We've had our pond for probably 20 years and now we'd like to have a filter system. So far it has done fine with cleaning each spring. We replace 2/3 of the water and keep on going. If anyone could tell us an inexpensive way to make a filter, we would appreciate it. It is probably a 600 gallon cement pond and we do have a pump to recirculate and aereate the water.
How do we make a filter system?
Well, since no one more experienced has answered, I'll jump in. A biological filter is actually very easy to make. All you need is a container, some filter media, and hose to connect it to your pump and back to the pond. Here's a link to the thread I had when I built my filter. If you look at the posts starting April 23, you'll see how I built the waterfall filter I have.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/497510/
Of course, there are other ways. One way is to use a stock tank. Attach your water hose towards the bottom on one side, the have the outlet towards the top on the other side so that the water flows in at the bottom, filters up through your media, and then out the top and back into the pond or down your waterfall. You can use any number of things for filter media. People use lava rocks, or gravel, or fiberfill (very messy). The idea is to have a lot of surface area for the bacteria to grow on. The bacteria will form without any help from you. I chose to use the savio filter media, even though it was expensive, because it's easy to use and is especially designed for biofilters. Lava rocks would work just as well.
There is lots of information on the web if you do a search on building biological filters. Good luck.
Pixydish,You look like a night owl like me. I am totally amazed how beautiful your pond is and enjoyed seeing the progression of it. If we had it to do over we would have done a better job on our pond. Granted, I love our pond and have enjoyed it but we did a couple things wrong. When we built it, it was before everyone had one and there wasn't much info out there on building ponds. For one thing my next one will be level. Can't believe we didn't think of that. The filter system you mentioned sounds good. I'll have DH read all about it and we'll try making one. It should clear up our pond a whole lot. Thank you for the information. SheVerne
SheVerne, you're right, I'm a bit of a night owl, but I try to get to bed at a reasonable time! I'm curious about why you want to add a filter now. The filter I described is a biological filter, but you would probably do well to add a mechanical filter as well because that will get all the big stuff out of the water - leaves and such. If you don't have a mechanical filter, how do you keep your pump from getting clogged with debris? 600 gallons is a lot of water to clean out.
Here's a website you might enjoy looking at. They have good information about biological and mechanical filtration.
http://www.skippysstuff.com/
Glad you enjoyed the photos of my pond. I, too, made lots of errors and would do some things differently if I had it to do over again.
Pixydish
I use quilting batting and lava rocks layered in the tank I built to stage the water for the waterfall. It works pretty well and the cost is minimal.
I'm not sure how your pond is set up ... my aunt has a cement pond that is rather "formal" in its appearance and really is unable to accomodate a waterfall. That said, a waterfall feature is (potentially) a great way to disguise a filtration device. In fact, a waterfall can easily BECOME your filtration system with a little ingenuity and a touch of trial and error.
In my case, I "neeeeeded" a larger pond. Pond number prior was a 110 gallon solid PVC-type liner. I exhumed that puppy from the ground this spring, back-filled the hole from whence it came, used some concrete to hold six 4x4 posts to support said solid liner, and VOILA! I now have a kickass waterfall AND filtration system all in one:
A 5,300gph pump pushes unfiltered water through 2" tubing from the new pond, up and around to the "old pond" (aka: the heretofore referenced "raised waterfall basin") in which there lies a large Rubbermaid storage bin.
Yes ... there's a large Rubbermaid (or some other garden variety knock-off brand) sitting inside of my old pond/waterfall basin.
Within this Rubbermain bin I have layered several types of filter media that cleans up the water quite nicely before allowing it to escape the closed Rubbermain bin and ultimately allowing it to cascade over the waterfall proper. This bin also helps "baffle" the flow of water and allows me to jam pack the --- uh, hem -- "raised waterfall basin" with quite the profusion of aquatic plants without them feeling like they're in a river or some other sort of torrential deluge. The plants as of today consist of Thalia, "Lizard Tail" plant, a couple alocasia species (taro/elephant ear plants) and all sorts of other nifty little leafed (and non-leafed) buggers. There is also a large population (if you will) of anacharis, hornworts, and other submerged "oxygenators" in this basin as well (helps protect them from koi, if nothing else). I also hang my UV filter on the back of this basin, which will ultimately help in providing the overall pond area with a cleaner, less mechanically cluttered appearance ... or so I hope.
Sad to say, I have very few pics of this year's project. Here's one of the Frankenstein Filter in question:
(bear in mind that this is a work in project and the final project won't have hoses and whatnot hanging all over the place as was the case this morning when I took this picture)
Seriously, though ... tell us a little more about the dimensions of the pond, the pump, etc. Heck, pictures would be even better! :o) I've tried a lot of things over the years insofar as homemade filtration is concerned, and one of the primary factors typically seems to be how well I am able to "hide" the filtration device once tested and completed.
2vernes, I've never really counted all the ways to make a biofilter but I strongly suspect that there are a lot more than 50 or so!!! I'm embedding a few links in this post (see below) that hopefully give you some ideas for do-it-yourself (DIY) type projects. Based on the zone where you live it doesn't appear that cycle time would be a major factor in what you choose to do (that's the time it takes for your biofilter to become effective in converting ammonia over to nitrates). In our zone some people prefer trickling filters since they appear to have a slight edge on the cycle time. Personnally, I've got both a trickling filter, a skippy filter as well as a purifalls unit - but then I like to tinker. As to bio-media? You want it to be light so that it's not a chore to remove. You want it to have lots of surface area per unit volume of the stuff. You can purchase material such as bio-ribbon or bio-fil but you can also purchase the plastic strapping that they use in shipping things (and, no, it doesn't really matter whether it's 'rough' or 'smooth'). In fact, if you know that they're going to have a large cookout somewhere just ask them to give you all those used plastic forks, knives and spoons!! It's all about surface area since the nitrifiers prefer to grow on a surface rather than remain suspended. Much of what you may choose to do ultimately comes down to what you intend to do with your water garden. If you are going to have fish in it and you're going to feed them at the rate of 2% of their body weight (this is sort of the upper end of what some do) then you'll need a lot more surface area in your biofilter than if you're going to have a comet in the pond that you're going to let 'graze off the land'.
If, after you've looked through these links and you have any questions I'll try to help - I have to confess that I'm not routinely on this website every day but will try to make an effort to check in over the next week or two. You, or anyone else, should feel free to drop me an e-mail (just in case I've fallen asleep and my wife needs to wake me up!). Hope this helps.
http://www.mikebentley.com/ponds/homemadefilters.htm
http://aquanic.org/publicat/state/il-in/ces/ces-240_biofilter.htm
http://rodandjenn2.home.mchsi.com/Adam_s_Filter/adam_s_filter.html
http://www.skippysstuff.com/biofiltr.htm
There are many more sites but sometimes too much information is more confusing than helpful.