Pond Basics – How it works

If you are new to ponds, and find yourself the proud owner of one, follow this step by step to find your pond equipment.  Once you know what you have, you can go from there. 

Photo of a diagram of a pond
Photo of diagram of pond and equipment
Photo of bio fall Pond filtration

The Biofall

This Biofall shown here is not hidden by rocks. It actually is about 2 feet deep! It has bags of BioBalls in it. Some Bio falls have bags of lava rocks or other filter media. Plants may be used to hide the equipment. Remember that you might have to pull these out to clean the bio fall media. I like to use floating plants, they add to the filtration!

Photo of a Biofall with floating pond plants in it
Photo of a diagram of a pond showing the biofall and the skimmer
Photo of Pond skimmer with fake rock and electrical box

This skimmer has a fake rock and is pretty easy to identify. Sometimes they blend in with rocks around them.

Photo of a diagram of a pond showing the biofall, skimmer and pump
Photo of man removing a pond pump
Photo of a pond pump box with pipes

An external pump could look something like this, or it may be more complicated.
There are creative ways to set up pond equipment and plumbing!

Photo of a diagram of a pond showing what's in a skimmer
Photo of a pond skimmer and filter pad

This is skimmer also has a basket that goes above the filter pad that is not shown here.  The pump is under the filter pad. 

Photo of a pond skimmer with green bristles

Not all skimmers look the same.  This one has bristles.

skimmer door

This skimmer has bristles too, looks like 2 sets of them and a hanging filter pad. 

Photo of a diagram of a pond showing equipment and aerators
Photo of a pond with air bubbles and a pink water lily

If you look closely, you can see there there is a column of bubbles coming up and bubbling to the surface. This shows there is an aerator in the water.

Photo of an Aquascape aerator

This is an Aquascape aerator with 2 outlets. The discs would be in the water and the motor would be hidden under a fake rock.

Photo of a Crystal Clear Aerator

There are many brands of aerators.  This one is a Crystal Clear.

Photo of a diagram of a pond showing Biofalls, skimmer and aerators
Photo of a diagram of a pond fake rock
Photo of two types of Aquascape pond automatic dosers

The one on the left is an Aquascape Autodose. (about the size of a long loaf of bread) It has bacteria in it during the warm months to slowly dose the pond daily with exactly what it needs. Usually this is covered with a fake rock to protect the display. The one on the right is the same think, newer model.

Photo of a pond diagram and GFCI information
Photo of a GFCI outlet

You can see the GCFI button between the 2 outlets. Sometimes this pops and has to be pushed back in. It could pop again right away, indicating a problem with something plugged in to it.

Photo of a pond diagram showing where the pipe is buried

This is the basics of a typical pond.  Your pond may be slightly different and have different equipment. 

Check out our Pond Equipment Photo Comparison page to figure out what equipment your pond has.

Ready to figure out how many gallons of water is in your pond?  Get a tape measure and follow our directions before measuring.  Pop in your numbers and we will tell you how many gallons your system has.  (just click the calculator!)

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