Filter for the laziest neighbor in the world!

[JohnHuff]

I have a neighbor with a very small pond, it's a pre-formed pond that's about 200 gallons. She put a dozen feeder fish in it and nothing else. She wants to do minimal maintenance on it.

So I built her a small skippy filter out of a plastic planter and air furnace filter for media for $50 including a small pump. I wrapped some filter material around the pump to filter out algae and stuff and told her to hose it out every few weeks. It worked well for about a couple of months, then I was called back when the pump stopped working.

The wrapping (pre-filter) around the pump had become dislodged somehow and the pump was fouled by algae. I took it apart and cleaned it. It worked for a while and then stopped again. The pump was fouled again but cleaning it didn't work anymore. Obviously not a lot of maintenance was done on it.

Now I'm thinking what is the simplest filter in the world? I thought the Skippy worked well but if she won't even do the most basic maintenance of cleaning the filter material around the pump then there is basically nothing that will work. Do you guys have any idea?

The other thing I was just thinking was just to buy a bunch of water plants and leave it at that?

 

[addy1]

Small bog............a tote with pea gravel and ton of plants and she could ignore it for a long time.

 

[koiguy1969]

if the problem is ...shes not cleaning the prefilter, skippy, bog, trickle tower, or whatever... the filter style doesnt matter much. build a larger prefilter that wont need cleaning as often...or clean it for her..... not much for choices if shes not willing to do anything except call you!!!... drawing the water from higher in the water column will help by drawing in less gunk.

 

[brandonsdad02]

I don't have a pre filter before my pump. Just my skimmer box, pump then bog.

 

[JohnHuff]

Thanks, good ideas so far! I don't know how to make a bog for her, but I like the large pre-filter idea.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Koiguy hit the nail on the head, big pre-filter up off the bottom of the pond. Furnace filter material is to fine for pre-filter material, you want something with a lot of holes in it, with holes that are as big as you can get so they don't get plugged with little stuff, but not so big that they will allow stuff through big enough to jam the pump impeller.
Of course there are lots of other things that can go wrong with a pond that require ongoing maintenance.
If she is really so lazy she would be better off just paying somebody to regularly maintain her pond for her,,,, of course maybe she is also the cheapest person in the world too?

 

[koiguy1969]

I don't have a pre filter before my pump. Just my skimmer box, pump then bog.

a prefilter is a mechanical or solids catching filter, plumbed to do its job before the water is drawn into the pumps impellor.
actually,Your skimmer is in fact, a prefilter of sorts, just as is a leaf basket on an external pump.
if it collects debris and is before or "pre" pump, its a prefilter. .
Mucky... using furnace filter pads is just fine, when you buy the right ones...i use them in my prefilters (have been for 5 years)... theyre much like a cheap jap mat, or matalla pad! you need to get the "cut to fit" ones 25" x 30" x 1".. i believe Jansen enviro-aire is what i use..$5.49 @ Lowes.

 

[sissy]

If there is a budget a leaf basket works great I bought one at 49 dollars it catches everything before it gets to the pump .zI have one pump now submerged and one well half out of the water hanging off the side of the pond under the bridge and that one is plumbed to the leaf basket .Remember if the pump is magnetic drive pull the whole piece out and clean it .All you do is pull on the impeller and the whole magnetic housing should come out and clean it .I have had several things get stuck back there on one of mine .I thought it was dead but after pulling it out and cleaning it ,it worked fine

 

[DrCase]

Straight pump her house to yours you do the maintenance and send it back

 

[brandonsdad02]

buy her a fish tank with a undergravel filter.

 

[crsublette]

Lets face it. We actually live in good times and government intervention to the point where folk are actually to the point where they want to have their joys without any responsibility, that is the responsiblity of simply cleaning a filter once a week or month can be too much. This is probably the most aggravating thing I have experienced about this hobby, that is "i want to enjoy it with as little or zero input from me". Hey, sometimes the best things ya enjoy in life are what ya have to actually work to maintain.

So I built her a small skippy filter out of a plastic planter and air furnace filter for media for $50 including a small pump. I wrapped some filter material around the pump to filter out algae and stuff and told her to hose it out every few weeks.

Even though I have my reseverations, I actually think "skippy" type filters, whether done in barrels or irrigation boxes, are the cheapest filters that do the best job if properly maintained with pre-filtering.

When talking simplicity with minimal maintenance, regardless of potential issues, I like the "matting in irrigation type boxes" setup, that is briefly described in the hyperlink (second picture). However, this requires a bottom drain which you could simply install a retro-bottom, but I am concerned the pond might be too small for a bottom drain unless ya can buy or diy a 1" or 2" BD. A simple diy bottom drain could just involve the sunction pipe or submersible pump set inside my simple pre-filter setup.

Small bog............a tote with pea gravel and ton of plants and she could ignore it for a long time.

I agree, even though I have my reservations.

A bog is by far the best absolutely zero maintenance, except for tending to plants, AS LONG AS something is used to prevent big leaves and twigs from entering the bog. For the bog pre-filter, you can simply setup something like what I did a long time ago when I first began this hobby, a simple pre-filter. When I did this simple pre-filter setup, i never did any prefilter cleaning and pump never stopped working nor slowed down; there was even time when I just left my pond floor to become a floor of leaves, a pool of algae, and the pump kept on trucking. Eventually, I did vaccum the debris that got stuck at the pile. With the proper plants in the bog, such as water hyacinths, sedges, and other recommened veggie filter plants, then she will do fine. She will do even better with a bog that is properly oversized for the pond. Still, you will have maintenance of tending to plants. The short term disadvantage of bogs is the initial cost of it, be it personal time to dig the bog and money for the gravel and to educate your self to properly do it.

Everything I have read, including the expensive "self cleaning" mechanicals, require maintenance. Although, with the "self cleaning" mechanicals, you can leave for a month without having to worry, but owners will still have to perform, at least, monthly maintenance.

To do it Nature's way, build a proper mechanical filter that will house all sorts of aquatic scavenger bugs and critters that decomposes the debris to ammonia, which is then cleaned by the plants or bio-filter. Unfortunately, I have not read of such experiments be very successful if you do not live near already established natural rivers or ponds or lakes, etc... I did a little research into this and talked about it in the nature's friend to self cleaning bogs and filters. However, it is a process for the population to grow, if you can obtain viable critters, and to ensure the critters do not die out when implementing this in a climate foreign to the critters, such as semi arid or arid or desert type areas.

As Mucky said, then there is also other stuff that can go wrong requiring maintenance, not involving the filtration.

Huff, extend a hand and do as Case mentions. Be her pond filter maintenance guy. :razz: :lamp5: Maybe you can have fun with some role play. She a looker? "hello there, I see your filtration is a little clogged." :redface: :luxlove: :banana: ((ugh ... hmm, maybe not say that exactly))

 

[Jason]

An example on my small 250gph pump i have is Wrapped in a box shaped out of Screen door screening (for bigger debri from entering) and then goes from pump to an Irrigation filter with an 100 micron screen ( for tiny particles like dirt and fish waste) and then to a spitter, that works very well for my 60gal small preformed, my bigger pond has the same setup along with an Biological filter. I rinse the Screen filter Once a day and is very easy to get to lol you would be surprised at how much those irrigation filters will catch! :razz:

 

[crsublette]

Bah, forgot, another approach, ya could do Novak's anoxic system, which is more of a combo filter, that is a settlement chamber plus bio-filter. All he does is pump the water through a storm drain box type thing filled with pads that is then flowed into the anoxic tank. The tank does and will accumulate gunk like SC, except it is usually outdoors exposed to the elements and plants. Depending on the pre-filtering will determine how often the tank would need to be flushed of debris, like ya do with a settlement chamber.