adding 1800g+

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toehead11183

toehead11183

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Dec 4, 2006
3,538
21
68
Memphis, tn
im thinking of adding a 1800g+ section to my pond. i have a 300g preform and i want bigger i was thinking of digging a 1899g pond right next to it and have the small pond drain into the big pond. i was going to put the pump in the big pond and have it pump uo to the lil pond for a waterfall. my problem is i dont have alot of $$ and the liner for the big pond is going to break me. i got a 1000gph pump, lots of tubing and the stuff to make a waterfall. my Q is, what could i do about the filter. i have a 5g bucket filter on the little pond but it needs cleaning all the time. is there a cheap easy way to make an external filter that i could hide in the waterfall?
 
Well you could save up for it (that never works).

What kinda budget are we talking here? (believe me I understand budgets, well maybe not understand but I'm told I have one :D )

A 20' x 20' edpm liner is $160 + shipping ( http://www.pondliner.com/EPDM.htm ). That would give you a 3ft deep pond a little more than 1800g.

If you can remove anything sharp from the hole and put in a layer of sand on the bottom, you could use visqueen (rolled construction plastic 10mil) as a temporary pond liner if you double it. Should last about a year or so (I've had it last 3 yrs but no guaranties on that). This will cost about 1/2 the cost of the edpm liner above, but you'll have to tear it down and replace it way sooner.

As far as filters, if the bio-load is low you could just 3x or 4x the filter you have now (parallel them) (are you using a pre-filter thats easy to wash off?) Or a 55g barrel filter (but harder to hide).

Dr Joe

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Use the smaller, upper pond as your filter. Look on the thread of to many lettuce and hyacinth. The waterfall section is my filter. It is plumbed from the bottom and the water raises up through a mass of hyacinth roots. There are two 1" thick filter pads that trap larger pacticles of "stuff". I have a skimmer box that has a basket that catches most of the debris that falls into the pond. The hyacinths will act as mechanical as well. I take out the plants weekly and hose off the roots to remove dirt. The roots trap debris and silt in the water which keeps the water crystal clear. The hyacinths also use extra nutrients in the water to keep algae at bay. Pond Pics 003.jpg
That is a pic of the filter. I'm tring to get a pic of the roots of the plants. Some of them are 14" long and really fiborous. They make for excellent filter in the summer. I don't feed my fish once to water drops below 55 degrees so the need for a lot of filtration in the winter is not nessary.
 
nice idea once i got my hyacinth to grow to around 15 plants, i have crystal clear water. they really do suck up the nutrients.
im thinking a large barrel filter to pump the wter from that big pond and filter it thru the barrel and run into the little pond. there is a Chemtainer plant around the corner and they usually throw out alot of defects. maybe i can get a barrel from them.
 
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