Thread: Farm Pond Filtration

I can’t see that making much of a difference to be honest, most koi pond turn the water over every 90 minutes or so, you’d be pumping 60k an hour! If it was me I’d probably try and get some weed growing although if it’s a normal mud pond rather than gravel I’m not sure how clear you’d get it.

Lovely looking place you have though

Firstly, do not buy a oase screen matic. They do not perform well and are very expensive.

Secondly, you will never get good clarity on a mud pond. It just isn't possible with carp, they will constantly be turning over the bottom substrate.

Thirdly, it looks like you've done a lovely job, so far, with what you have achieved. You couldn't have done any better, so you can be happy with that. But you're pretty much at peak for that type of pond. I'd sit back and enjoy it for what it is. A skimmer will be a help in general, clearing leaves, surface foam and duck weed etc. I'd fit one,.but it won't really affect your clarity

Fourthly, if you want a clear koi pond, you will have to build a separate lined pond (rubber or fibreglass ) one with gravity fed bottom drains and a skimmer etc etc.

I thoroughly enjoyed this guys Mega-filter series, trying to filter his lake, but ultimately it did nothing and he stopped posting about it for years, until much later when he described how it didn't work and he moved on to other projects.

https://youtu.be/HohLqY0lrEo?si=MTxzAUjzno7Evnu9

i think it is do-able but forget domestic pond filters like a screenmatic.

there have been a few large commercial style drum filters on ebay now and then.
in fact there were some posted recently in the ebay finds thread.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/315880238...mis&media=COPY

I'd go with a mechanical drum filter or two, to filter the solid waste, and just allow natural filtration for biological processes.
with moderate stocking levels.
planted well for nitrate reduction, and a few 80w amalgam UV's to help clear the green algae.

a pond that size is probably better run naturally, but carp are big messy fish that quickly foul the water, so to have gin clear water you would need it to be stream fed.
but then you are not allowed to stock such waters without a license from the enviroment agency.

That is a really nice place you have there.

As mentioned, the fact it's a mud pond will mean it'll be a struggle to keep clear.

If the bottom is not too silty, then it might clear overtime as it matures?

One thing, if you do need to pump water, I'd use an airlift rather than a conventional pond pump. They can pump huge amounts of water, are cheap to make and don't cost much to run as they just run off a pond air pump that you usually use for air stones.

One option to explore is having a large shallow planted bog area next to the pond.

There's a guy on youtube called david pagan butler (or something like that) who talks about making natural swimming ponds. I'd suggest watching a few of his videos as the swimming ponds get gin clear water which is naturally filtered via the planted bog area (water is circulated using airlifts). Although admittedly they don't have fish in, so it may not work if you do. I'm not sure.

There's no guarantee it would make the water clear, but probably the only feasible way to keep that volume of water clear in my view.

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No worries.

An airlift is nothing fancy. All it really is, is putting an air stone down a vertical bit of submerged pipe. Try it. The top of the pipe needs to be somewhere near the surface of the water. If you try and raise the top of the pipe up out of the water too high, it stops flowing out the top of the pipe.

As the bubbles rise within the pipe, they pull water in from the bottom and then water flows out of the top.

Then to direct the flow of water, you can put an elbow on the top of the pipe and direct the flow where you need it (within a pipe if needed, although you need to add t fittings to allow the air to escape).

They don't really pump water above the water level (despite their name) very well. But they can pump a large volume of water if you just need to circulate water.

For your set up you can make an airlift out of 110mm waste pipe. The vertical bit of pipe needs to be about 1.5m - 2m long (the taller the pipe, the more the bubbles will expand, the more the water will flow).

Unrestricted, using a 40watt air pump with a single air stone shoved to the bottom of a pipe, you can probably get over 20k lph from a 2m long bit of 110mm waste pipe from the likes of screwfix. Super cheap!

If you need more flow, you can just build two or more if needed.

To ensure the bottom of the pipe can suck water in unrestricted just cut the bottom of the pipe at a 45* angle. Or put a t fitting on, that way the water can flow in from the side and the bottom of the pipe rests on the pond floor.

The good thing is they are great at oxygenating the water, they are great at circulating water (either around a pond or from filter back to pond) and there's no moving parts to get blocked or damaged (other than in the air pump itself). And they use much less power than a normal pump would.

I use one on my pond instead of a conventional pond pump, works great!

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Originally Posted by Twhitenosugar

No worries.

An airlift is nothing fancy. All it really is, is putting an air stone down a vertical bit of submerged pipe. Try it. The top of the pipe needs to be somewhere near the surface of the water. If you try and raise the top of the pipe up out of the water too high, it stops flowing out the top of the pipe.

As the bubbles rise within the pipe, they pull water in from the bottom and then water flows out of the top.

Then to direct the flow of water, you can put an elbow on the top of the pipe and direct the flow where you need it (within a pipe if needed, although you need to add t fittings to allow the air to escape).

They don't really pump water above the water level (despite their name) very well. But they can pump a large volume of water if you just need to circulate water.

For your set up you can make an airlift out of 110mm waste pipe. The vertical bit of pipe needs to be about 1.5m - 2m long (the taller the pipe, the more the bubbles will expand, the more the water will flow).

Unrestricted, using a 40watt air pump with a single air stone shoved to the bottom of a pipe, you can probably get over 20k lph from a 2m long bit of 110mm waste pipe from the likes of screwfix. Super cheap!

If you need more flow, you can just build two or more if needed.

To ensure the bottom of the pipe can suck water in unrestricted just cut the bottom of the pipe at a 45* angle. Or put a t fitting on, that way the water can flow in from the side and the bottom of the pipe rests on the pond floor.

The good thing is they are great at oxygenating the water, they are great at circulating water (either around a pond or from filter back to pond) and there's no moving parts to get blocked or damaged (other than in the air pump itself). And they use much less power than a normal pump would.

I use one on my pond instead of a conventional pond pump, works great!

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Thanks for the very detailed reply.

That sounds very interesting as it would give some circulation in addition to oxygenation, lack of circulation has been a secondary concern for me.

What size air pump would you recommend to give decent oxygenation and circulation if making an air pump similar to your description please.

Many thanks

I think a ornamental stream of water plants could help to pull nitrates out too and it would then prevent the plants from taking over the pond as they grow.

Originally Posted by pks1702

They are serious pieces of kit!

Do these have a built in pump to suck water in or do you need a pond based submersible?

Thanks for the input.

Going by the photos it looks to me these are set to be operated as pump fed, i.e the pump(s) are submersed in the pond.

They also appear to come with amalgam UV ballasts.

I doubt the pumps are included in the price so that'll be another cost, and probably new amalgam bulbs as well, and then the relevant pipework.

I have what is essentially the same drum except much smaller (35k lph) and I run mine gravity fed from a bottom drain - I would say the eBay ones would be easy to set up as either pump or gravity fed.

The other thing that isn't clear is whether they include the high pressure wash pump for cleaning the drum screen. You'd assume so as they must be in use in the picture of the drums operating, but not visible in the photos.

Going for these certainly has risks and potential extra costs attached, but for the right situation they look to be an absolute bargain. I can see in the picture showing the control unit that they are Siemens controllers, again quality kit for the money being asked.

If I had a van and plenty of time on my hands I'd try and get all 4 for £2k and make a few quid cleaning them up and selling them on. I'm pretty sure when I first saw the ad he was asking £2k for all 4, but next time I looked it was increased to £2300, so there might be room for negotiation on a job lot.

All the pipe fittings are worth a few hundred quid as well assuming the rubber fittings aren't deteriorated.

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