Thanks all for the compliments. The ponds were fun to build and provide a lot of happy memories of summers with the girls. The actual work shown in the video spans a couple of summers. I had almost completed the largest pond prior to the girls arriving. Only three of the four girls were here the first summer so we completed the big pond, one of the streams and two of the smaller ponds. The following summer, when all four were here, we completed the fourth pond and the second stream.
The big pond is about five feet deep. The small pond above the waterfall is only about a foot deep. The two ponds at the heads of the streams are about 2 to 3 feet deep. total system capacity is about 5000 gallons. We used fifteen tons of Arkansas river rock and boulders during construction. The dirt we dug out was used to build the Red Rock Canyon area of the layout. There are two pumps, each located in a skimmer in the big pond. One is 5700GPH; the other is 3300GPH.
I shut off the 3300GPH pump and the flow to the two ponds at the heads of the streams during the winter and move all of the fish to the big pond. I keep the 5700GPH pump and waterfall running all winter.
If I ever get this layout finished, I plan on having a big open house and gold-spike celebration and everyone is invited to attend. Of course, anyone is welcome to stop by before that to check on progress and see the ponds.
