Filtering 1500G indoor pond

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What i have learned that a skimmer on an indoor pond is almost a waste. The point of skimmer is to remove anything of the surface. With an indoor pond you don't have much that is going to be floating on the surface like you would outside. If i would build another indoor tank, the skimmer might be left out. With the elements outside you have leaves, sticks, bugs and other stuff floating on the surface, you defiantly need a skimmer, inside not so much.

You really need to think about what you are gonna stock in the pond. If you want to have sand/gravel on the bottom of the pond, then i would not go with a bottom drain. You also said the possibility of stingrays. The problem you are gonna run into is when you want to feed, the bottom drain is gonna pull anything in that sinks. You would want to have like mid water pick ups, on the side walls. This will pull water from a couple different locations on the tank.

You could get a away with just using 2 55 gallon drums on your build. I would have your pump pull directly from your drains. Have your barrels sit on something so they are slightly above the tank. Water would get pump into the first barrel having your mechanical filtration, filter socks, matala mat, sand gravel filter, etc. Connect the two barrels together using 3 inch bulkheads or 3 inch electrical conduit(diy budget). Water then flows into the second barrel where you will your bio media. K1, scrubies, lava rock, polly strapping, etc. there is so many different things you could use, depends on your budget. Have a 3 inch bulkhead at the top so the water flows back into the pond. If you want to do a trickle tower, you will have to have the barrel higher then the pond, so you have enough height for trickle tower. Water will gravity flow out of the mechanical filtration into your trickle tower. You could have multiple trays, or just one tray that is really long. Trickle towers can be made out of many different kinds of tubs, buckets, its all up to you.
 
i like your idea with the 2 55 gallon barrels. one mechanical and one bio. this is what i had in mind before going to that damn pond shop. would one drain be enough? is so how many gph do i need? also, i have never seen these "scrubbies" is this an american thing? is it just a cheap sponge?
 
Again think about what you are gonna stock? If you go with a bottom drain you wont be able to have gravel. Also you will want to stock bigger fish that cant get sucked into the drain. A 3 inch bottom drain like they use in ponds will be good if you want to use a bottom drain. What you could also do is mount two or three - 2 inch screen bulkheads on the opposite wall of the filter. So the water will be sucked in on one side and return on the other. This will give you water movement so you don't have dead spots in the tank. If you are gonna have rays i would recommend screen intakes on the walls.
 
AdzyHany said:
I went in to a shop that sells/builds ponds and equipment and told them I was building a pond and would like to filter it for as cheap as possible. They told me to set up a skimmer and pump it to a waterfall filter with a 2000gph pump and that's all I would need. I told him all the sizes and that I was keeping aro, stingray ect. I don't see anyone else doing this, I see people pumping water to a diy trickle. They gave me a quote of 1500 bucks after tax for everything including pond liner, I'll I would need is the wood to actually build the pond. I did some looking around and I can buy all the same stuff from various stores for cheaper (hardware store sells the liner 100 bucks cheaper) big als sells the skimmer/pump and waterfall filter a lot cheaper too. I'm just wondering, is this a good way to go or should unjust get a pump and make a trickle like everyone else? If I buy all the supplies for the skimmer/waterfall idea I can get it between 500-600 dollars. What do you guys (and girls) think?
Click to expand...

How you going to build your skimmer
 
Im starting a 400 gallon indoor sting ray pond. Its only going to be 16inchs deep, but i was thinking of using a skimmer box. It be cheaper to do a few mid-level drains tho,like the idea. Does anyone have a good diy way of filtering, then returning to a waterfall via gravity. I see alot about 55g drums on this forum but don't understand how a sand filter works. How would you clean that? I get the trickle ect
 
Im starting a 400 gallon indoor sting ray pond. Its only going to be 16inchs deep, but i was thinking of using a skimmer box. It be cheaper to do a few mid-level drains tho,like the idea. Does anyone have a good diy way of filtering, then returning to a waterfall via gravity. I see alot about 55g drums on this forum but don't understand how a sand filter works. How would you clean that? Using a 55gallon drum means id have to fill the whole thing with bio balls? That's a crap ton if so.
 
landocalriz said:
Im starting a 400 gallon indoor sting ray pond. Its only going to be 16inchs deep, but i was thinking of using a skimmer box. It be cheaper to do a few mid-level drains tho,like the idea. Does anyone have a good diy way of filtering, then returning to a waterfall via gravity. I see alot about 55g drums on this forum but don't understand how a sand filter works. How would you clean that? Using a 55gallon drum means id have to fill the whole thing with bio balls? That's a crap ton if so.
Click to expand...

For a pond that small, you're better off with a canister filter.
 
His right I turned a 20 liter bucket into a water fall filter with two aquaclear 70 powerheads (400 gph each) pumping water through 0.5" flexible pipe to the bottom of the bucket then fill the bucket with your filter media, heater, and other equipments if possible what I build is your fluval fx5 for less then $150.00 bigger scale of this setup for bigger ponds.
Power of DIY muhahaha
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