Hi -
Call me crazy - how about placing the filter where the palm tree is now and the pond on the lawn next to the swimming pool with a really great waterfall interconnecting the two?

You could still have the discharge box next to the pond as well as the mechanial filters then pump to the biological filter where the palm tree is now ... Sorry - just thinking aloud....
Chris

An idea like this put into practice -

The hole to the left was the lawn - now converted into a pond - to the right behind the retaining wall is the filter chamber
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Being creative with the link between the filter chamber and the pond i.e. disguising the retaining wall
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The finished waterfall created over the retaining wall.
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This pond is in East London and we arrived at this design exchanging ideas during a pond visit when we had a KOIndaba there last year.

Roy can tell us a little more about it now that it is running. And Roy tell us how the baby koi are out-growing anything in East London that have been placed on top of the stone bed of the filter chamber!

Hi Chris, that was one option. I have been debating where to put the pond for about 2 months now, and have changed my mind many times. This way the water will be right up by the verandah, so sitting there we could view the fish from close up. I love that. I have a huge property, but it mostly slopes down, but we do have great views.
I could have moved some of the large shrubs so that i didnt take up the whole grass area by the pool.
I even considered changing the pool into a koi pond but that might have devalued the property a bit.