Maggie5
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Sep 17, 2004, 12:59 AM
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Need advice on DIY pond filter
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Hi,
my friends recently bought a new house, with a small (~300gal) pond in the back. They don't have any experience with ponds, and neither have I, but since I have aquarium fish, they asked me to help them out.
So far they only have a ~250GPH filter sitting in the pond, no filtration attached, no nice return flow, just spitting the water right back into the pond. They have a pretty bad algae problem, too (no surprise there).
So, I'd like to build a DIY filter for the pond. I've been browsing the web for DIY plants, but I still have some concerns and questions.
Since the pond is rather small, I was thinking of using a 5gal bucket or rel. small Rubbermaid container for an external filter. I'd rather invest in good filter material than get a big barrel, since there's little space around the pond.
I've found a lot of plans for filters with the inflow at the bottom of the container. Since the pond pump is pretty weak, I'm concerned that it won't be strong enough to pump the water against gravity. None of the DIY plans I found specified how strong a pump you need for an upflow filter. Or should I consider a filter with inflow at the top instead, and let gravity help?
Also, if I put he inflow at the bottom of the container, how can I connect the pipe/hose securely to the container?
My current (tentative) plan for the filter looks like this:
- get a foam block to stick over the pump inflow to keep out the largest pieces of debris.
- pump the water into the container (either at bottom or top)
- One design I've seen that I liked is one that pumps the water into the container at the top. There are several vertical pipes sticking up in the container with open cell foam around them. The water goes through the foam into the pipes which combine at the bottom and run to the outflow.
This one should be fairly easy on the pump.
- Another design I've seen is one in a rectangular crate. The water flows in on one side at the top. There's a vertical partition with filter material (air vent mats) to filter out the large stuff, then a partition with some sort of pellets (bio balls or something similar) and an outflow on the other end at the bottom. That design should also be relatively easy on the pump.
I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions. Do you think this type of a filter would work? Any specific recommendations for cheap but efficient filter material? Thanks
Maggie
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