Can you use a DE filter in a pond?

[jenmazy]

I am building a natural swimming pool/pond. I have one side for plants with river rocks and one side for swimming. I have a new pool pump and DE filter. Are they ok to use with the pond? I wasnt sure if it would remove all of the beneficial bacteria and good things in the water along with the bad stuff.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

If you are using this DE filter to purify the water, you are wasting your time as pathogenic bacteria and parasitic organisms are too small for even DE to filter out. All that will happen is, because more organics will be in this pool than a conventional pool, it will clog quite readily.

 

[jenmazy]

So I should put a sand filter in instead? Do they make huge filters or do I need to figure out how to make one? My pond is 40,000 gallons.

 

[mgmine]

Are you going to have fish in the pond?

 

[jenmazy]

No fish just people and plants.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

What I stated about a DE filter also applies to a sand filter. You are going to have plants, which will attract insects, which will attract other creatures. The level of resulting organics will clog a sand filter.

 

[HARO]

Can you use a DE filter in a pond? Of course you can... after all, it's YOUR pond! Will it work? Probably not. You'll be spending most of your time cleaning it.
John

 

[jenmazy]

Can you use a DE filter in a pond? Of course you can... after all, it's YOUR pond! Will it work? Probably not. You'll be spending most of your time cleaning it.
John

lol Well I do not want that! What kind of filter would be ideal? I looked at biofilters but kept seeing how great they cleaned fish waste and I will not have fish.

We are seriously unprepared. It has almost killed us to build this ourselves. The last 5 days have been brutal and I am exhausted and beat down. The original plan was to build an in ground liner pool. We dug a hole, built a huge concrete block retaining wall, then changed our plans to make it a natural swim pond. I have three dogs and was worried they would shred the liner I like the idea of a natural pond too. The problem I have is that I do have a little tiny koi pond and it is pretty much always green. I do not want to swim in green water!
.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

I do not want to swim in green water!

Well get yourself prepared for green water as this is a naturally occurring phenomena in any pool or pond. Once your plants are established it should only occur in the Spring.
Biofilters are a usual requirement for ponds that house fish because of the Ammonia that fish produce. Since you will have no fish what little Ammonia that is produced through the decay of organic matter will easily be handled by the plants and periphyton.

I feel that I should mention that I am a vigorously against Natural Swimming ponds as they are being generally constructed. They are not safe for human immersion contrary to all of the hype that you may read. They are not endorsed or recognized by either the CDC or the WHO. They offer minimal, if any, prophylactic deterrence to any pathogenic organism.

 

[jenmazy]

So is the only way to make them safe to use chlorine or salt? Or maybe a uv sterilizer or ozone generator?

Anything compatible with having plants in the water?

 

[Meyer Jordan]

Or maybe a uv sterilizer or ozone generator?

Of the two, A UV sterilizer is the better choice. Please take not, this must be a commercial grade UV sterilizer. Those that are designed for Garden Pond use are not powerful enough to reduce pathogen levels to what is safe for human immersion. These commercial units are not inexpensive, but are necessary.

 

[jenmazy]

CA you use both? I want to be sure to have safe clean water. Any brands/links you could recommend? I looked at a few but the largest I saw was for 20k gallons. Could I use two? I know it is expensive, but I have already spent a fortune and I do not want it to fail with green soupy unsafe water in the end.

I finally got the liner in yesterday. Taking a day off and starting the river rock and flagstone in the morning.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Sorry but I need to shake my head a little bit
Sounds like a big project you are undertaking and the fact that you are as far into it as your are and you haven't figured out what sort of filtration is a little disconcerting, especially considering that it sounds like you plan to be swimming in this pond with your dogs. Not having researched all this and having it worked out before hand is a sure recipe for disaster.

The idea of making a 40K gal natural pond as sterile as a chlorinated swimming pool isn't gona happen, still there is much you can do to help reduce harmful pathogen levels and keep them to a minimum, but your first order of business would be to have a well designed gravity feed bottom drain system. Do you have that?

 

[jenmazy]

I am making this sound much worse than it is. We had a plan for a liner pool and we're prepared for a saltwater liner pool. We started this 2 years ago. It is just in the last week we started to really understand that we did not want to rely on just plants to clean the water.

This guy builds swim ponds but I just do not want to worry constantly if the water is safe. I would rather have some plants in to be pretty and make it look natural and rely on a pump and uv/ozone system to make the water safe.

I attached a pic of what we have now. It is 21x38 and slopes to 6 ft deep on the large side with a 12x12 sloped walk in square area and a 12x26 plant area with river rocks.

 

[jenmazy]

Oh and the plumbing. There are two bottom drains (for safety), 2 skimmers on one side, and the returns will be in the plant area via fountains and a few deck jets to cool the water. We have a Hayward 2 hp pump https://www.amazon.com/Hayward-SP34...1&keywords=hayward+variable+speed+pool+pump+2 and a 35 sf DE filter (which is undersized since we added space to the pool).

Next week we will start flagstone coping and the 12x12 entry till be flagstone.