"DKat" wrote in message
...
"Tom L. La Bron" wrote in message
...
You sure are right George,

Many in our pond club members started out with filters like this, but changed
when trying to pull it out of the pond needed three men and a boy to do it.
It really becomes almost useless if you have an algae bloom.

Tom L.L.

I think Cowboy's filter is quite elegant on many levels. I'm almost 60 years
old, 5'2" on a good day and not a heavy weight. I manage with something that
would weigh far more than this filter just fine (mine is a 25 gallon bucket
that I pull out of the pond so I'm not only lifting the rock but the water as
well). The lava rock weighs nothing and cleaning something like this will be
done maybe once a year. It is also very easy to clean. For the system to work
(that is if you want clear water) you need to feed the water from this into a
veggie filter. If you are going to raise fish as opposed to having a pond
with mosquito eaters (a few fish) in it, then you will probably want to be
creating a more costly and involved system. However, I still have feeder fish
I had from when I created my first pond, 3 butterfly koi, and a monster of an
albino catfish (that I really should find a home for this year....) and I
manage just fine. My loss of fish have come from feeding the local wildlife
and not from water quality issues.

If you use a 20 gallon plastic drum with a sealable lid, you can backflush it
under pressure without ever having to move it at all. Oh, and here is a link to
a picture of my albino cat:

http://home.insightbb.com/~jryates/image002.jpg

Note the measuring tape for scale (it sticks out 30").