It’s been a long time again…life has kept me busy and while I have completed a variety of house projects, etc, very little woodworking has been taking place. I hope to change that soon.
I did manage to build a decorative “pond” in our backyard with koi in it. It is about 8000 gallons and has a rubber liner, a small waterfall, two pumps and a skimmer. I used a natural bog filter design that should allow me to maintain the pond without chemicals…just adding natural bacteria to the pond from time to time and lots of water plants. The pond is now three months old and we are really enjoying it. The sound from the waterfall is really relaxing. I will begin posting pond-keeping thoughts on this blog as well.
Below are some photos of the pond from back during construction. I will post some more recent photos of the pond fully planted and the fish soon.
Overview of the pond before planting….water was still very cloudy
Waterfall with natural bog above it for filtration (before planting)
Natural bog filter above waterfall before planting – filled with red lava rock
Hope you are all having a good summer!
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About mattsanf
Matt Sanfilippo is the Chief Partnership Officer (CPO) for the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Co-Director of its Engineering Research Accelerator. In this role, Matt coordinates and enables strategic and sponsored research opportunities across the college, and stewards the development of proposals for major research opportunities along strategic themes. Additionally, he enables collaboration among the college's research institute/center executive directors, and industrial and government relations personnel in the pursuit of opportunities with industry, federal and state governments. Before becoming CPO for the College, Matt was the Senior Executive Director for Research Initiatives, the Executive Director of CMU's SII (Smart Infrastructure Institute) and ICES (Institute for Complex Engineered Systems), and Associate Director of PITA (Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance) and RAMP (Research for Advanced Manufacturing in Pennsylvania).
Before CMU, Matt was Managing Director of Applied Technology for Michael Baker Corporation, an engineering and energy services firm. Matt managed Baker's technology division including Geographic Information System (GIS), software and web development, multimedia, virtual reality, visualization, Global Positioning System (GPS), mapping and surveying services. Before joining Baker, Matt was an Innovation Director for Redleaf Group, a Venture Capital/Operating Company focused on information security, supply chain and mobility solutions. While at Redleaf, Matt managed technical due diligence for seed-stage investments and coordinated relationships between Redleaf and their partner companies. Prior to Redleaf, Matt was CIO of GZA GeoEnvironmental Technologies, an infrastructure engineering firm, and operations manager for their Internet start-up that focused on web-technologies for health and safety and manufacturing metrics.
Matt is on the board of Larson Design Group (LDG), past Chairman of the Board for the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, current board member of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (PHLF), current Vice President of the Sewickley Heights Gun Club (SHGC) and former member of the Information Sciences and Technology Advisory Board for the Pennsylvania State University Beaver. Matt is also former Vice President of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Association of Internet Professionals and former Vice President of the Board of Trustees for Baker Combined Charity of Pennsylvania.
A Learning Adventure in the Workshop 
Wow, Matt, this is impressive, nice work!
Thanks Craig!
Matt
Great job, Matt! That looks amazing. I was hoping the koi would be in the picture, but wow… I like what you did with the waterfall. BTW, what’s the GPH strength of the pump that you used to achieve that waterfall effect?
Regards,
Paul
The pond has two pumps, one in the filter and one in the deepest part of the pond. I wanted two so that I could eliminate any deep dead spots since the filter is much shallower than the bottom of the pond. In total the two pumps move about 6000 GPH.