Brilliant!!! Every Spring I work to get my pond clear. I tried your filtration set up using scrubbers and sponges from the dollar store along with my Bio Balls, filter mat and charcoal bag. Within a few days I could see the difference. The pond has stayed crystal clear even after heavy rains. Thank you so much.
Great job Kitty. This new filter with growing plants on them would look like a piece of art. Please update the matured look of your pond. I have learned and made mine with a drain plug in the base with a valve - It cleans the bottom debris + connected to hose to water my plants.
Outstanding. I’m in Ontario. I’m setting up my pond. I love your setup and I will use a container and layer in the filtrates like you did.. I will have to cover the pond over in the winter with Hay/straw because of the very cold winter. Love your video. Thankyou
Rick Masters Hi Rick,I got your message. My pond has worked out very well. Ponds are a new thing for me,I’m more familiar with fish aquariums. I used a very similar setup as the lady in the video. My pond is 8ft x 5ft and approximately 300 gallons. Made with a plastic pond liner. I went to IKEA and bought a 2 foot high garbage can and layered in substrate sponge, bioballs. Also something that worked out really well was to use gutter guard (sponge gutter guard from the Home Depot) it works very well. Also,I intend on making barley balls with straw as this will help reduce any algae buildup. The pond is crystal clear. I have 5 small Koi and 2 pleco’s. I’ve added 3 water hyacinth and 2 pond lilies. We are very happy with our results so far. I am in Southern Ontario (Ancaster). How are you making it out yourself?
Your filter has beautiful form and function I've been pondering what to do for my first external filter such as this you have officially answered every single question I've had. RU-vidrs take note this is how you make a video
The only thing I would add is a pipe at the bottom with a valve so you can release the debris from the bottom. That released water is great for the garden.
Looks great, you could also add some plants to the rocks on top. Just use pothos or peace lilies or a ton of other inexpensive house plants. Just wash the soil off and put the roots right into the water.
thanks for sharing your work. I came across your video while looking for natural filter i want to put up for my fish and lily pond. love the way you recycled most of the stuff. also love the tubes used for securing the aquatic plants ( water cabbage / lettuce )
Definately up with the best explts. well done! Like to see it more planted up but You got all the hardware in total control. Nice hobby now enjoy it and stay away from more if You can. I can not and still learn and am 80y old but learned to be happy at home! Keep it up! You have a talent I wish I would and could pass on. Richard in Australia
Hi Kitty, nice, good choice on the basket.. Definitely enhanced the look of the whole setup.. But 1 problem though, your pump is too near to the filter.. Water at the far end might not be properly circulated n debris will accumulate there.. You might gotta use a power head to spray the debris towards the pump.. Thanks for sharing.. Cheers
great design! Great video! I love your pond design too... I'm thinking of building one in my backyard. What is the maintenance for the filter? Do you have to occasionally disassemble to clean out the leaves and sludge from the bottom?
Thank you! And I always welcome suggestions. I had a UV light a few years back, but found that with this filter I didn't need the UV light to keep the water crystal clear. Once my bulb burned out I stop replacing it and removed it from my pond. It is great for eliminating parasites, so I might re-add it in the future
Very good tutorial! Thank your for sharing! May i know the capacity of your waterpump? (Horsepower, gallons per second) So that i have idea of what capcity i am going to use in setup.
I was wondering if Scotch-Brite scouring pads could be used as filter media. if that's what those are then question answered thank you that was an amazing video. Still trying to figure out what the thumbs Downs are for
Wouldn't it be easier to clean if it was the opposite way(bio media on bottom, mechanical on top) with a hole on the very bottom. All the heavy waste will be decaying on the bottom. How often do you clean it, or is this good for the bacteria to thrive?
Nice :D Thank you. One question however : why didn't you put the pump down the other end of the pond so there's a flow, and water doesn't accumulate and stagnate there. If my pond was long I guess I'd have the water falling in all aired and clean one end, and then sucked out at the other end. Or don't Koi like it slightly moving?
Soooo helpful thank you! How many gallons is your pond? I'm intending to build a biofilter for a 50 gallon pond and have been doing a lot of research on how big it needs to be but a frame of reference would be useful. I'm thinking a 25gph pump as it will only have a few ranchu and I'll be doing 90% water changes once a week. A friend suggested a similar build in a 0.5-1gal tub but I obviously don't want it to overflow too quickly to work. Thanks again very informative video!
Great looking Video and Filter - Thank you. I am thinking of making one like this for an Aquaponics setup. Question: Do you need to ever clean out this filter? You said your last one was running well for 6 years, did you have to ever clean that one out and if so, how often. Thank you
Aquaponics in principal works by natural filtering: the plants use the fish excrements etc., thus cleaning and filtering the water by their roots, and the water goes back to the fish, who supply more nutrients for the plants and so on... a natural cycle, although you do need to feed the fish, of course... Nature at work. You only filter things like fallen leaves, pump blocking.
I suppose you could use a big earthenware pot, like the Spanish water jars (or something jars, olives?), even with no glaze, which cools the water at the same time, although as it's by evaporation you would need a little top up.
Excellent tutorial. I'm not wanting to make this but loved watching your video. Love the sound of the birds in the background. What do you live in Paradise? heh heh. I've been looking for ideas for an alternate media for my pet fountain filters since the Tetra bio bags are through the roof right now (price wise). I've seen others recommend scrubbies and shower sponges too (which I would fill with charcoal). Great idea but, I am concerned about chemicals in them since they are not food grade. The ones I get from the Dollar store smell like formaldehyde (used as a preservative in China where they come from.) I usually soak them in soapy water before using them on my dishes but, to put in a pet filter kind of worries me. Any ideas?
thanks so much for these videos, great ideas and made the idea of setting up something like this so much less intimidating :) quick question, when you used the drill to make the hole did you just ... make lots of holes in the shape of the circle you drew or??
Thanks for the tutorial. It was very helpful. What pump would you recommend to connect to this filter? Our pond isn't that big. It may be 8ft * 4ft with 2ft depth in a kidney shape with 1 goldfish and 2 koi. Lastly, you have added a lot of scrubs and foam for filteration. What would you recommend instead of all that? And how when would you suggest cleaning the bio-filter? Thanks for your time.
you should add a bottom drain in the filter so you can just flush away the dirt every week or so then you don't need to clean up everything from the top down..
Awesome video! Will use this when I set up mine. I just have some questions, if you don't mind. Do you do any water changes? If so, how often and how much water do you change? Also, what is the carbon that used? Where did you purchase it?
I change the water about once a month, and when it rains several times. I created a system that collects rainwater. at times it rains alot in miami. The bio filter really keeps the water crystal clear. the carbon I used is called crystalclear polish activated carbon. I bought mine online at webbsonline.com. But it is not necessary, I'm trying it out for the first time. the water is always crystal clear, but I do have issues with the smell sometimes and I wanted to see if this makes a difference. plants are algo great for a clean pond, but make sure they're clean and treated for bacteria and parasites before introducing them to the pond. hope this helps
Here's a idea, move your bio filter and move in to the left side of your pond and place it on the ground next to your shelves. Then run (hide) your outgoing pipe into newly built waterfall on the left corner of your pond. That'll also be agitating your water too. Hmmmmmmmm? Good Idea?? You can build your waterfall by placing them on cement blocks and build it on top of that.
NICE VID!!! Job well done.However, it'll be some work to clean that biofilter, no ??How often do you clean it ?Smell?? from pond ? Ceramic rings (comes in net bags) are much better than bio balls - and they're not very expensive - eBay - you won't need rocks as weight on top.
yes the cleanup is painful. I clean my filter about once a month. I would like to ebentually purchase bigher sponges and then cut them out to the shape of the container. and I'll look into the ceramic rings thanks
the smell is the fishy smell. it hasn't been a problem so far. But that problem came from when I had koi. they were much larger and probably had more waste
how often do you do the next cleaning? or how would you clean it. looks really nice with that basket. i also notice there is a small tube connect to your pump line, is that for additional air?
your pump is near to your filter i.e. at the same side of your pond, so the water from the other side of the pond is not circulated thoroughly to your filter. You better put your filter in opposite side to your pump.
How often do you need to clean the filter? Could you include a line out the bottom that feeds from beneath the basket to drain the solids, or is that not necessary?
Nice ! Until you have to clean it which won't be long either and how you gonna do that ? Strip the whole thing down again I assume. No drain fitted ?? and I'm afraid any beneficial bacteria on the used "scrubbies" would have been long dead
Hey I really enjoy watching your videos and i appreciate the info!! Can you please help me?? Last summer I got my pond running and i added a couple of goldfish however i couldnt keep the water clear it would always turn green and eventually it would even get worms in it...it was really nasty! but that didnt stop me from trying to reach my goal and im going to try again this spring i was wondering if you could give me any tips on how to keep my water clean just like yours????? thank you so much!!!
Hi. Nice work. I've had a similar idea, except mine I thought of using a vase of sort for my garden railroad project. How do you clean this filter? Is it by removing all the scrubbies, sponges, and bioballs? Do you consider putting a drain hole at the bottom and a utility water intake at the top, doing a kind of counterflow and drain all the gunk at the bottom?
The only problem I see are the scotch-brite pads. "The humectant (moisturizing agent), Magnesium chloride, found in both Scotch-Brite(TM) and O-Cel-O(TM) sponges and the anti-bacterial agent, Zinc pyrithione, are poisonous to fish. All packages provide warning: "Not for aquarium use." on top of that they seem to be of the mind that the fibers may dislodge and end up in the water column and can end up being ingested by the fish. Good alternatives are aquarium floss sold in both petco/petsmart/ even amazon and probably cheaper. Or polyfill (most people get theirs at walmart) but you have to make sure that it's the non flame retardant (my guess it's also poisonous to fish). There are several reasons why your fish seem to have survived or "stayed alive", knock off dollar store brands may not have the magnesium chloride or zinc pyrithione, nevertheless the fibers may still be ingested. Everything else looks great, if you're a cheapo like me you diy your own bulkheads with the corresponding sized electrical counduit threaded pieces and buy the o rings separate, and some ge1 silicone for added measure. I've seen the swirl method, this would be the spot you'd want the bio balls near, like the old fluidized sponge filter things sold a while back. If you search on google for cory's filter from Aquarium Co-Op he uses gravity in his, so the inlet starts at the top but is piped close to the bottom, the outlet is starts at the bottom but is piped closed to the top even acting like a skimmer (but more than likely nothing in the filter to skim). That design ensures there's no water stagnant inside your filter and forces all the water through all the media, the only problem with that one besides looks (you could spraypaint) is that you have to set it right above where you want to drain via 2x4s or something. Aquarium Co Op video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4BZ6zyQIf60.html Aquarium safe how to tell: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KB83y5MwY9w.html
Confused why you needed the pvc piping, couldn’t you have just drilled the hole to the base and have the dirty supply water directly pumped into the base?
