Looking for someone to review my indoor pond filter.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Your better off using a plastic 55 gallon barrel and setting it up above the level of the pond. Use a submersable pump to move the water to the top of the barrel filter and let gravity do the rest. The reason for the submersable pump is that it also acts as a heater so theres less wasted energy. Use egg crate to build layers in the barrel and pvc pipe for a return. leave an empty chamber on the bottom and then a large area of scrubbies for your bio-filtration...this should take up at least half of the barrel. The top quarter is the mechanical stage and should be in two parts. Floor scrubber pads (buffer pads) as the main mechanical filtration with an overflow standpipe made out of pcv in the center to prevent spills in the case of clogged media.

I can knock out a simple diagram for you if your intrested but it's fairly simple...effective...and very durable. Along with bieng very inexpencive of course.
 
There are 3 different drawers in the trickle filter, each filled with cut-to-fit reuseable air filter media.

from there the water drips down and hits an upside down lid to the garbage can that also has tons of holes drilled in it.
So then at this point the water ends up in the garbage can where it can be sucked out aghain by the pump.

NEXT....
Now going back to that Tee on top of the trickle filter, the split off line runs to a smaller garbage can with Lava Rock in it.
http://kumdoalan.tripod.com/filter07/
The water takes a large pipe to the bottom of the Lava rock where it comes out and rises up into the lava Rock where it overflows and goes into a pipe that also returnes it to the main bigger garbage can.

The amount of flow rate for the lava rock outflow is small...about the size of a pea in thickness.

Thats it......
Lets review:
I have a garbage can filled with open-cell foam and Bio balls.
This garbage can sits mostly filled with water all the time.

I have an OMNI water filter.
However most of the time I dont use it as the filter clogs easy.

I have a DIY trickle filter filled with reuseable air filters

I have a LAVA ROCK tank that has very slow water moverment going on.


I have cloudy water too......
 
WOLF.....I dont own a 55 gal barrel , but I do have the garbage can as seen in the photos.

But I dont have a clue how I would lift such a thing off the floor?

I didnt want to have anything sitting on the liner.
I worry of a leak.
I might be able to connect the subpump to my upside down aquarium rack?
But Im not sure of how that would look....

I kinda wanted to keep the pond clear of things that might poke a hole...unless there is no other way to do this?
 
55 gallon barrels can be found most anywhere for about 25.00 or so and are a MUCH stronger than garbage cans. From the discription of your system it really sounds to me like youve vastly over complicated it. Cinder blocks are all you need to raise the barrel to the proper hight. I use the paper water filter cartrages your talking about as part of the pre-filter assembly on my RO/DI system and they are designed to be used under pressure. 45 to 65 lbs are best. I wouldnt use one in a pond set up. They restrict the flow too much and are harder to servace.

Your best bet would be to start thinking in terms of what all you can REMOVE from your system. Keep it as simple and free flowing as possible.
 
I dont have a lot of room for any big filter.

however as you can see in this short video clip,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwrRdt50NL4
I do have a tall black screen to hid a filter system behind.

I have the pond centered in the room.
I needed to keep 2 feet open on the left side because of the floorboard heater and the danger of a fire.
 
Wolf3101;1515715; said:
I can knock out a simple diagram for you if your intrested but it's fairly simple...effective...and very durable. Along with bieng very inexpencive of course.
Click to expand...
I have went over your ideas, but I still do not have a good understanding of it yet.
perhaps if you could take the time to post a diagram it would really help me out...
 
Well, I did some searching both in my backyard, and out in the woods behind the barn and I did find 2 large plastic barrels.
One looks even bigger than the 55 gallon spoken of by WOLF 3101 above, the other a bit smaller.

At this point I need to ask about the suggested egg crate to build layers as well as the "overflow standpipe made out of pcv in the center to prevent spills in the case of clogged media."

Im not sure I know what all this means?
 
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