I suppose this could go either here or in the pond forum, but whatever, if it needs to be moved, so be it.
Anyway, I built this filter for my pond, which is approximately 1200gal. I went through three or four iterations before setting on one that I liked, and this one still needs some tweaking but its going to involve getting wet, so further work is going to wait until the spring.
The basic idea was just a giant canister filter. I started off with two 4" tubes, then stepped it up to four when I upsized the pump. The whole filter is about 6' tall including the end manifolds, the 4" parts are about 4' each, all filled with lava rock. There is a prefilter box in the pond with some sponges that need to be cleaned out periodically.
In this first picture, you can see the whole setup here. Water comes in through the wall, down and in the bottom manifold. Up through the filter, into the exit manifold, through the UV filter, then the pump pulls it up and back into the pond where it drains back through a small water feature.
In this picture you can see I used threaded ends in case I need to take it apart and clean/change the media for any reason. I might end up switching the lava rock to pot scrubbers eventually simply because those tubes way quite a bit when filled with sopping wet lava rock.
Closeup of the pump and UV filter. The pump is an Oceanrunner 6500, pumps 1700gph. The UV filter is an 18W Turbo Twist, and works great. I didn't have one when I initially set the pond up, and within 2 weeks my pond looked like a giant pool of green koolaid. This thing had it crystal clear within 3-4 days.
This is a little attachment I added for priming the system. Eventually I want to add a screw-on adapter and a few ball valves so I can just screw a garden hose on. Right now its kind of a "hold your thumb over the hole and slam the plug in before you get squirted" deal...not so ideal.
Here you can see the upper manifold going into the UV filter and pump.
Closer-up
The whole corner there...lots going on. Beer and wine storage and aging, brewing, sw mixing, electrical
eek and oil tank. One bonus - the oil company just came and switched the oil fill pipes. For those who saw my pond build thread, the oil fill pipe was right next to the pond. It's now on the other side of the house, so the oil guys don't need to come near the pond, and the pipes no longer stick up behind the pond edge. Safer and aesthetically pleasing :grinyes:
So, thats pretty much it. Future changes include ball valves on each separate leg so I can flush them out individually, a better priming setup with ball valves, a more sturdy support stand for the whole thing, and trying to trim down the end manifolds so the thing isn't so dang tall. Also, don't mind the odd-sized hoses all put together with barb fittings. I started changing a few things then just kind of went nuts on it. I figured I had enough spare parts to do it all - guess not. The holes in the house are only 1", and most of the system uses 1.25" OD hose, so I would like to enlarge the holes and use the larger tubing throughout.
Anyway, I built this filter for my pond, which is approximately 1200gal. I went through three or four iterations before setting on one that I liked, and this one still needs some tweaking but its going to involve getting wet, so further work is going to wait until the spring.
The basic idea was just a giant canister filter. I started off with two 4" tubes, then stepped it up to four when I upsized the pump. The whole filter is about 6' tall including the end manifolds, the 4" parts are about 4' each, all filled with lava rock. There is a prefilter box in the pond with some sponges that need to be cleaned out periodically.
In this first picture, you can see the whole setup here. Water comes in through the wall, down and in the bottom manifold. Up through the filter, into the exit manifold, through the UV filter, then the pump pulls it up and back into the pond where it drains back through a small water feature.
In this picture you can see I used threaded ends in case I need to take it apart and clean/change the media for any reason. I might end up switching the lava rock to pot scrubbers eventually simply because those tubes way quite a bit when filled with sopping wet lava rock.
Closeup of the pump and UV filter. The pump is an Oceanrunner 6500, pumps 1700gph. The UV filter is an 18W Turbo Twist, and works great. I didn't have one when I initially set the pond up, and within 2 weeks my pond looked like a giant pool of green koolaid. This thing had it crystal clear within 3-4 days.
This is a little attachment I added for priming the system. Eventually I want to add a screw-on adapter and a few ball valves so I can just screw a garden hose on. Right now its kind of a "hold your thumb over the hole and slam the plug in before you get squirted" deal...not so ideal.
Here you can see the upper manifold going into the UV filter and pump.
Closer-up
The whole corner there...lots going on. Beer and wine storage and aging, brewing, sw mixing, electrical
eek and oil tank. One bonus - the oil company just came and switched the oil fill pipes. For those who saw my pond build thread, the oil fill pipe was right next to the pond. It's now on the other side of the house, so the oil guys don't need to come near the pond, and the pipes no longer stick up behind the pond edge. Safer and aesthetically pleasing :grinyes:
So, thats pretty much it. Future changes include ball valves on each separate leg so I can flush them out individually, a better priming setup with ball valves, a more sturdy support stand for the whole thing, and trying to trim down the end manifolds so the thing isn't so dang tall. Also, don't mind the odd-sized hoses all put together with barb fittings. I started changing a few things then just kind of went nuts on it. I figured I had enough spare parts to do it all - guess not. The holes in the house are only 1", and most of the system uses 1.25" OD hose, so I would like to enlarge the holes and use the larger tubing throughout.
