My Home Made Pond Filter

[briansworms]

With money being tight I couldn't afford a fancy pond filter, instead I made my own.
I used treated pine sleepers to make a box. I went 3 sleepers high I lined the box with old carpet and some insulation foil that I was given. The carpet etc are only there to protect the pond liner I used from being pireced by a stray splinter. I then put off cuts of pond liner over the inside of the main liner to protect if from the river rock I used. I used 50mm pvc pipe as an inlet at the back of the filter. This inlet pipe went down to the bottom and then a 90 deg elbow to bringit back along the bottom towards the front of the filter.

Along the inlet pipe at the bottom I have 5 x 50mm outlets running either side of the filter. Then at the front of the filter on either side I have 2 x 50mm tank fittings as outlets which are connected to 50mm pipe which join at the bottom to a single pipe leading back the the waterfall in the pond. The whole thing was filled with small river rock ( 1 cm3 ).

I tried to clean the gravel as it went in but a almost impossible task. I run two 2000lph pumps through it when I am running the pond and skimmer pumps together. 99% of the time I just run the pond pump through it ( 24 /7 ). Well when I first turned on the pumps the water looked like really thick pea soup. Just over one day later I could count pebbles on the bottom at the deepest point (600 mm ).

That was 4 years and a bit more ago. Never cleaned the filter and the water still runs crystal clear with 3 turtles numerous yabbies and fish The pics show when I built it and the only thing I changed was the inlet which only had a "T" piece then. Now has a pipe running back to the front and 5 outlets. I planted out the top so it now just looks like a raise garden bed with a couple of pipes comming out.

[Natasha]

Hi Brian, I would like to know more about your filter. I'm new at this kind of thing, haven't built a pond yet but want to in the very near future. I'm a little confused about how there are fish, turtles, etc. in a pond filled with gravel. The second picture looks like it's filled to the top with gravel. I didn't understand the setup well either, but maybe I just need to read through it a few more times. I hope you will continue to add more of your projects and ideas, because do-it-yourself projects is how we have to live where I am in the Dominican Republic. There is no Home Depot or ordering online. Thank you again for your post. :-)

[briansworms]

Hello Natasha,
I did write a poor description now I have re read it.
I have added a couple of photos of the pond. What the other photos show is just the filter. This is just a wooden box with pond liner but you can use an old bath tub or any container that can hold water.

The black box holds the pond pump and the skimmer pump. I have changed it slightly but hopefully you will get the idea. The pump at the front of screen has been modified so I could fit a suction hose from the bottom of the pond. The box contains a 50mm hole at the high water mark so when I run the skimmer it sucks from the surface.

Both pumps send water via 25mm irrigation pipes up to the filter which you can just see at the back of the pond in one of the pictures. Thse are the pipe you see entering the pvc pipe.

Thse 25mm pipe go in but stop short of the waterline in the filter. The idea is in the event of a power failure the water wont back flow from the filter and does away with the need for a back flow valve. This is also to aerate the water as it falls thus improving the micro organisms in your filter which grow on every surface area. The more surface area the more micro organisms and better the filtration

The water is piped to the bottom of the filter and then back towards the front with about 4 or 5 50mm 45deg elbows for outlets at the bottom of the gravel. I just used small river rock. Volcanic rock with all the holes would be ideal.

Plant out your filter and plant around it so it just fits into your garden like a raised garden bed. The plants on top will help pull the nutrients out of the water and reduce algae growth.

Hope that helps

[Stuk]

Absolutely brilliant Brian, probably find it is a lot better than our local multi million dollar filtration plant!
Good job, and interesting read.

[geoffbarker]

Hi All, first post..
I am building a similar Pond Filter but predict a problem I will have. The filter 'bucket' is higher than the pond so when the pump stops (Solor powered pump) I am figuring the water in the 'in' pipe leading to the bootom of the filter, will sython the contents of the bucket back into the pond. What do people do to not let this happen? Thanks for any help. Geoffrey

[Stuk]

Hi All, first post..
I am building a similar Pond Filter but predict a problem I will have. The filter 'bucket' is higher than the pond so when the pump stops (Solor powered pump) I am figuring the water in the 'in' pipe leading to the bootom of the filter, will sython the contents of the bucket back into the pond. What do people do to not let this happen? Thanks for any help. Geoffrey

Maybe install a one way valve that is all I can think of

[briansworms]

Hi All, first post..
I am building a similar Pond Filter but predict a problem I will have. The filter 'bucket' is higher than the pond so when the pump stops (Solor powered pump) I am figuring the water in the 'in' pipe leading to the bootom of the filter, will sython the contents of the bucket back into the pond. What do people do to not let this happen? Thanks for any help. Geoffrey

I solved the problem by having a break in the flow above the water level in the filter. Basically I use 50mm PVC pipe as the feed in pipe which runs to the bottom of the filter. At the bottom it then runs the length of the filter with about 5 x 45deg elbows as outlets. The 25mm pipes from the pump sit inside the 50mm pvc pipe but not so far in that they sit below the water level in the filter. The water basically comes out of the 25mm pipe and falls down about 100 mm into the filter. If the power goes off then it can't syphon back.

You could run the pipes from the pump straight into the filter but you need to cut the pipe and fit a " T " piece in with a short riser pipe to act as a breather. Power goes off and the air is sucked in via the breather pipe thus breaking the syphon back down the line. So much easier than flow valves that can clog up.

I ran my filter for about 4 years without a clean. Now it is running just like brand new. Rather than a bucket buy a black tub about 160 lites or bigger. Just depends on the size pond.

[Grasshopper]

Aquaponics would be a good filter solution too

[briansworms]

That's really cool brain , you really did a good job by making pond filter on your own , that saves your money and also gives you an experience of doing some really interesting things , and it would have also solved your problem of filtering water and making it better to use for other purposes , well i will also try this to make one at my house, you are a great inspiration to many people who could not afford to get one because of shortage of money.

Thank you. When you earn very little you have to make do with what you can get your hands on cheap. The filter has been an outstanding success and it also has plants growing in the top. You could grow veggies in there. I don't get enough full sun to grow much but still the plants are thriving. The whole filter can be hidden by planting around it as well. If you didn't see the plumbing you would just think it was a raised garden bed.

I can pump over 4,000 lph through it but I cant see the need. I just run the pump from the bottom of the pond 24/7 and switch on the skimmer pump when I need to skim the top. I used different methods till I came up with this one. As I said it took 4 years before it needed a clean out. The water was still clear and the flow was fine but I could see fine particles settling in the pond. If I could I would have used scoria rock but couldn't find it here so I just went with the river rock.

The idea is to create surface area for the micro organisms to grow on. A small scoria rock wuold have a massive amount of surface area for the size of the rock. All those holes have surface area which if you could measure it would probaly 50 times the outer surface area of the rock.

One thing I think I forgot to mention was where the water comes in from the pump the gap between the end of the pipe and the water level in the filter would allow the water to become areated as it goes into the filter. This is important for the micro organisms. You could run an air stone from an aquarium pump down the pvc pipe to assist with this also.

[geoffbarker]

Thanks for the heads up on stopping the siphoning, but still need a little more detail. Does the pipe from the pump (flexible I assume) feed into the thicker pipe, finish vertically, also how far does it go into the thicker pipe?
Maybe a picture will help my dumb brain
Thanks again