Little Pond on the Prairie
Filters
We went from a waterfall to water drops-which are putting off ALOT more oxygen!
The large water drop comes from a very large olive barrel that we turned into a filter. It has five bags of lava rock , 12 laundry bags full of pieces of filter media and one 4' round filter pad. It then dumps back into the pond through the black 4" pipe.
I have to say that my fish grew an incredible amount this summer (08) until the large loss in Sept.
TIP- we got within a foot of the bottom of the pond when a filter pad came up and blocked the return pipe, had we not been home.....we would have come to a disaster!!!
Keep submerged pumps lifted off the bottom of the pond...just in case this happens to you.
TIP-if you should lose a large amount of water in the heat of summer...add water over the coming week/weeks. We stuck in three hoses and went from 12" deep to 5" 6" in just a couple hours.....they couldnt handle the nearly 25 degree drop in temp because we have ice cold well water.
TIP- my plants around the pond and on the deck area love the pond water. I add a pitcher of pond water to each plant every two weeks......they love it.
These three shots are of the small filter that I just couldnt get rid of when we got the big one.....I figure that one giant filter is good but add extra filtration......great!
Pump- Hy-Drive 4800 gph
into
Laguna Power Flo Waterfall Filter with brushes and course, med. and fine filter pads.
dumps into
150 rubbermaid container with 2 rolls of Springflo bio-medio and floating plants
2 - two inch pipes drain it back into the pond through the fence. ( pipes are white pvc- i sealed the ends and painted the outside with a plastic spray paint in copper color)
above-Spring time clean out. We pull everything out and spray it and then vaccum the sludge out of the bottom.
below- 3" of sludge from winter.
