There have been similar setups used successfully and shown on this forum, but it's been a while and the designers of those systems were definitely technically minded. I believe they used 55gal. drums. It takes patience and constant fiddling to achieve an equal flow from all barrels as you have shown it..

I would tend to think an equal flow would be better achieved by splitting the intake before it entered the barrels rather than attempting to balance the outflow inline. It would all tend to flow out of the first barrel very fast with less volume from the following barrels. The amount of debris collected would affect the flow unequally as well.

Thanks thats what I was wondering lol. I have been thinking about that all day. Well back to the drawing board lol

Just adding a photo to show one approach to what sleepless said.

This post was edited by nmpondguy on Sun, Jun 30, 13 at 13:36

Now hold on. I believe a stock tank would be more convenient, but 1000 gallons is not a huge pond. You could easily use a plastic 55 gal barrel cut in half or less. For myself with my 700 gal pond/stream I am only using a 20 gal garbage can. That is probably only one half the recommended size but it works fine. I needed twice the flow that this little skippy (mini-me) can handle, so I put a splitter in my line just before the mini-me. Unfortunately, I may not be the best authority because my stream is really doing my filtering extremely well.

Convenient? Once built, Skippy style filters are all pretty convenient. The barrels were only $25, so definitely cheaper than a stock tank. I'd bet these type barrels aren't that hard to find in the Netherlands.

My pond is about 1500 gallons and I haven't had pea soup since I installed the Skippys.

Here is a link that might be useful: My pond before the Skippy filter addition.

This post was edited by nmpondguy on Sun, Jun 30, 13 at 21:08

I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond. I'm going to look into the barrels. In all honesty I dont know the exact size of what my pond is going to be because it is an irregular shape. I have tried doing the math in a variety of ways I have seen on the internet and I get a different number each time. It should be known that I am HORRIBLE at math lol.

I know that there is no way it will be more than 1000 gallons and no less than 500 so I figured if I figure on 1000 gallons and filter for a 1000 gallons then the water would be that much clearer if it is filtering for a pond larger then what I may end up with. Perhaps I'm a fool for thinking that too lol.

Would any of you mind helping me to figure out the gallon amount for my pond design?

I have included an image of the design with measurements but they are in metric so I will give the equivalents here.

For ever 30cm or ".3m" that equals roughly 1 foot. 60cm or .6m in turn would equal 2ft. 1 meter is roughly 3ft. (actually its slightly over but round down to 3ft) The one measurement that isnt on the design is the angled line with is 1.4meter long (roughly 4.5ft)

Also you may notice the blue square grid and those are equal to 10 square centimeters.

I completely understand if no one wants to lol.

I took at stab at it. According to my calculation it will be somewhere between 675 and 700 gals. I did a lot of rounding in my metric to US conversions but I think it's pretty close. A lot will depend on how vertical the rises in the steps and sides are.

THANKS CHEROKEE!!!!

I'm shooting for 90 degree angles as opposed to sloping. I want to make sure i have nice deep places for the goldfish when i get them since they wont be vacationing anywhere for the winter.
py filters and since filtering is a necessity over 3 waterfalls I am just going to have 1 waterfall which will come from my skippy filter cleverly disguised into the waterfall design

LOL! Two 55 gallon barrels would be sufficient for that volume of water. My 100 gallon Skippy does fine for 1,000 gallons of pond. Maybe even one would do.

I managed to find a rain barrel that is rectangular that is 300 liters (79 gallons) Its only 70 Euro (roughly 100 dollars) The skippy website says 70 gallon for up to 2000 gallons and I used my landscaping program to calculate the volume (don't know why i didnt think of it before) and after the changes i made regarding the steps and all that the grand total of the volume at full capacity is 4211 liters which is 1112 gallons. Obviously with the plants and stuff in it its not that much but it would appear im in the clear with one skippy and my new design.

Included in this posting is a picture (to scale) of my pond and waterfall made using Landscape Architect. I think I have enough plants I have 3 oxygenators on the bottom 3 umbrella palm, 6 iris 3 cala lily and 2 regular lily.

What do you think?

(every plant shown here is hardy in my zone. The umbrella palm is questionable if the winter gets below -8c which sometimes it does at night but I can always bring them inside. The others should be just fine.

A hundred dollars is still a lot of money for something you might be able to do for free. I just checked the skipppystuff site. They suggest that a 70 gal stock pond could handle a 2000 gal pond. Therefore, a half barrel or less should be enough. I assume that many foods like pickles must be sold in plastic barrels.

you'd think things would be easy to find like they are in the US but they really arent. Its a whole other world here. Something as simple as food coloring is nearly impossible to find here lol. Everything costs 3 times as much as it does in the US too. 50 Euro for 4 mach 3 cartridges lol!!!! thats like 75 dollars for 4 razor blades. I was delighted to find the one I did for 70 euro thats a bargain!! It needs to be rectangular and tall so that I can use it to fill my waterfall and be hidden at the same time.(space is at a premium in my tiny yard) The only way that is possible is to place it directly behind the wier and boulder up around the whole thing. Skippy Filters may be great but they are not something nice to look at. I'm contemplating just buying a filter but then I feel like I am going to be cheated out of a good filter by not using the skippy since everyone raves about it. If I just buy a fancy filter It would allow me to make a more elaborate waterfall(s) Ive been sold on these skippy filters and im afraid to go fork out hundreds on a manufactured filter and it work like crap.

I'm not so sure that everyone is a fan of skippy filters. I believe I have seen other comments that they don't work all that well. I have certainly said that my long stream does most or all of my filtering. Since you are already designing a multi-level waterfall system, you could create a mini stream along and just above one edge of your pond that allows water to flow through a bunch of plants as your filter. You wouldn't have to build up so much either. OTOH you could dig a big hole for the skippy and not have to build up too much either.

This whole pond planning is stressing me out. The dollar signs (ehrm Euro signs) just keep stacking up and up and up. I think i will just break down and buy a regular filter with UV. The skippy is just to large for my garden. My pond has gone from a conservative couple hundred gallons to over 1200 gallons in a matter of days LOL. My back yard IS SUPER tiny and the area I have to work in is very narrow. I have sandy loam soil so I really worried if I dont use concrete blocks to do the walls in the interior that the whole thing will come crashing down. Our concrete blocks here don't look anything like the ones in the US. These are pretty much solid with 2 tiny holes through the center for vertical rebar. Our frost line is 80cm so that is 2.62 feet deep and Since the fish will be staying in the water that means I need to dig down pretty deep. To top it all off my backyard is complete enclosed by the other townhouses so there is no way to get a cement truck or excavator so it will all be done by hand by me LOL. I really want this but I am frustrated with it and I am driving my husband nuts. (and likely everyone else)