DIY Shower / Trickle Filter for a Koi / Fish Pond by PondGuru 

Click 'SHOW MORE' for full video description + links - Watch in HD. Decent set of 4 plastic boxes: geni.us/iGvq Stronger option for larger filters: geni.us/tBdZg Biohome and Pumice: www.filterpro.co.uk The shower filter set up on outdoor aquarium: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EL9HR_Y3-40.html 'How To' video showing the building of a very effective and extremely cheap shower filter for a fish pond. The media types in this video are as follows: Flocor = a very cheap and quite ineffective plastic media in any situation. Supports aerobic bacteria. Large Hel-x = a quite effective plastic media for a shower filter but more suitable for a large moving bed filter. Supports aerobic bacteria. Hel-x 13 = decent media for a shower filter but like other plastic media it only really supports aerobic bacteria. Good alternative to K1 in a moving bed filter as it has 40% more surface area per volume. Gravel = it is definitely not the best natural media but is better than plastic. Supports mainly aerobic bacteria as it tends to be not very porous. Alfagrog = A decent cheap ceramic media which does quite well in a shower filter. Good surface area but poor porosity so it takes ages to build up anaerobic bacteria. However it will support both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria when well established which could take a year or so to affect nitrates. Pumice = a great natural filter media if the correct type is selected. The pumice I used in this video came from a supplier specialising in pumice for drinking water purification so it has an excellent reliable internal structure. Will support a decent balance of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria for nitrate reduction. Biohome Ultra = A sintered glass filter media which was created for use in shower filters and large aquarium sumps. Effective in fresh or salt water and its internal structure is perfect for supporting aerobic and anaerobic bacteria in great balance so is the best choice if the aim of the filter is full cycle filtration (nitrate reduction). I sell some of the media types above on my website here: www.filterpro.co.uk FILMING EQUIPMENT: Panasonic HC-VX870 geni.us/3UwE Rode stereo microphone: geni.us/4OL Rode deadcat mic cover: geni.us/1pmn If you have found this video useful feel free to share it anywhere you think other people may benefit from viewing it. Check out the nation of other aquatic videos on my channel. Thanks for watching. Pondguru.

Didnt realize you were back at doing fish videos so glad you are. Something awesome to watch on youtube again. Thank you Pond Guru

Mr.PondGuru just really wanted you to know that without your video I would have just ended up with a big muddy hole with adequate water. Now thanks to your filtration concept I finally have crappie, bream, and other sunfish actually breeding like drunk rabbits during the apocalypse! Thank you and God bless.

hands down the best pond filter build on RU-vid!!!! beautiful pond too!!!

Just finished putting this on my pond, 2500 litre raised sleeper goldfish pond. Have the pump connected to a pressure filter then on to the DIY shower which is 4 boxes high and has about 20-25 kilo of alfagrog. So delighted with it so far.

Made this with 2 boxes and pumice stone the other day works great! thanks for the vid mate.

Very useful information and very well explained, love watching your videos and find them very useful with helping me and my new pond construction. Thanks for posting. Stephen

After watching this video decided to give this trickle filter a go. What can I say absolutely brilliant, the difference after only 5 days running are amazing (just wish I could post before and after photos. I used 3 sponges in top box then mature alfagog from my old filter in other 4 boxes, with a flow rate of 5000lph water is crystal clear without a uv purifier. Great videos Pond Guru, become a bit of an addict during lockdown, not jealous of your pond at all.........😜😜

every video I see from You, teach me more and more interesting things, just THANK U!!!

Thanks for explaining biological aspect and showing diff media types. Question: do all boxes in system contain same media as the one box you showed?

watching this in 2021 and such a great step by step build and has inspired me to build my own on my newly built indoor 1000 gallon koi pond 👍

Great idea, that's the filter for my pond that I'm building this year !

I've been working on aquarium/vivarium projects on a much smaller scale but I LOVED your video!! super informative and I love your accent!!! hello from a new fan from the US!!

spent a lot of time looking at different styles and actually purchased items for another type until I saw this video. luckily I can stilll return that bucket and try this. Thank you

One word ( Brilliant) thank you for sharing your knowledge.

hi , so pleased you kept this video up . I'm just about to copy your shower , ive just ordered 3kg of your Biohome ultra from you . i'll be making up the shower box's over the weekend . Geoff

Awesome video. Thank you. I've seen a few others, but yours was detailed, visual, and straight to the point. Thank you.

Well done. Great viewing and well explained.

A fantastic idea and a nice easy diy project. Thank you.

I have been waiting for this video in a long time. Wish I saw it when I started my pond

Great filter my friend. Nice and neat as well . I will refer back to this video when building mine. Thanks.

You are the man. What a great idea for a cheap filter. well done for a great video again.

Hi, your video helped me a lot!!! Thanks so much. Question: What water pump you use?

Very helpful!!! Thanks for sharing your ideas.

Just beautifully done.

we built one today, it was just as easy as you said. thanks!

This is awesome, great video brother, thanks for the walk thru

Amazing Video and Amazing Point of View .

Matur sembah nuwun pakde tutore mantull ...😁👍

Hey Rich good video as usual, I use bio home media and peat balls in my discus tank and I attribute some of my success to those two products enjoy all your vids

I absolutely love your videos, so helpful! I had an idea I'd like your opinion on. Last summer I hand dug a 10ft x 5ft x 4ft deep pond. Before this I've never even owner a fish tank. Now that the ice has melted I've noticed a good bit of leaves in my pond. My idea was to use my wet/dry vac with a mesh bag inside to vacuum out the leaves while letting the bottom port on the vac open so the water could flow right back out. I only have 5 large (roughly 10in) fish in my pond who always avoid where I'm working in the pond so no little ones to be sucked up.. Do you think this could work to do my spring cleaning of the pond? Or maybe links to your own videos on pond cleaning. Thank you!!

nice job and very cheap!, will try setting this up above the first bay in my bay filter, its deffo gotta help improve water quality !!

Excellent video. May try this next year!

always very good video pondguru. and nice explanation. again my fish tank working super good after I use you biohome media. no ammonia. also no nitrate and n. almost over one year. Regards Edwin

I'm enjoying your videos!

finally made this filter for my koi pond(that i watched and learned how to make from you back in 2013 at 14yrs old) and it made a huge difference in a day!!!! thanks for sharing this.

Omg wow!!!, perfect for my 2,000 liter koi pond. Thank you.

When I have a bad day I play the part several times from 15:28 to 15:34, tears in my eyes with laughter ... My day goes all the way hahahaha 😎😄

Great video. I wrote on a blog from which I'm a member about your system, which I copied. I didn't use boxes, but a plastic chest of drawers (5 drawers) and it is working perfectly. I don't use strong pumps, but two that don't use much electric and made two of these trickle filters, which are running for more then 8 months now. The pond was green, but it soon turned back to a very clear pond. In the beginning I had to change the soft filtermedia or wash it out a lot, but now maybe once a month. Besides that I put an airstone connected to an airpump at one end of the pond, which is helping of course. Also I increased the filter time. I turned the filtering of at night, but now the pumps are running 24/7. The water looks so clean that I use it to cool off, swim between my fishes and feed them by hand! By the way I live in Thailand, so one of the concerns here is algea. My pond is divided into one big pond and some smaller basins, which are carrying above water plants. That's the only place green algea is growing. In the big pond itself there is except for some kind of growth of a spungy thick layer of whatever that sits only where there is a lot of watermovement no visible growth of algea. The fish help maintaining this pond.

excellent delivery. i live your video. straight to the point and informative. thanks. thumb up.

Thanks for this video going to build one next week.

Brilliant you are far from boring thats for sure ! thankyou so much just what i was looking for :-)

Great video mate...can't wait to build one...👍

good job, alreet, my koi are growing proper like man. Thx 4 the info.

Thank you for the info. very much appreciated.

I like your fabricating technique...use of the "calibrated eyeball"...

building mine today ty for a great upload :)

Thank you very much for your helpful video 👍

Ha great job - I guess that would work so well. Don't think I could use that in my 250ltr aquarium though. The BioHome media is amazing, very quick to setup and I use it in all my systems..

thanks for the tips .

Great job on this filter.

I Assume that all the other boxes have the same filter material? Correct?

Great video! I think it would be very interesting to see how this performs compared to say an Oase filtoclear, I would imagine when filled with Biohome that its filtering capability's are untouchable for it's price. I think this is defiantly going to be a summer project for me.

I have a 3-ft deep pond, and I could only see one inch below the surface with green algae, I made this filter and now I can see the bottom perfectly...only tip is don't forget to switch the pump off when it's freezing weather , as if it freezes in the box the pump will empty the pond by overflowing out of the side of the boxes

Hi Richard, enjoyed watching your video, very good cheap one filter. You have many excellent ideas, going to check out your aquarium video now , very amusing cat. Just bought bio balls and ultra filter media. I've Having a lot of trouble with very high ammonia reading, done water changes over last four days. Reading was off the scale, but now down to 2.0 but still too high, I'm hoping the new media will get the anirobic bacteria going. Cheers from Dennis

Absolutely awesome where have you been I’ve been looking for a video like this for so long thank you so much one question what pump nobody talks about pumps

im currently making a pond of 12500 liters how many tanks would i need for that ? loving your videos best iv found on the subject ty

PondGuru, what a great video many thanks. I have a general question about filtration which, I hope you can help me with? shall i post it here or email you separately? Regards, Paul.

Awesome stuff!!! What makes the water crystal clear? Is it the bigger the pump? or the bigger the bucket? Thanks for the info...

Hello mucker... loving all the vids... i have just built my first pond, only small as my garden is tiny... i used a icb container so just over 1000 litres... i have a pump and filter that does 5000 litres so should be ok but would you recommend adding a shower filter?? Ps do you still metal detect 🤩🤩

This looks like a great DIY filter, I've seen a few on RU-vid, but this may be one of the best (if not the best). I haven't made any of them though because I always have one question that never seems to be addressed in the videos... How do you clean it??? The DIY filters often seem to be superior to anything you can buy for the money mainly because you can make it as good as you like. However, they all seem like they'd be difficult to clean. For this one, do you only clean the pads and leave the other media alone, or do you have to clean all boxes? Also, how do I know how big of a pump I can use without overflow my DIY filter?

This was a great video!

How's the water going into the bucket from the top thanks for your videos

Hi pondguru I'm new to pond keeping. I have been watching your videos . And wonder what pump you would use on the trickle filter. Many thanks.

Excellent as usual. Off to the pound shop i go ......

Hi buddy! I was impressed by your demonstration but I still have a question. As I see your pond is large enough and its aeration is efficient, naturally by the winds. What if the pond was small, in the backyard for example? Do you think the simple showering on the outlet of the bottom unit will be enough for pond oxygenation?

Hi richard just want to say i absolutely love you videos keep up the great work mate. P.S is there a video of the secret outdoor aquarium which you have used this on ? Many thanks rhett.

Hi PondGuru - love your channel!! Regarding this DIY-SHower-Trickle filter, do all the boxes need to have media in them, and if so, which ones go on the topbox (inlet), middle, and bottom box(output)? I will have a go using three boxes for my small pond... Cheers...

Great video as usual. I was wondering if you could show a picture of what the pond water looks like before it goes in and what it looks like when it comes out. I would guess that as the system becomes more active those results will probably be better but it still might be interesting. What is the maintenance on a system like this. Do you just need to clean/rinse the media pads periodically or do you also have to do something with what ever media type you choose? Thanks again for an easy to follow and economical project.

Thanks Richard another great filter example. Can you explain the benefit to separate boxes between the media. And why the shower effect between the boxes helps. Thanks D

Very useful tip Thank you

Will definitely be giving this a go. I'm sick of cheap and nasty ready made filters!

I love ..love love your video. They have been so much help. I've struggled with my koi pond now for years.. 6 or more keeping it clean and functioning, sad to say purchasing koi each year. l finally slowed down long enough to research the web and found your video.. yahhh. its so refreshing to find a successful way of maintaining my pond [ponding] ..lol. l was so jealous of the koi ponds i'd see when out at various Japanese Steak houses.. clean, clear water and huge koi...so that motivated me to do some research.. l plan to duplicate the system in this video with exact same size containers.. My pond outdoor pond is 5'x7'x1.5'. Are all the containers filled with bio-home media . if so how many pounds should i purchase for this system.

how does the water flow from one box to the next ? doesn't it get stuck by debree?

Brilliant detail until the last couple of minutes! Which box did you put the filters and media in? I'm assuming top one so you can easily access it to clean it, and then all boxes below just have media in them?

Great video thanks! So do you have the same media in all the chambers? Can anyone advise? Tnx

i built one of these and am noticing now that it's warming up that it is an amazing breeding ground for nats and their larvae ... any tips on keeping them away or at least not getting out of control? ANYONE

I wish I'd seen this before I made my own diy filter Richard!

What do you think about expanded clay aggregate as media? Did you ever tried it? I have made my trickle filter with that just recently and wonder if that was a good choice to provide full cycle

Great video, Currently in the midst of making one for our 12000gallon pond. Is every box filled with the same media? Also will this help clear Algae? Our pond should be named Emerald pond because of its color.

Hello my friend, is it necessary that you use lids? Thanks in advance!!

Did I miss the part on connecting the pump ? ( From Vancouver )

Hey partner. Just wanted to drop in and say much obliged for this how-to. Your method, design and instruction saved our 1800 gallon koi pond here on the Gulf of Mexico. Anybody who cares about their fishstock can take what this fella has to say as the gospel truth. If you ever wind up in our neck of the woods down the trail, gimme a holler. I owe you a whole lotta longnecks and a touch of whiskey.

Great video. Any idea of the decibels of it running through? Sounds louder but might be the video.

Loved the video! I am just getting going on my outside pond. This is probably a dumb question, but am I supposed to put media in the bottom box as well?

Pondguru - Good Day. Love your videos. How can I add a UV filter to the DIY shower filter?

muito bom !!

Brilliant - as always!

Great video. I see you put a bar in the bottom box on the outlet. I am having a 4 box shower and filling the first 3 with your media. Will I be ok just to have the tank connector on the bottom box as this will just be used as a settlement chamber Thanks paul

I’m thinking of doing this but instead of having them stacked underneath each other having them stacked in a staircase fashion so that I can grow plants out of the top do you think this will work?

This was great, thanks

Great video. I've just acquired a large pickling drum to make a filter for my yet to build pond. Would you advise me to follow the same concept. For example: media, fine foam, med foam and course foam? Repeat repeat repeat? Would be a nightmare to clean. So maybe just lots of media at the bottom and the layers of foam on top?

Wondering if this helps with the floating algae common in the northeast US these days. I have a very large (6 acre) pond that needs aerating and algae management. Would different media help? Adding UV lights perhaps?

Hi Richard I'm going building an above ground pond 1000 gallon and am going building a shower filter like this one. Was going to use 15kg alfagrog in 2-3 32ltr bins with a Blagdon force 8000 pump. Do ya think this is enough filtration? Pond will only be lightly stocked with koi and goldfish

nice I wanna try make filter like that on my koi fish pond

Perhaps I missed it but do all of the boxes have the same filter system or do the bottom containers just use the solid media?

It's a nice trickle filter. I'm not sure if that would be sufficient for that amount of water volume though. 🤔

What goes in the other containers. You said what went in the top one. Could Alfa grog go I. The others

i made mine 9 years ago never clean them always clean also i have a 100 gal stock tank as pre filter that's the one i flush once a week and fully clean once a year. i made a 1'' hole on each totes on the side on the top because shower needs good contact with air to make nitrates go down

Great video. Question, so do you leave the other containers empty, or do you repeat for all the other ones?