@pondscapesaz I'm planning on rebuilding the pond. I will make a 2*2 meter wetland filter for the waterfall. Do you still think I'll need that many blocks for the intake?
What happens when it Freezes in Winter..? Will the frost in ground push up your skimmer as its not below frost level ? Will all my floating fish pellets get eaten by my fish or by the Skimmer ? Thanks nice Video............ ☺........
Great questions. In our region “freezing” only happens in the ice box. However these are issues are common in Atlantis Water Gardens and Decker’s Pondscapes area’s. For feeding I would suggest a floating “feeding ring” that keeps the food contained.
ludwigrx this video gives some details on the construction of an intake bay for a turtle pond we did. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5SjkEw1Ul8k.html
Technologyadvisor1 that’s a pretty small intake. My first question would be what is the max flow rate for you filtration setup? Based off your dimensions I would say no more than a 2,000gph pump would work for you.
Pondscapes Az the small intake bay is to supplement a 6000l/h pump in a rectangle pond I am linking 2 ponds together water volume is about 3000 litres. One pond is about 1 meter round. 2 feet deep other rectangular shape 1.5 meter long 1 meter wide 3 feet deep
Technologyadvisor1 after watching your video I have a better understanding of what you are trying to accomplish. My suggestion would be to raise the elevation of you “wildlife pond”. To do this I would create a retaining wall of boulders or block work around the the pond so that the water level is higher than the lower koi pond. This way you do not have to cut into the wall.
This is so misleading. The only reason your access on the intake bay is difficult is because of what YOU CHOSE to place over it. You just as easily could have put a light, fake rock over it, too. But you chose to put a real rock (which is heavier) and smaller rocks / gravel, both of which are difficult to move and replace. But sure, you’re selling the expensive product.
There is a 2” Bulkhead in the bottom of the bowl. I drilled the bowl out. The new bowls come with a 1”female thread already installed which works fine for the amount of flow the bowl can handle.
Thank you for the video. Still left some questions. It appears that on an Intake Bay you could get build up of sediment between the rocks leading to a big clean out someday and a diminished water flow to the pump. You also said that it eliminates the ugly mechanical structures like a Skimmer, but its apparent you still have the 'Pump Vault' that is the same size as a skimmer! So I am not seeing the advantages of the Intake bay. JMO.
clayton seamons The intakebay does not remove the need “routine maintenance” in a pond no matter how it is designed. If regular maintenance is performed there will be no issues just like with a skimmer set up. Yes a pumpvault is required for the intake bay design however if properly implemented it is very easy to disguise and not be as obvious at the edge of the pond like a skimmer. By the way I never called the mechanical skimmer “ugly”. Thanks for watching. 👍
Ralph, thank you for the great comparison video! My brother and I will be building, just under, a 500 sqft rec pond that will be around 5 ft depth. In this scenario would you recommend the intake bay or the skimmer? We have already planned to build out a wetland filter. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
I have a 18,000 liter pond. Unfortunately I have an exposed liner. Not covered with rocks like Aquascape. I do have a giant upflow filter like a wetland. We have so many trees and lots of algae outbreaks. My large external pump keeps burning out do to too much organic material getting past the skimmer. If I make a giant inlet, won't it get blocked with algae and leaves?
Ralph, I know this is an older video but I need to add an intake bay. I would love to have it installed professionally by Pondscapes Arizona. I would like to discuss uss this video. We have spoken briefly a month or so ago. It was a different conversation at the time but please have Allison give me a text she has my number.
Hello Betty! Can you please text the office your contact information. Pondscapes office 480-987-7781. We will be happy to give you a call on Monday. Have a great weekend!
Can an intake bay be a wetland planting areas as well? Wouldn’t the debris etc eventually be broken down or filtered down through the rocks, or even be supplemented with the wetlands. And what is the cost differences if any. Do they they to have to be shallow , or a few more inches of water is not a big deal.
You can plant within an intake bay “IF” you created planting areas that don’t impede the function of the water flow through the aquablox and maintain the vegetation often. I recommend flushing the aquablox clean approx every 6months depending on debris load. The cost is more for an intake bay. Several factors will determine the cost. I prefer between 8” - 12” of water depth in the intake.
Well done explanation Ralph! You're one of my favorite water feature expert "U-tubers". Looking forward to seeing perhaps a video of the construction of an intake bay in of your future projects! Keep up the great work.
Thank you Geert! Our latest video has an intake bay. I knew you’d ask that question 😁😜 (Turtle Pond Paradise Turtle Pond Paradiseru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5SjkEw1Ul8k.html
Me again I feel like you're my trusted source for information ? How Do u build deck footing in the pond I've seen decks being build over ponds and the footings are in the pond How does one make them water tight How does one not damage the liner and finally is pressure treated wood ok In a pond environment
I am honored to be your trusted pond resource ☺️. There are really several ways to install a footing in a pond. We have pored concrete into of a formed cage of rebar with vertical sonotubes. Before building the concrete forms you would lie down extra fabric or rock pad on top of the liner to protect it. Additives can be applied to the concrete to make it safe for fish and plant life in the pond. Also you can use pressure treated wood in the pond I would suggest maturing tthe wood even further by soaking it in water for as long as possible before installation. Your best bet is to try to avoid any of the above suggested methods and build the deck to cantilever or overhang the pond without actually being supported in the pond. This takes away any potential issues that could result with the deck within the pond.
Ralph Thanks for all your videos. Awesome and really helpful. So you have an intakebay and a skimmer on your pond. I am thinking of the same for my 10 x 15 pond with 4 feet deep. . Aquascape Skimmer feed the water to Biofalls and intakebay feed the water to Wetland filter. Let me know if you have any other suggestions.
We have done intakes with skimmers in the same sections of a pond but seems to be redundant and just adds to the cost and complexity. I prefer simplicity of one or the other. Mine has both options to show people the difference between them.
Hi there, thank you for the great explanation! Do you sometimes associates both a skimmer AND an intake bay? I saw this in an older video from the Aquascape squad and cannot really understand the rationale for this unusual association. Thanks !
Hey awesome video. Question what’s a good small recreation aquascape pond you can swim in without being to massive that you would recommend? Something around 3x3metres wide and deep enough to stand up in as a guess?
Question- Do you recommend having both on a pond? I was going to have a centipede bog filter. Would you recommend having both a intake bay, and skimmer?
hey Ralph do u prefer a intake bay ? or a mechanical skimmer reason ask is I have a customer that wants something easy to maintain as in no maint LOL thanks keep up the great VLOGS
The biological filter is integrated into the waterfall on the type of systems we build. So you’re getting the beauty of the waterfall without having to hide and external pressure filter.
Is there another pump on the bottom of the pond? Or a bottom drain? How does the intake bay pump match the flow if there is another bottom pump that goes to a wetland filter?
Just one pump in the “pump vault” within the intake-bay area. Bottom drains is not something we do in our type of systems. Check out this video to give a better understanding of what the construction of a intake-bay looks like Ecosystem Pond with INTAKE BAY
Two notches in the side of the pump vault with the mounting straps ran through the slots and around the dosing tank. Holes drilled into the dosing tank so pond water floods the tank to keep from floating and keep water treatments from getting too hot in the AZ summers.