Pond filtration & pump help

[eyox1]

I bought a house a couple years ago that had a pond in it. It's about 350 gallons. After the previous owner get his fish out, I decided not to add fish at the time b/c my son was young and liked throwing things in it. Now that he's old enough to know better I want to get it going properly, and get some goldfish. It has a waterfall and I previously only had a pump on it; no filter. But I want a filter on it, and with all the options out there it's hard to know what is a good brand or would be suitable for my needs. I have to get a new pump b/c mine burnt out. Will I need a more powerful pump than I previously had so it has enough power to pump through filter and up to waterfall. It's about a 6-7 ft tube that runs up to the waterfall from the pump, about 4 ft from bottom of pond up to top of waterfall. What would you guys recommend? Thanks for the help.

[chitown]

i built a 8'x10'x3' pond...on-line i bought a $50 filtration kit which consisted of two 5 gallon buckets (one inside the other with PVC as the plumbing...the filtration consists of a 12" x 12' roll of 'filter screen'...since i bought the $50 kit i went on line and bought 90' of 'filter screen' for $40...i use only one 12" x 12' 'filter screen' per season. i sink plastic milk crates and sit my pond plants on top of them. obviously the sunken milk crates make excellent 'houses' for the fish...to top off the pond i have a 100 lb 'shell' sitting on a wrought iron urn, with a submerged pump handling the fountain flow...'goggle' pond pumps and you'll have no problem picking out the right size/strength pump...

[eyox1]

thanks for the reply. Do you use lava rocks at all? I've gotten a suggestion to do a filtration system like that but also using lava rocks.

[chitown]

i do not have any sort of rock base, just the black liner...my pond is full of pond plants, Hyacinthia, one small rubber duck and a styrofoam alligator...i would not see any kind of rocks on the bottom...are you sure your pond is around 350 gallons???

[chitown]

if your pond is as small as you state, a base of lava rocks would add a nice touch...obviously your pond will be your signature

[Pilot Dane]

Lava rocks are sometimes used in filtration systems because they offer larger surface area for bacteria to grow (that's a good thing). Their one good feature is that they are cheap and simply adding them to the bottom can provide some digestive benefit though it makes vacuuming and cleaning the bottom more difficult. There are many man made products available that offer significantly more surface area in the same physical size which is an important consideration when raising "dirty" fish such as goldfish.

In addition to any filtration you are considering the best & easiest thing you can do to insure a successful pond is few small fish and feed them very sparingly. Think of your little pond as a space station. You are providing the life support system. The more fish and the more food you put in requires a commensurate increase in filtration size & expense. Keeping the fish & food low helps insure that a simple, inexpensive filtration system can handle the task.

Also, give up on the idea that the water, rock and bottom of your pond will be crystal clear and free of algae (that's called a swimming pool). Algae and scum are mother nature's tools to clean up water and in spite of your every effort you will get algae & scum in your pond to some extent. The more money & labor you invest can decrease the amount but you will never totally keep it out.

[Giorgio]

wow, thanks for all this great advice, I came here to ask another similar question but finally got more answers than I expected!

Just some quick advice, one of my friends recommended a solar water pump, is that ok? I mean, it can't work at night I'm guessing, but I do like the "save the planet" credit I get for getting one.

Any advice?

[Pilot Dane]

A solar powered pump is be considerably more expensive than a traditional AC powered one. Most that you see advertised are incredibly small and weak. One that I just pulled up online features a 5 watt solar panel for $70 and is rated to move a maximum of 360 liters per hour with the sun directly overhead and a maximum lift of only 40" (notice how they mix English and metric to pick the better sounding number). This comes out being less than 100 gallons per hour with no restriction in the line. For almost half the price you can buy an AC powered pump that will move three times as much water and can operate at twice the head pressure of the solar pump. And, most importantly it can work at full power day & night to filter your pond.

If you do wish to go solar, and get a useful amount of work from the sun be prepared to have a coma in the price for the smallest of systems. Here is a link to small solar systems that can power and air or water pump. The smallest system is about $2'500 and can only provide about 500 watt/hour per day which is capable of running a small pump.

[uptomyknees]

I just got through "revitalizing" a pond in a house I just moved into and had many of the same questions you had. Here is some of the things that I found that may help and some of the mistakes I made
1. If you have fish, make sure your pond circulates the water once an hour, so look for a 350 gph pump.
2. Get plants! They help with the water condition and coverage for the fish.
3. I built a similar filter to chitown but had many issues with algae. I ended up breaking down and bought a bio-filter with a UV light and have spent much less time cleaning algae off the bottom and sides.
4. Gravel or lava rock on the bottom looks great, that is what I did, but cleaning is much harder
And last, as for a solar pump, I agree fully with helping out the environment, but with as small of a pond as you have I would be afraid of how low the oxygen levels in the water would go during the off times.

[chitown]

Please keep in mind my location and the amount of direct sun light...pond is in Chicago Ill. and direct sun is no more then 6 hours a day...this last spring i used two doses of TETRA and that was it...no more alge ALL SUMMER and my wife tells me the pond is STILL cristal clear...(i'm in the middle east) i have nothing on the bottom of my 2500 gal. pond but i do have a bunch load of my favorite plant, Hyacinth, and half dozen 'stand-up' pond plants...plus no more then 10 gold fish...and a styrofome allagator...(350 gal. pump) and $50 pump filtartion system...

[uptomyknees]

I will have to give the TETRA a try next year, seems every time I put new plants in I would get an algae bloom. I know it is the added nutrients from the plant soil so anything will help.

Does the styrofoam alligator eat much (=