120 gallon diy pond need advice/help.

[Dinorex the monster]

Hello, i need some help. im currently doing a 120ish gallon pond ( the one from vevor ) with a diy bucket filter as well.

I have a plywood and foam sheet to distribute the weight and isolate the humidity/water from the wood. That's all good ( noting that the pond isn't fully built in the picture but it's just to show )

My question beings, first for the bucket filter... do I need something for the water to be elevated in the bucket at a certain level or the water can go straight back into the pond with a hole? ( I also have the bulkhead and pump already, i'm getting lava rocks for media tomorrow and tubes for the water going into the bucket. I already have sponges as well for filter ).

A third more painfully one i think is... how do I clean 125 pound of sand? ( I don't know if I ask that question at the good place. )

 

[Fernxxxy]

I have a 300 gallon fish tank running on a diy home made buckets I bought from Home Depot if you’re water is going through your mechanical through your biological media then thro the chemical media such as activated carbon then yes your water can go back directly into the pond(on mine it’s a down flow up flow diy bucket from home depot the water is then running off into another bucket that acts as my sump then with a pump in the sump to return my water back to my tank me personally I’d elevate the diy bucket so that when the water is returned to the pond there’s a waterfall that way it’s water falling into the pond