We started with nothin in 2008...

The Pond dig begun around May 1st last year. My husband and son in law dug it with hand shovels and a tiller to help break up the ground... Cost a few lunches and a readily supply of beer.

You can see the spot I knotched out for the pump on the left. We used cinder blocks (about $30 worth) to shore up the falls.

You can also see the two seperate pools at the top. Last year I ran the 5500 GPH pump (nothing else) in a 2' hose split into 2, 1 1/2' hoses that filled the pools. The hose ran in the water along the second step and exited the water just to the left of the falls wrapping around back and dumping into the pools. Cost me about $300 for the pump and $100-$150 for all the hose and attachments to hook it up, plus PVC glue and black rock foam used to lay the rocks in on the falls.

The pump sits in a large black plastic nursery pot (the kind larger plants and trees come in from the nursery) didn't cost a thing because I happened to buy a few trees. I drilled holes in the pot all over to allow water to get through all sides. I used those net washing machine bags made for washing unmentionables and filled them with lava rocks placeing them over the pump as a pre-filter to keep gunk out of the pump. Net bags $8 for 4 and the lava rocks where about $6 for two bags.

I bought I think 4 rolls of roofing felt, I think they were $20 a roll. plus a friend lays carpet for a living so he gave us carpet remnents to put under everything for a case of beer.

The big cost was the 35' x 45' liner which was $900, $150 of that was for shipping.

The order of the the stuff over the dirt is:
Carpet
Roofing Felt
Underlayment

As you can see we could have gone with a slightly smaller piece of liner:

A couple key points are that after I cut the liner, I folded the liner on the edges into a 90 degree angle facing straight up. Put rocks on the inside and rocks and dirt on the outside. This built a lip all the way around the pond so I could fill it even higher and have a slope away from the pond on the outside to plant plants and avoid run off into the pond. I also started with rocks in the water just on the first step. Those have all since been removed. They make it too hard to clean the pond.

I got all the rocks on our property out in the desert so the rocks were no cost. They can be very expensive and I have no doubt had I bought the amount I used it would have been at least a couple thousand...

That was it for last year other than pond plants and decorative plants around the edge which cost can vary depening on your chioce of plants and sources.

The deck I built using the cheepest fencing wood I could get, all in all it probably cost $75 for all the wood, stain and screws.

So total last year was about $1500 for the initial build (I probably spent another $500 in pond and edge plants last year).

This year I decided to rebuild the falls adding two skippy filters behind the falls. I bought the stock tanks, pvc, attachments, scrubbies, another pump (much smaller) and hose. All in all everything cost my about $500.

Here is the link to the thread about the skippy add on this year.

I had no filtration last year and I have high ph so my pond plants that I wanted to be the filters did not do great. I had algae issues and while the water was pretty clear it was never as clear as I wanted. Rather than spending a bunch more money on plants this year and having the same issue I decided to go with the skippy filters. I am going to plant them and the little bog at the top of the falls heavily but not worry as much about the plants in the pond this year.

Within 5 days of running the skippies, my water is crystal clear. It has never been so clear.