A few questions

[mattmathis]

Hi, all I am 32 years old and from south georgia. I have been into terrestrial gardening and aquariums for as long as I can remember. I've always wanted a garden pond, but never had the money and time at once. I've decided not to let anything get in my way this time though. Time to combine the hobbies!

I have finished digging my hole, and have now installed the liner, and added water. The pond is about 200 gallons, and I have a 300 gph powerhead, with a foam prefilter now. I want to have some goldfish once I get everything running smoothly. So I am looking at making a diy filter.

To start with I thought I would go with the box type that goes inside the pond. I tried to post a link to what I was talking about but it wont let me. Will that work? Also, If I got this route should I make it more inline? Like suck the water in one end, through the floss/carbon, and then through the bio media and then out the other end? Any recommendations on this are very welcome.

Another thing, we had a HUGE rain a couple days after I installed the liner and filled the pond. And the next day the water was so muddy you could not see an inch deep. Now, I'm not exactly sure which thing caused that, because it could be several I know. I had not moved the clay pile of dirt from beside the pond yet when it rained. So I know that it probably washed a lot of it down the pile and into the pool. But I also noticed a low place where I was afraid the water had puddled up and then the pond water and puddled water ran together.

Anyway, I drained all the water and cleaned everything, and built up the wall/edge on that side of the pond. Then I used a sprinkler to try and simulate rainfall to see what happened. I don't think it will happen again, but the water does still puddle up in that same spot a little and it worries me. Any recommendations on what to do with this spot? I tried to add pics at the end of this post but it wont let me do that either.

I guess I'll leave it at that for now, but I have many more questions.

Thanks in advance! :nananananana:

 

[DrDave]

First of all welcome to the forum.
Please edit your User CP and add your location.
Search the forum for posts and pictures since these questions have been covered hundreds of times.
After you have 5 posts, I think you can add photos.

 

[mattmathis]

Maybe I'm not typing in the right key words or something. I searched many times for the filter question. But it seems there are only threads about how to make large diy filters. Not near as many as small ones at least. I thought someone might be able to help with my specific situation. It would have helped if I could have submitted the link to the filter I was talking about. I really had a pretty specific question there.

And since every ones backyard is different, I find it hard to believe I could find the answer to a question regarding the slope and levelness of my backyard. Again, the pictures would have been helpful!

I should have just not posted at all when I saw that pic/links weren't allowed to me yet. I knew better.

 

[koidaddy]

I would not do an internal filter. It will be a pain to get to and clean and the space it takes up in the pond is butter used for more water volume and space to move around. Build youself a small container/barrel filter that will have water pushed through it from the bottom out the top and back into the pond. Get a pump that will pump @400-600 gallons per hour.
Use this for an idea. You can make this any size you need and design the filter media to fit your needs.
http://user6.nofeehost.com/schroeder1959/filter.htm

 

[DrCase]

In a few more post you will be ok
you could look at a large filter and just build it smaller
I wouldn't want to get down in the pond to clean a filter