Preparing/pricing out an outdoor pond.

[Mighty Prawn]

I am getting ready to start pricing out an inground/outground pond.

I am trying to compile a list of everything I could possibly need for Calgary.

I'll do up some quick sketches later, but it will be 3 depths, probably at its deepest 3 to 3 and a half feet in the ground, 2 to 2 and a half feet, and than a foot to a foot and a half deep. The walls will all be the same height, probably 1 to 2 feet high. I plant to build a small "bird bath" type deal that will also be a little water fountain pouring into the deepest part of the pond.

I am not well versed in ponds, however. Do I need some kind of sump like I would an indoor aquarium? Or do I simply need a pump to move the water so it doesn't become stagnant? I also imagine I will need some kind of UV steralizer to eliminate extreme algae.

For winter, I am hoping to leave my fish as is in the pond. Either with a pond heater, or a combo of pond heater, and one of those things that floats around the surface all the time.

Any reccomendations on things not to forget, "must haves" or filtration?

I've read that as long as your pond is 3 feet or so in ground you can let the surface freeze and the fish will be fine. I'd still like to keep the water unfrozen however, as long as it won't negatively affect the fish.

The fish will be koi mostly, and some other goldfish that will over winter indoors in an aquarium, or possibly an indoor pond I'd also like to build.

Is there a Gold's or Riverfront of ponds? What I mean by that is independantly owned, operated and with non-big box store prices?

-Hideo