Pond help

Hi,
I have some questions about a pond I'm going to build.
1. Is the MacCourt 125-Gallon High Density Polyethylene Pond Liner at Lowes better than the Total Pond 7 ft. x 10 ft. Pond Liner at Home Depot?
2. The pond is going to be around 100 gallons or more what's the best filter for a pond. And how could I make a canister filter work on a pond?
3. My fish choice is sail fin molly, swordtails, guppies, comet goldfish or fancy goldfish. Which would be better in a pond around 80oF at times, but I want something colorful. And I would like to keep a few bristle nosed plecos in the pond would these be okay?
4. Would keeping mystery snails in a outside pond be bad? Could they get loose into another pond? There is another pond close by...
5. If I got goldfish how many could I keep in a 100+ pond.
6. Waterfall kits. I can't find any information on making a nice looking waterfall for the pond. I will be using the dug up soil to make the waterfall higher and then use stones to cover most of the soil that's "holding" the waterfall. After mostly covering it with stone, plant some small ground cover plants or vines. Would this effect the waterfall in any way?
7. I'm going to plant large plants on the southeast side for shade, will this help with algae problems? I would like a little bit of the pond to get some light, so I can plant high light aquatic plants there.
8. Aquatic plants for the pond, low light and high light any suggestions? I already was planning to get waterlilies and duckweed for added shade.
9. Will any of the fish listed previously eat my plants?
Thanks for any answers!

 

Hello.

1) No clue. They are most likely both good quality. If they are just liner material and not rigid structures then you might find a better price online.

2) There are a lot of simple filter plans online, or you could buy one. Ebay has some pretty good deals on pond canister filters, but it looks like most still need some kind of pump. Many utilize rocks and gravel, sometimes sand, or more traditional filter media. A good high volume pump is important, I don't know if there's a 'standard' gph ratio like there is for tanks, but a basic one for aquarium canisters is around 5:1 turnover per hour, the more the better. In most cases I recommend at least twice as much since too much filtration is rarely an issue.

3) The bigger question is what will the lowest temperature in the pond be, and do you plan to overwinter the fish inside?

4) It would be bad if they aren't native to your area. And yes they can and will migrate from your pond to another.

5) It depends, fancy goldfish I'd probably stock 5-6 with heavy filtration, for comets, shubunkins, "feeder" goldies I would only put 3-4 in there.

6) There's a few different styles of waterfalls I've seen, but most usually incorporate a stack of rocks. If you go with a barrel or 5 gal bucket style filter, you can use the outflow on it as the waterfall and just build up rocks or whatever around it.. This would serve dual purpose since it would give you the waterfall feature you want as well as hide the filtration system. Just look around online for different plans for this, youtube is another good resource. Remember that if you do use the filter as a waterfall, it needs to be accessible for maintenance, so build wisely.

7) Plants will help with shading, but if you intend to grow high light plants in there you will most likely need to run a UV.

8) It's really up to you, depends on your goal really. You'll be able to grow most things out there so it may end up being more about what you want to look at.

9) The goldfish will. They may work with some emergent pond plants if they are tough stemmed or are protected from nibbling with some sort of caging.

 

Thanks so much! For number 3 I wouldn't overwinter the fish, but it doesn't get very bad here. The lowest temperature in spring, summer and fall would be above 50oF in the pond. #4 Any good snails for a pond, that won't migrate? I'm also looking for a decent looking snail, not like bladder snails. #6 Thanks for the great idea!!! So more questions!
1. Can I have mollies? They're now my #1 choice. Taking the goldfish of the list.
2. I saw on a website a diagram of a pond canister filter. It was a pump connecting to a 5 gallon bucket with a canister filter, so I guess I could use that to make the waterfall?
3. Are mollies going to be okay with shipping?
4. Any good places to find a cheap, but quality pond liner?
Sorry for so many questions! But thanks for the amazing information!

 

Mollies are probably not going to do too well as the water drops below 70f. You can make a filter out of a 5 gallon bucket by itself, you just need a good pond pump (i'd get 500gph+ for a 100 gal pond). Mollies do ship well. I like using halfoffponds.com

 

Thank you! What if I had a adjustable heater? Could I keep the water temperature around 80oF? Also any info on gulf coast pygmy sunfish, orange throat darter, blue fin killifish and Florida flagfish?