Makes sense, got you biological and mechanical. What about algea control, it will get about 5 hours direct sun a day. Think i saw something in WalMart that wont hurt fish. You think the filtered water free falling a ft or so will be sufficient areation?
tlindsey
has tagged me in for input. I am afraid I don't have anything special I can say. 
He has a few minnows and a couple 3-4 inch bluegill. By minnow i assume gambusia.Hey, I see that
It looks like a lovely pond and if it were me, I'd definitely go planted, as in emersed plant set up. The plants are filters, albeit natural that most folks don't understand...You've got free sun and free nitrogen and other nutrients produced by your fish. That's all emersed plants need.
It would be a shame not planting the pond in your case. You can simply get cheap plastic hanging baskets. Drill some holes around the bottom, fill with clay pebbles as substrate(they need time to sink or they'll float out) and plant some tropical plants that don't need humidity in the air. Hang the baskets, done. Let the plants grow as the fish grow, no other input is required..
The below is a not so good picture of my 240G indoor pond set up on the same principle.
The plants are parlor palms, peace lily and and an arrow plant.
View attachment 1370229
You do need water flow and other filtration but no matter what you decide will probably work alongside plants. It is best you get the surface moving, by whatever means. The shape of the pond is not standard, so you need to look into how to get the flow moving all around the tank as well.
There are many cheap DIY options you can do. People make filters from plastic totes, wheelie bins, etc.. or a trickle filter tower as you already suggested...
You can also look into setting up a bog filter, although personally I prefer my plants to be separate from the actual filters as the plants are the redundancy mechanism for failing filtration, either mechanical or biological.
Exciting project. Good luck and keep us updated.
P.S. What fish do you have in there at the moment? I can see something small swimming around...
A couple of small blue gill i cast netted and lots of gambusia. My friends mom wanted to give me a running ten gallon with two huge (5-6 inch) goldfish, some time back. My 30 gallon tank was fully stocked and i did not want another tank in my tiny house, so i declined. After the water chemistry in the pond settles, I will obtain them. Might get rid of the bluegill then, and maybe the minnows if they fin nip, though I would hate to, they eat mosquito larvae.Hey, I see that
It looks like a lovely pond and if it were me, I'd definitely go planted, as in emersed plant set up. The plants are filters, albeit natural that most folks don't understand...You've got free sun and free nitrogen and other nutrients produced by your fish. That's all emersed plants need.
It would be a shame not planting the pond in your case. You can simply get cheap plastic hanging baskets. Drill some holes around the bottom, fill with clay pebbles as substrate(they need time to sink or they'll float out) and plant some tropical plants that don't need humidity in the air. Hang the baskets, done. Let the plants grow as the fish grow, no other input is required..
The below is a not so good picture of my 240G indoor pond set up on the same principle.
The plants are parlor palms, peace lily and and an arrow plant.
View attachment 1370229
You do need water flow and other filtration but no matter what you decide will probably work alongside plants. It is best you get the surface moving, by whatever means. The shape of the pond is not standard, so you need to look into how to get the flow moving all around the tank as well.
There are many cheap DIY options you can do. People make filters from plastic totes, wheelie bins, etc.. or a trickle filter tower as you already suggested...
You can also look into setting up a bog filter, although personally I prefer my plants to be separate from the actual filters as the plants are the redundancy mechanism for failing filtration, either mechanical or biological.
Exciting project. Good luck and keep us updated.
P.S. What fish do you have in there at the moment? I can see something small swimming around...
yes, mainly to cycle it and control mosquitos. They are very hardy, I have a small kiddy pool with zero filtration and i fill with city water and no dechlorinator, they thrive. IIRC, chlorine quickly evaporates from open water.
