Check out the Danner Pondmaster line of pumps....They are of seal less
design, and the pumps from 350 or so gph on up can be used submersed
or external. Very energy efficient.

If your into making home brew items, then a filter is easy
project....Jan has good info on her site, as does a few other
websites........I can't say much about filters as I do not use em as I
have a natural pond but do use Danner Pondmaster series of pumps to
power some of my water features.........The wife has a new Danner 500
internal / external pump in her half barrel setup as well, because the
little giant pump lasted less than 9 months and has been replaced
twice on warranty so far.....so it was decided to change it out and be
done with it as it has not had a good track record to date.....

On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 17:42:07 -0500, "RWITTY"
wrote:

===Hi,
===
===I'm a 5-year veteran ponder, and a regular fan of this cool newsgroup. In
===the middle of winter, the PVC liner that came with my Beckett pond (4 x 6 x
===18 ", 270 gal) kit ruptured, leaving 12 assorted Koi/goldies lying in 1 inch
===of ice and water. I raided our emergency water supply and transported them
===in a Rubbermaid container to a water garden center that agreed to take them
===off my hands, and all the fish survived. With spring here, I am now ready to
===buy a rubber liner and stock the pond with only 2 Koi and about 4 goldies,
===and some plants........
===
===In previous years, I seemed to spend more summer hours cleaning my pond than
===sitting in front of it with a frosty Margherita; hence, I want to upgrade
===from the submerged filter to a small, external filter that would be easier
===to clean. I am prepared to change out my current little 210 gph, 25 watt
===pump to a stronger one (maybe 300-500 gph, 35/45 watt), to get the job done
===right. The water garden center wants to sell me a 1200 gph pump ($160)
===and a BF-1000 UV waterfall filterbox ($99) plus tubing, etc. They say that
===the filter would only have to be changed ONCE OR TWICE a year, and could be
===camouflaged in some plants beside the pond. I'm would appreciate any shared
===comments and/or recommendations about making the upgrade to a simple,
===efficient arrangement.............
===
===Thanks...........
===
===
===


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Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!