"Jim and Phyllis Hurley" wrote in message
...
Jeff,

Have you considered screening instead of gravel for your upflow filter? Or
strapping tape. Rock has little surface for bacteria and will be a collosal
pain to clean when it is full of gunk. If you went with screening, it would
catch the junk and be EASY to clean (pull out and flush). That will make a
big difference when you actually clean the filter. Your 55 gal filter for a
150 gal pond is good, although the surface area of the filter is more
important than the depth. Rule of thumb, surface of veggie filter = 10% of
the surface of the pond. Sounds like you will have that.

WH on top will grab nutrients well. If you have WH in the pond as well, you
will have good plant numbers, especially for the 6 fish.

Have you thought about a wider filter format? more surface for plants?

Your pump sounds ample (1400 gph for a 200 gal system). Even with the loss
to lift, you will have a solid flow. You can have a nice return waterfall
into your 150 gal. pond.

On the barrel subject, will it stand by the pond? be hidden? or be burried?
The latter has huge benefits, aesthetically...but does not work well if you
cannot drain it. Our barrels are in the berm at the end of our pond and can
be drained (cf. website below).

Good luck.

Jim


Is it me or what? I have a 5 gallon prefilter on the inlet to my suction main
filter, running 1400 gph. The pre-filter has an open pore biomat, and a screen
bag of small diameter porous scoria (non-ferric). I use aquazyme bacteria. In
the early spring, I get a slight algae bloom (this spring the algae was heavier,
but that was because I turned the pump off during the worst of the winter
thinking it would get damaged, but it never got cold enough - so I got a
nutrient build-up over the winter), and have to clean the prefilter about once
every week to every two weeks. Once the bacteria take (about mid-April), the
algae start to die off. Then I only have to clean the pre-filter about once a
month. The last time I cleaned the pre-filter was about three weeks ago. And
it is still pretty clean right now. I never have to clean the main filter. It
has about 40 lbs of washed gravel in it. The water is crystal clear. The pond
is 4 feet by 12 feet by 45 inches deep. I have 4 koi, 8 goldfish, a 26 inch
albino channel catfish, and lots of babies. I also have one water lilly and one
end of the pond has cattails. By the way, I always use gravel for the main
filtration. I works fine for me.

As for the above, it is my opinion that 1400gph for a 200 gallon system is
overkill for biological filtration. Of course, you want a solid flow for your
waterfall, but the biofilter doesn't need such a high flow rate. The reason I
say this is that at high flow rates, the water doesn't stay in the biofilter for
a long enough period of time to allow for proper biological filtration. I have
always found that biological filtration works best if the entire water contents
of the pond is filtered no more than twice per hour. Mine turns over completely
at about 1 1/2 times per hour. Of course, if you have a very heavy load, more
filtration would be needed, but not necessarily more gph water flow. If the
biological filtration is working properly, you shouldn't get much of a build-up
of sludge in your pond, because the bacteria will digest it. If you then need a
higher flow rate for the water fall, a second pump to add to the flow of the
waterfall comes in handy. But that is just my own two cents worth.