Greetings all,

My father in law has one of the small fish ponds like you can buy at
Lowes/Home Depot/Walmart/etc. It has a small circulation pump running to a
couple of fountains, but he is having a problem with the water turning
green. He has 4 fingerling sized poi/koi(?) in the pond as well as 1 algae
eater, but it still gets pretty murky.
I have a pump from an above ground pool with a busted filter section. The
filter was an approx. 16-18" ball shaped plastic container with about 10-12
lbs of sand. I am wondering if I would be able to pipe the pump into a home
made filter, possibly a 3 or 5 gallon bucket partially filled with sand?

Any ideas? I enjoy reading this group and I know there is more than
enough brain power here to make up for my lack of it on this little project.
8)

Thanks guys,
Jim

Using a 5 gal bucket, how would you get the filtered water out? Drill holes in
the bottom and cover with filtercloth? How would you backwash the crud out? May
be easier to just buy a proper filter. The other idea would be to make a sand
filter from large PVC pipe, say 12" or larger with caps on both ends and pipe
radials inside to spray and collect the water. Sounds like an interesting
project

"Jim C Roberts" jimnthem_AT_comcast_DOT_net wrote in message
...

Greetings all,

My father in law has one of the small fish ponds like you can buy at
Lowes/Home Depot/Walmart/etc. It has a small circulation pump running to
a
couple of fountains, but he is having a problem with the water turning
green. He has 4 fingerling sized poi/koi(?) in the pond as well as 1
algae
eater, but it still gets pretty murky.
I have a pump from an above ground pool with a busted filter section.
The
filter was an approx. 16-18" ball shaped plastic container with about
10-12
lbs of sand. I am wondering if I would be able to pipe the pump into a
home
made filter, possibly a 3 or 5 gallon bucket partially filled with sand?

Any ideas? I enjoy reading this group and I know there is more than
enough brain power here to make up for my lack of it on this little
project.
8)

Thanks guys,
Jim



As someone who has a small pond with 3 fish and I did a ton of research on
doing a bigger pond that would require a backhoe to dig I can offer the
following advice.

A mechanical filter alone will not keep the water clear of the green stuff.
Pool filters especially are discouraged. You need a biological filter which
harbors good bacteria that will eat the nutrients that the green algae lives
on that the fish produce. Usually you need to buy some of the good bacteria
to seed the filter with. There are a lot of web sites that deal with ponds
and a newsgroup or two also.

I suggest that your father-in-law either do some research before
buying/making or talk to someone who's been down this path before. Don't
trust the people at the box stores to know what they are talking about.
Trust me on this!

Check these out for more information:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/ponds/
http://www.pondmarket.com/filters.htm
http://www.lagunakoi.com/html/algae_control.html
http://www.macarthurwatergardens.com..._explained.htm
http://www.ponddoc.com/WhatsUpDoc/Fi...iltersNot.html
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/PondSubWe...algcontrol.htm

Buying a bio filter can be expensive. The size of the pond will determine
what size (gallons per hour) pump you need and the size of bio filter. Make
your own: http://www.skippysstuff.com/biofiltr.htm

Good luck
Lane

I've heard of people using lava rock as the filter medium for pond filters.

Shawn
"Jim C Roberts" jimnthem_AT_comcast_DOT_net wrote in message
...

Greetings all,

My father in law has one of the small fish ponds like you can buy at
Lowes/Home Depot/Walmart/etc. It has a small circulation pump running to
a
couple of fountains, but he is having a problem with the water turning
green. He has 4 fingerling sized poi/koi(?) in the pond as well as 1
algae
eater, but it still gets pretty murky.
I have a pump from an above ground pool with a busted filter section.
The
filter was an approx. 16-18" ball shaped plastic container with about
10-12
lbs of sand. I am wondering if I would be able to pipe the pump into a
home
made filter, possibly a 3 or 5 gallon bucket partially filled with sand?

Any ideas? I enjoy reading this group and I know there is more than
enough brain power here to make up for my lack of it on this little
project.
8)

Thanks guys,
Jim

On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 20:22:56 -0400, Jim C Roberts wrote:


Greetings all,

My father in law has one of the small fish ponds like you can buy at
Lowes/Home Depot/Walmart/etc. It has a small circulation pump running to a
couple of fountains, but he is having a problem with the water turning
green. He has 4 fingerling sized poi/koi(?) in the pond as well as 1 algae
eater, but it still gets pretty murky.

From what I've read excessive algae in a pond can be caused by an excess
of nutrients in the pool usually as a result of too many fish, not enough
plants, excessive fish feeding, runoff entering the pond, etc. Getting the
pond in balance might be a more fruitful endeavor than attempting a large
filter.

--
The instructions said to use Windows 98 or better, so I installed RedHat.

I will echo what both Lane and Jim have said. A filter won't get rid of the
algae. Your FIL will need to address potential issues like over feeding,
phosphates in the water (especially if he's using tap water), balancing the
water chemistry with plants, etc...

He should find a newsgroup dedicated to freshwater fish and outdoor ponds
and ask some questions.

Peter

"Jim C Roberts" jimnthem_AT_comcast_DOT_net wrote in message
...

Greetings all,

My father in law has one of the small fish ponds like you can buy at
Lowes/Home Depot/Walmart/etc. It has a small circulation pump running to
a
couple of fountains, but he is having a problem with the water turning
green. He has 4 fingerling sized poi/koi(?) in the pond as well as 1
algae
eater, but it still gets pretty murky.
I have a pump from an above ground pool with a busted filter section.
The
filter was an approx. 16-18" ball shaped plastic container with about
10-12
lbs of sand. I am wondering if I would be able to pipe the pump into a
home
made filter, possibly a 3 or 5 gallon bucket partially filled with sand?

Any ideas? I enjoy reading this group and I know there is more than
enough brain power here to make up for my lack of it on this little
project.
8)

Thanks guys,
Jim

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 05:45:11 GMT, "Peter Grey"
wrote:

I will echo what both Lane and Jim have said. A filter won't get rid of the
algae. Your FIL will need to address potential issues like over feeding,
phosphates in the water (especially if he's using tap water), balancing the
water chemistry with plants, etc...

He should find a newsgroup dedicated to freshwater fish and outdoor ponds
and ask some questions.

Peter


If he has an alge problem, he needs to put in some koi or other alge
eating fish.

Gunner


"Jim C Roberts" jimnthem_AT_comcast_DOT_net wrote in message
...

Greetings all,

My father in law has one of the small fish ponds like you can buy at
Lowes/Home Depot/Walmart/etc. It has a small circulation pump running to
a
couple of fountains, but he is having a problem with the water turning
green. He has 4 fingerling sized poi/koi(?) in the pond as well as 1
algae
eater, but it still gets pretty murky.
I have a pump from an above ground pool with a busted filter section.
The
filter was an approx. 16-18" ball shaped plastic container with about
10-12
lbs of sand. I am wondering if I would be able to pipe the pump into a
home
made filter, possibly a 3 or 5 gallon bucket partially filled with sand?

Any ideas? I enjoy reading this group and I know there is more than
enough brain power here to make up for my lack of it on this little
project.
8)

Thanks guys,
Jim




That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's
cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays
there.
- George Orwell

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 06:31:10 GMT, Gunner
wrote:

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 05:45:11 GMT, "Peter Grey"
wrote:

I will echo what both Lane and Jim have said. A filter won't get rid of the
algae. Your FIL will need to address potential issues like over feeding,
phosphates in the water (especially if he's using tap water), balancing the
water chemistry with plants, etc...

He should find a newsgroup dedicated to freshwater fish and outdoor ponds
and ask some questions.

Peter


If he has an alge problem, he needs to put in some koi or other alge
eating fish.

Gunner

btw..you might ask this question on misc.survivalism as there are a
number of people who do fish farming or pond aquaculture

Gunner

That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's
cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays
there.
- George Orwell

Any ideas? I enjoy reading this group and I know there is more than
enough brain power here to make up for my lack of it on this little
project.


I've had a koi pond for years. Its 30' x 50 ' with about 50 each 14" long
koi in it. I just built a biological filter like below, using 18 cubic yards
of rack.

You need to make a biological filter. The pump for the fountain can push the
water to the filter and then let the filter drain to the fountain if you'd
like. You'll have to play with location and height of the biological filter
to make this work (the fountain won't spurt if the water level is too low,
the pump won't move water if the water level in the filter is too high)

The filter itself is easy to make. A picture or example of one to see would
be worth a 1000 words here. I'd go much larger than a bucket, perhaps 2/3 of
a 55 gallon barrel. You'll need a false bottom in the filter that is
perforated for the water flow. Keep it maybe 3 " above the container bottom.
Pipe the water from the pump to the bottom of the false bottom. If you can
arrange it, the pump spurts water to a receptacle that then goes to the
bottom of the filter - this entraps more oxygen which is needed for the
filter to work. Also, put a drain valve on a large pipe at the bottom of the
barrel for easy cleaning - you want to backflush for this. Then put a drain
line from near the top of the container back to the pond.

The filter media is just 1/2 to 3/4" gravel. Lava rock or rock wool would
work too. Anything with lots of surface area. Bacteria will colonize and eat
the algae. The pump circulates water from the bottom of your display pond to
the bottom of the filter. Water then flows from the top of the filter back
to the top of the display pond.

Karl

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 05:45:11 GMT, "Peter Grey"
calmly ranted:

I will echo what both Lane and Jim have said. A filter won't get rid of the
algae. Your FIL will need to address potential issues like over feeding,
phosphates in the water (especially if he's using tap water), balancing the
water chemistry with plants, etc...

He should find a newsgroup dedicated to freshwater fish and outdoor ponds
and ask some questions.

Peter

"Jim C Roberts" jimnthem_AT_comcast_DOT_net wrote in message
...

Greetings all,

My father in law has one of the small fish ponds like you can buy at
Lowes/Home Depot/Walmart/etc. It has a small circulation pump running to

Try asking on rec.ponds or free.uk.nature.ponds
Balancing the pond greatly reduces the need to filter.


------
We're born hungry, wet, 'n naked, and it gets worse from there.
- http://diversify.com Website Application Programming -

My dad had one of those small ponds in his back yard in Fla. He made a filter
for it out of a 5 gal mud bucket. The hoses were attached (with RTV) at opposite
ends. For the media, he used a long piece of the netting made for keeping birds
off of fruit bushes; it was rolled up somewhat tightly and stuffed into the
bucket. Every so often, he would remove and unroll it, and hose it off. The
bucket was stashed underwater, hidden by a rock ledge. Worked quite well for
trapping algae and assorted sludge. The bigger problem was keeping his cats, and
more so, seagulls, from eating the fish. A chicken wire cage on a PVC frame did
the trick.

He didn't have a fountain; the return spilled out over a series of rocks for
oxygenation. I don't know if there would be too much pressure drop in the filter
for fountains.

Joe

Jim C Roberts wrote:

Greetings all,

My father in law has one of the small fish ponds like you can buy at
Lowes/Home Depot/Walmart/etc. It has a small circulation pump running to a
couple of fountains, but he is having a problem with the water turning
green. He has 4 fingerling sized poi/koi(?) in the pond as well as 1 algae
eater, but it still gets pretty murky.
I have a pump from an above ground pool with a busted filter section. The
filter was an approx. 16-18" ball shaped plastic container with about 10-12
lbs of sand. I am wondering if I would be able to pipe the pump into a home
made filter, possibly a 3 or 5 gallon bucket partially filled with sand?

Any ideas? I enjoy reading this group and I know there is more than
enough brain power here to make up for my lack of it on this little project.
8)

Thanks guys,
Jim