I set the whiskey barrel on the ground next to the pond. Ran a hose from my submerged pump in my pond up over the side and into the bottom of the whiskey barrel. I recommend a shut off valve in this hose so your filter doesn't drain back into the pond when you shut your pump off. Set 2 small bricks in the bottom, then rested an upside down lid from a 35ga plastic trash can with many 3/8" holes drilled thru it on top of the bricks. This lets the water circle the barrel and flow upwards. Then I added an ~ 3" layer of plastic scrubies in a nylon mesh laundry bag, and then a layer of lava rocks about 3-4" deep. Topped it off with floating and marginal plants. As the water overflows the barrel it runs down my falls and back to the pond. For the falls I used a preformed 'streamlet' ($5 on sale) and just placed rocks in and around it to hide the plastic. I never clean mine, but do drain and rinse it out to store for winter.

This shows it before the rocks were done and the plants have grown up:

This is later:

Happy ponding!

My original 2005 pond (closest to the deck in the 2nd photo and the one the skippy runs into) is a 300ga rubbermaid stock tank (~ $100). It is 5'5"x5'5"x 28" deep. It is buried 3/4 in the ground so about 6-8" sticks out. I have several submerged plants, and many marginals hanging in pots by 'S' hooks on the sides, and 2 waterlilies. I use dwarf varities. I have 8 goldfish/sarassa comets/shubunkins that started at ~2" and are now 5-6" long. At first I didn't feed them at all, but I like to see them when I'm sitting next to it so started feeding a pinch of food every other day. Never more than they can clean up in a few minutes. I use regular goldfish flakes (seems to float longer than the pond mix).

I originally had a 640gph pump (a cheapie, ~ $30) that ran from pond to skippy via garden hose, then the skippy poured out down the tiny falls to the pond. I do use a pre filter (bucket with quilt batting) in the spring when I get green murky water - clean the batting every other week. This winter I bought a 1250gph pump cause I'm expanding my skippy to a 60ga oval tank to hold more plants, sort of a bog filter, and thus my waterfall/stream will be a bit longer.

In 2006 I added a 2nd pond (the one the fake heron is perched over), a 275ga liner pond (on sale $60 including 300ga pump w/ spitter), roughly 3'x5'x18" which I don't like nearly as well, mostly cause I wasn't a very careful digger so the bottom is sloped and the plant shelves not level so are pretty worthless. I find it harder to keep clean and harder to get into if I need to. My 1/2 barrel skippy will go on this pond this year with the 640ga pump, and it will only have plants and 2 goldfish to keep mosquitoes down. Last year the 6 feeder goldies I put in there produced 29 1" babies by fall which I managed to kill in a poorly planned effort to overwinter them in an aquarium indoors (never had one before in my life, won't make the same mistakes again).

The deck I built myself, ~ $250.

Several hints - I love my stock tank, but you can get an off brand now that is 8' round for $120 - I'd do that in a second! Everyone wants a bigger pond once they're hooked! See tanks in posts by catherinet, catfishsam, watergal, and others. If you plan and plant it right they look very natural once the plants grow. Be sure it's LEVEL - I spend alot of time trying to hide the 'high' side cause mine isn't. You can never have too many plants - for shade, filteration, etc. Keep the fish #'s low, or start with a couple bigger goldies so the control their own reproduction. ENJOY both the process of creation and the final result! It will always be aworkinprogress :) but I love every minute I spend on my water garden!

S