need help with design of my diy filter.

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fish*mad

fish*mad

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 8, 2007
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England
hi i am currently in the process of getting everything ready to set up my indoor pond and i have been looking around for filters and for the size i need/want its gonna cost a lot of £££ so i thought that i'd have a go at making my own, the only problem is that i have never made my own filtration system before so i dont really know what to use or how to do it.

anyway i have drawn a pic of my filter design please tell me if it will work and if i am using the right kind of filter media, if anything about it is wrong or will not work please point me in the right direction.

also if their is a cheaper or better filter media i can use please tell me.

(i am not looking for the size and gph i need i just want to know if the actual filter will work)

THANKS IN ADVANCE!
 

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Mechanical filtration before biological, i.e. lava before bio.

The airline won't be doing anything with the way you have it in the picture. the water will not come up that intake tube all by itself. being that it is a pond, i would say you should go with a powerhead instead of airline. Also, the whole filter system should be below the water line, since the powerhead would be at the output end of the filter system where it will have the power to raise the water back into the pond.
 
ThePBM;998072; said:
Mechanical filtration before biological, i.e. lava before bio.

The airline won't be doing anything with the way you have it in the picture. the water will not come up that intake tube all by itself. being that it is a pond, i would say you should go with a powerhead instead of airline. Also, the whole filter system should be below the water line, since the powerhead would be at the output end of the filter system where it will have the power to raise the water back into the pond.
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thanks.
the only reason i have the air line is because i read some where that you should oxygenate the water its not to take it in our out i will be using a water pump to take it up into the filter also the reason i have it higher than the pond is so the water can just flow down through the filtration and back into the pond itself so i save money from not needing a powerhead to pump that water back into the pond.
 
Running a water pump before the water is filtered means forcing dirty, debris-laden water through your water pumps impeller system which is a pretty bad idea.
Also, air pumps don't oxygenate water directly as you seem to be getting at. What they do is break the surface of the water with the bubbles, and that is where most of the oxygenation of the water happens. This means that your air pump would be much much more useful if you put it anywhere in the pond, not inside the filter. If the filter is having water splash into the pond on the surface, then you may not even need the air pump.
 
sorry this post is wrong but i dont know how to delete it (thats why i wrote this) if any moderators can delete it will be very apreciated,
 
ThePBM;998158; said:
Running a water pump before the water is filtered means forcing dirty, debris-laden water through your water pumps impeller system which is a pretty bad idea.
Also, air pumps don't oxygenate water directly as you seem to be getting at. What they do is break the surface of the water with the bubbles, and that is where most of the oxygenation of the water happens. This means that your air pump would be much much more useful if you put it anywhere in the pond, not inside the filter. If the filter is having water splash into the pond on the surface, then you may not even need the air pump.
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is this what you meant and i have just read what you said about the pump i did'nt think about that, would the pump go in the filter like this if not where would it go, sorry for all the questions i said i had no idea!

also i didnt explain propley, in the first pic the airline was not to oxygenate the actual pond i read that you should oxygenate the actual filter media but by the sounds of it what i read was wrong but forget about this bit it dosent matter now.
 

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Hi fish*mad...What your doing will work perfectly well (gravity return is fine), just put a pre-filter on the inlet on the pump and use a finer prefilter before your bio-media (by the way lava rock is a bio-material. I have run pond filter systems with just pre-filters / lava rock / and floating plants with great success. You have to use a lot more lave rock (3x to 4x the amount of bio-balls) but it is cheaper. Keep the air stone to aerate the bio-media. We use a product here called scrubbies http://www.wernersponds.com/scrubbies.jpg (6 for $1.00 US). Another suggestion is floor scrubber pads

http://www.restockit.com/15--Topline-Auto-Scrubber-Green-Floor-Pads-(MCO18047).html?c1=directory&source=froogle&kw=MCO18047&GCID=S13921x021&KEYWORD=MCO18047

http://www.vcnet.com/koi_net/ponds.html#inpond

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23501&highlight=filter

All will last a very long time and are easy to clean.

Don't use the power head in the second drawing, you will never balance the pumps.

I still don't get where people get that fine air bubbles don't exchange gases and / or oxygenate the water, It's so untrue! Think of the surface of the tank as contacting part of the surface of a very large air bubble.

Besides, in the sump your going for oxygen to the bio-media.

How big of an indoor pond are you considering?

Dr Joe

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thanks dr joe, as far i understand you are saying to use drawing 1 but just add a pre filter to the water pump?

i will be setting up pond around 640 gallons so i am thinking i am going to need a really big container to use as a filter.

also are the scrubbies a cheaper solution for the bio balls or are they to use as the pre filter for the water pump?
 
sorry about another question but since the lava rock is bio as well does that mean i can just use loads of it by its self or use loads of bio balls by their selfs, not needing to use them together? if so which will work best?
 
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