"zad2110" wrote


Hi,
I am fairly new to ponds and fish keeping. My step father and I built
our pond two summers ago and last summer it started leaking and we were
unable to find the leak. This spring or summer we are planning on
completely redoing our pond and try and do a better job of making a
filter. We plan to put in a bottom drain at about 3 feet and we plan to
have about 1500 gallons total in the pond. We have a pre-filter box
with some filter media to keep leaves and bigger stuff from clogging the
pump. I have been watching a lot of videos on DIY biofilters and would
like to know how big of a bio filter we would need to make for this size
of a pond with around 8 goldfish and 3 koi. (i do not need my water to
be extremely clean or anything i just want it to be better than it was
last year when we couldnt see 1 foot down for most of the summer) My
original thought was to make two filters from big flower pots and
position them above where i want the waterfall and then have them run
into the waterfall pond before going into the big pond. Any advice I can
get would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.
..........................

Don't confuse green water with clean water, green water can be very clean
and clear water can be toxic to fish. You need to understand what your fish
require which is low nitrite/ammonia levels, and it's to this end we use
bio-filters. That these filters may also keep the water clear is a happy
coincidence.

You will probably find it better/easier to use 50 gal plastic water tanks
for making your filters.

What filter medium do you intend to use?
Pre-filter...Brushes?
Main filter.....Tufa? Foam? what?
Are you going to use a UV to kill the "green" in the water?

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK