How to Calculate Fish Pond Size
Knowing the total volume of your fish pond allows you to determine the proper filtration system. Since structured fish ponds tend to be of a general shape, such as rectangular or oval, you can easily calculate the surface area of the pond and multiply that figure by the average depth to determine total volume. For irregularly shaped ponds, it might be easier to divide the pond into several basic geometric shapes and total the measurements to determine the surface area.
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Instructions
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Measure the length and width of the pond in feet. Oval ponds should be measured across the center where the distances are greatest. The length and width of circular or square ponds will be the same.
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Multiply width times length to calculate the surface area of rectangular ponds. As an example, if you measured a pond 20 feet by 10 feet, the surface area would be 200 square feet. To calculate the surface area of oval ponds, multiply the width times the length times 0.785. As an example, if you measured 20 feet by 10 feet, then the area would be 157 square feet.
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Measure the depth in several randomly selected locations for ponds with irregular depths. Add the figures and divide by the total number of measurements to calculate average depth. As an example, if you measured 4 feet, 3 feet, 2 feet and 3 feet, you would add those figures --- which total 12 --- then divide by four. Your average depth is 3 feet.
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Multiply the surface area times the average depth to calculate total volume. In the previous examples, you would multiply the 200-square-feet surface area of the rectangular pond by the average depth of 3 feet. This results in a volume of 600 cubic feet. For the oval pond, you would multiply the 157 square feet surface area by the average depth of 3 feet. This results in a volume of 471 cubic feet.
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Convert to gallons by multiplying the volume in cubic feet by 7.48. In the examples, the rectangular pond would have a volume of 4,488 gallons, and the oval pond would have a volume of 3,523 gallons.
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References
- Photo Credit koi image by Paul Moore from Fotolia.com
