Simple DIY pond filter|Crystal clear water 

Wow, great idea! Do you have photos of your setup?

Eventually it will click and then you’ll have clean, clear water forever 👍

Ammonia toxic to fish. Beneficial bacteria break down ammonia into nitrate (still harmful) Other beneficial bacteria break down nitrate into nitrite (less harmful and consumed by plants) Plants eat the nitrite before the algae has a chance to (prevents green water) Gravel/rock traps particulates and provides a substrate for beneficial bacteria to grow

Thanks Huey. That’s great to hear 👍

Cheers mate. Appreciate the encouragement.

Thats great. Im so happy. Thanks for letting me know. :)

Thanks Nancy. You watch it as many times as you need 😉. I’ve got lots of other videos to scroll through if there is something in particular that is confusing 👍

Thanks mate. Glad you find them helpful 👍

Thank you. 😊

That makes me happy. 😃

Thanks mate. That’s what it’s all about. Helping people get the best out of their ponds 👍

Thanks so much. Kind comments like this make it all worthwhile 😊👍

Glad you like them 😊👍

Perfect 👌

Nice

Thanks mate.

Thanks Kasey. I’ll do my best 👍

Cheers Peter. Appreciate that. 😊👍

Thank you 🙏

Awesome! Let us know how it all turns out 👍

Awesome 👍

So happy you find them helpful. 👍

Argos have deal. Good tank. Have an undergravel filter, and a bio water filter. Cost is nowt. Initial outlay is worth it.

Thanks mate. Ponds are addictive 😉

@@Ozponds Yup.. Have a look at mine. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8U3bNj7Tck4.html

Thank you

Thanks mate 👍

Hopefully now you’ll get it nice and clear 👍

Thanks for watching 😉

Happy you enjoyed 👍

Thanks. I like your pond too 👍

No problem 👍

You’re welcome 😊

You found it 👍

Thanks Rob. I’ll make a video 👍. I prefer to use smaller aquatic plants, things that don’t have an invasive root system. I don’t want to block the flow of water also 50% of the plant growth should be removed every 12 months (roots and all). So anything that’s too vigorous can become a problem.

G’day Dale. I’ve since made videos on all the different diy filters I make. 👍 what else would you like to know?

No problem Keith 👍

Thanks I’m glad you’re enjoying the vids. The media in the bio filter was aquaponic clay balls. I think hydroton is the same or similar? It’s not a product we have in Australia but I remember a UK viewer mentioned it as a byproduct of pottery or clay businesses. If that’s the case I’m sure it will work great 👍

I have it on a 3m x 4m pond (60cm deep).

Will do👍

In the bog filters I oversize the outflow pipe to prevent clogging. In the small systems like the wine barrel I have a guard around the overflow pipe. This prevents roots and gravel clogging it. To protect the fish if it ever overflowed I keep the pumps off the bottom of the pond. In the big ponds the pumps are housed in the skimmers so the pond can only really go down about 15cm (6in). In the small ponds I keep the 15cm off the pond floor, that way there would always be water for the fish. I will do another video on pond pumps. I prefer low volt models as the can be extended long distances without the need for an electrician and they are safer if there was a fault.

@@Ozponds very good advice, thanks mate

No protein skimmer.

👍

It serves no function except for cleaning. The bog will still function perfectly fine. You’ll just need to manually remove everything when it becomes ineffective or clogged.

I’m not sure which one your referring to, but I’m sure you’ll find it in this video- DIY Ponds and DIY gardens | Plants I like to use ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PksUcrwLtPI.html

Once a year.

All in the gravel. Only thing I plant in soil are the water lilies.

@@Ozponds thank you.

They are a type of aquaculture media. I got them as part of an aquaponic system I purchased off an old fella. I’ll other place I’ve ever seen them is Ali express.

Cheers mate, I'll have a search@@Ozponds

Pond algae control. Should you use copper algaecides? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dQB6jzCqSBs.html

@@Ozponds Fantastic! That's exactly what I was looking for since I don't have any snails that would be harmed. I'll watch your video so I can make an educated decision if I want to try this chemical treatment. I don't want to damage my water lilies or pond plants. But I'm sure you will cover all that as you like to have a nice natural balance of fauna & flora in your ponds.

I like using intake bays. Although even then I still find babies in the bog filter. I hope it was the eggs that went through the pump and not the fry.

Thanks mate 👍. You have e one of the pumps running water into the filter. Then so long as the outlet is higher than the pond water you let gravity put the clean water back into the pond. Hope that helps 👍

@@Ozponds thank you so much. It’s awesome to communicate with someone across the world. 😎

It is pretty damn cool 👍

That one came from a local plant nursery.

If you wanted to go the bog filter route, yes you would try and size at 10%.Of course you wouldn’t look for a container that size you would build a seperate filter pond. But that pond you are building is massive!! Is it receiving an inflow of water? If fresh water is constantly coming in filtration may be unnecessary. Another option is going a smaller filter but with a much higher flow. I think next week the waterfall filter video comes out. They filter the water with a smaller footprint but a bigger pump. The filter I built is too tiny for you but the principle can be scaled up. I hope that is helpful 👍

It’s an easy one to build yourself. Budget goldfish pond with bog filter

The reason for me is that it means I don’t need to create another water proof hole in the filter. By coming in over the top I can also add in a breather pipe so that the filter doesn’t siphon empty if the pump stops. You can run it in horizontally if you want just make sure you have a way to prevent it siphoning if the pump shuts off. Hope that helps 👍

Either a bog filter at around 20% pond volume. Pump size around the volume of pond per hour. You could build a waterfall style filter moving up to 4X pond volume per hour. That would help. You’re also probably a bit overstocked with fish. Good luck 🤞

I’m not sure I understand the question Alex. What’s meat water?

Some type of bio filtration media.

I’d say it does but it mustn’t be much. It doesn’t seem to decrease the flow that I expect at the head height. I’ve also not had a pump fail on me yet (touch wood). I’m running quite a few ponds using these filters.

Sometimes the smaller hose will slide into the larger. Sometimes it’s snug if not maybe a little silicon to seal it up??

You can use any pump you like. You just want to hit a slow steady flow of water.

@Ozponds thank you I'm going to give it a go

I’m not sure what sketch that was (it’s an old vid) but I always use a submersible pond pump. I prefer the pump be housed in a skimmer or intake bay. That acts as a pre filter and prevents large stuff being sucked into the pump. It also delivers oxygen rich water to the filter. Really fine material will pass through the pump and accumulate in the filter. These filters are only being flushed once a year.

@@Ozponds exactly what I imagined your response would be. Thanks for the info. Appreciate it

The flow rate can definitely be to much for a bog. You want a slow flow up through the bog. You can have as much water as you like flow over the top. If your pond is only a week old you are going to have algae. It’s can take ages for a pond to mature.

Sorry you’re stuck. It’s a complete rebuild. If you watch my vids you’ll see I always recommended shallow rooted plants that can easily be thinned out. Good luck it’s no fun undoing all your hard work 😞

@@Ozponds Wow! Thanks for the quick response. I had a feeling that there's no easy way out of this. It's been amazing to see the big grow so quickly, We're going to miss the jungle it has become. Thanks for the content and response. Cheers

It doesn’t hurt, but you don’t “need” too.

If you want to.

Yes it would. Although I’d imagine it needs to be quite big. If you imagine the biological load of a duck compared to a fish. They produce more waste, drop feathers and will bring in all kinds of dirt and other debris. The ducks currently think I built my dream pond for them 😬

@@Ozponds I think I am going to try a double filter sort of thing, where the bulk waste/silt as well as feathers gets filtered out first sort of like a skim? and then the that water gets filtered off to an actual filter container, with the intention that cleaning it out would be easier.

That sounds like a good plan. You definitely want to incorporate a skimmer or intake bay in the design 👍

@@Ozponds Do you think a swirl/vortex filter outputting to a biological filter would be sufficient? I had thought about getting a 14gallon barrel and doing a swirl filter at the bottom, with an enclosure around the input to act as a skimmer, then some sort of modular biofilter at the top, then purging the waste with an output at the bottom, and pulling out the biofilter to clean the skimmer enclosure when needed, but i'm not certain that the water wont be slow enough when traveling through the biofilter. The benefit though to breaking it down to two separate filters however would be being able to use the nitrate rich water from the vortex filter for the garden, before it passes through the biofilter.

Certainly sounds like a good idea. It’s not something I’ve personally done so you’ll need to be the test subject 👍

But is the filter clogging up?

The pump draws the water in and then pumps it to the biological filter (in most of my ponds that’s a bog filter). 👍

If it was me I’d do a minimum 700 litre bog filter, pump approx 4200 litres moving through the bog. Other option a smaller high flow filter but move more water say 15-20,000 litres per hour.

@@Ozponds i was thinking to pump water from pond… in to the 200liter barrel.. what would be filter with rocks and this stuff.. then from filter into aprox 1000liter bog filter and then back into the pond… hope you understant what am i trying to explain 😊

I didn’t seal it as the hole was so tight the hose only just squeezed through. But Firestone makes a good fish safe sealant 👍

@@Ozponds thank you so much for the reply, much appreciated 👍😊 I’ve had garden ornaments that I didn’t realise needed to be sealed and they started deteriorating due to being exposed to the elements so I didn’t want the same happening to the urn I’m intending to use as you have. I also didn’t want to accidentally poison the fish by using the regular pot sealers you get from Bunnings etc 😉 thanks again

I have had green water issues in the past, but adding a bog filter has always solved them. I’m intrigued by fresh water mussels, but have been told they breed prolifically so I haven’t added them to any of my ponds yet. As I build more ponds I might experiment. Have you kept them? If so what has your experience been?

@@Ozponds i've kept them inside in tropical tanks. Had bad green water in my shrimp +baby guppy grow out tank, so popped two in there. They took it from pea soup to slightly stained in a few days and crystal clear in a little over a week., after that the plants took up the slack and haven't had an issue since. Thinking of getting some green water or a little wine barrel pond going in outside just to keep the buggers fed now! (rental house, so can't dig in) I hadn't heard they're prolific breeders, but apparently part of their lifecycle is piggy backing on fish gills. Think that's what puts people off.

Awesome. Good info.

G’day Loc. Yes a small pump moves water from the pond to bog filter. Then it flows back into the long via gravity. Hope that helps 👍

@@Ozponds Thanks for the quick respond and that leads to 1 more question. How many gallon per min/hr pump do you use for the pod filter and can I use 1 pump with a splitter for 2 or more pods? Thanks,

It depends on the size of the filter how many gallons. If you haven’t already look at my flow rate for bog filter video, that should help you work that out. Just remember if you are going to split the flow to multiple filters or ponds increase the flow rate. This is where low volt adjustable pumps can be very useful. Hope that helps 👍

Submersible pond pump.

More filtration! Specifically biological filtration. This video will help you -Eliminate green pond water forever!

Use a verticals pipe same as in my larger bogs. If you can stick a hose down, you can siphon the water out.

@@Ozponds God idea, thanks! I have some land I will be moving to in a couple of years. I'm planning on a larger pond with a full size in ground bog filter. Can hardly wait!

G’day Jenny. I’ve made the filter video. It was a few weeks back if you want to check it out 👍

I don’t use pressure filters. But yes you could run the water through the pressure filter and then into a bog or high flow filter like the ones I make. But I’m not sure why you would, the pressure filter needs regular maintenance.

How do you mean regular maintenance, regular cleaning?? I mainly purchased it as it was supposed to eliminate that as it has a handle that you pull up and push down which cleans the sponge filter as you move the handle, turn the valve so the dirty water doesn't go back into the pond. I've always made my own gravity filters but thought the pressure might be better as I was always cleaning the home made filters I made, maybe I should of researched more and made a better one

Yeap. They sound good that’s marketing 👍. The sponges usually get blocked quicker than you’d think. Then a pipe pops off because everything is under pressure. There’s not enough media for biological processes so they usually include a UV light to prevent the water turning green. But remember I’m biased! I like diy. I hope your one is maintenance free and keeps your water nice and clean 👍

That’s a lot of guppies! But it shouldn’t be a problem if you maintain the same number. Obviously as they breed the biological load increases meaning more filtration is needed. But I’m guessing you will sell them....? that’s a lot of guppies 😂👍

@@Ozponds yes i will release them when they will be 1 month olf and grow out them in the pond and once they become 4 months old i will sell them. I don't want to breed them in that pond.

Make sure that the filter is sized correctly.

Thanks for the reply I will sized up my filter and see what happend..

24/7. I’m in the process of building a solar powered pond. Will have a battery backup but only run 12hours a day.

@@Ozponds okay thanks. I guess a bigger filter can reduce the run times...

Not really. Filtration is dependent on the type of pond, the pond inhabitants and the owners desired outcomes.

The pool pump/filtration system hasn't run in years, and we just discovered is broken anyway. We were planning on replacing the sand in the filter with bio balls, but with the pump/I don't know broken, replacing it will be $$$ any ideas welcome

Essentially what is the least expensive set up to filter the largest volume of water??? Thank you!! Love your channel ❤

Depends a little on what your goals are for the pond. If you just want a few fish and loads of plants to attract wildlife you could probably just convert an ibc into a bog filter and run it via a submersible pump. If you want heaps of fish and less plants you’ll need a bigger filter and/ or bigger pump.

@@Ozponds Thank you for always replying so quickly ❤ We originally bought 24 native rainbow trout, 3 water lillies, 4 other plants that grow about 30-40cm deep. We added more plants. Then about 6 months later because we couldn't see the rainbow trout, we added 12 x 7-10cm koi, 12 x 7cm goldfish (dark colours and light colours), duckweed, more reed plants, irises, more water lillies, something that resembles elopea/hornwort? Naturally attracted native common brown frogs, a single heron, lizards etc. A further 6 months on and all the fish have bred, it turns out the rainbow trout were secretly building a mega army of baby fish. There are probably 400 fish in the pond now. All of this over the winter 2021 caused algal blooms from the high nutrients and bc we didn't have a filter/pump/aeration happening. We physically removed the algae and removed leaf fall/detritus from the bottom of the pond. The water is as clear as rainwater for the first 60cm, then a bit green. The algae doesn't bother us, but better visibility in the pond would be great. We can see the bottom in the shallow end (0.8m) but not the deep end (2.2m). We love the idea of swimming with our fish in summer. I suppose to do that we just want better visibility in the water. Thank you again :)

@@Ozponds Loving the 1000L ibc idea. What pump do you recommend?

Very occasionally. Mostly let them take care of themselves. But my ponds aren’t overstocked with lots of fish.

I made one of the small ones. Mini bog filter video. I still need to do one making the tall blue barrels.

@@Ozponds you stuff is amazing...... There is little money for others so may not get the backing of bigger powers. I can see that this style will do the natural cycle far more affective than any other. Please elaborate as it’s gold for us that see the skill

Thanks mate. Your kind words made my day 👍

@@Ozponds you are welcome. if you do what money maybe tech it spread sheet make a natural but amazing filler style people will buy in to it. Just like a cake mix in a box but for pond filter explaining the variables in an equation. Skill plus integrity will get you far. Maybe a pond king

Thanks mate. Maybe something to consider in the future. At the moment just happy to help people create cost effective ponds that work.👍

Don’t worry almost all new ponds go green or get string algae blooms in the beginning. Things will balance out 👍

Not sure what you mean. Great name though 😉

😂 so I talk to slow?

😂thanks for the comment anyway.

🤣