Hi and hope you can offer some advice.

[Nature Discovery Villa]

Hi I live in Malaysia, I recently bought and renovated an abandoned property high in the hills 1300meters asl. We also dug a large pond for personal fishing. The pond is 120 feet long 32 feet wide at the widest point and 5-6feet deep. It is a concrete pond and has been running for about 18 months right now. The contractor it seems had no idea what he was doing and has put what seems to be a large but not big enough filter arrangement at one end somewhat like an aquarium filter with 4 Chambers all same depth as the pond. The first is water in but empty of filter material, the second and third are 75% filled with rocks and then have many many bags of bio rings on the top. The second compartment also has filter cloth on the top of that. The last compartment has the two pumps and UVC lights. There is also aeration at both ends of the pond providing some element of circulation. The water is murky and I have to clean the filter cloths daily to prevent them from clogging. There has to be an alternative way to keep this pond nice, attractive and clean. Can you advise me please?

 

[Lisak1]

What a lovely setting!

Can you post a photo of your filtration set up? That would be helpful.

And the first suggestion I would make is to get some plants in your pond - right now it's essentially a swimming pool for fish. Plants will help with the type of filtration that is beneficial to both the health of your pond and the clarity. And will make for a more natural looking environment for your fish.

What type of fish are you stocking?

 

[JRS]

Welcome!

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome!

 

[Nature Discovery Villa]

Thank you everyone, is night already here so tomorrow I will send pics. There are local fish plus tilapia and catfish in the pond.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum! Hang around we will try to help you.

Very nice pond and setting.

 

[poconojoe]

Agree...plants and lots of them.
You can get floating plants. Just throw them in and they grow fast.
They will compete with the algae and thrive on the excess nutrients that comes from the fish waste, plus they will provide shade that will prevent the algae from getting much needed sunlight.
Your fish will like the shade they provide and they will munch on the roots that hang in the water.

Some examples are water hyacinths, water lettuce, duckweed, fairy moss. But there are many others. Look online at the pond plant seller to get ideas on what will be good for your climate.

 

[j.w]

@Nature Discovery Villa

 

[Nature Discovery Villa]

Hi and Good Morning, I have some pics to share. We have had this air compression installed for more than 1year already.

 

[Nature Discovery Villa]

The water enters after going through the filter place in a man made stream. The filter is one end and the stream is at the other

 

[Nature Discovery Villa]

This is the filter box, it is same depth about 6feet at this end. In the picture the water enters at the bottom left compartment. The bottom right is the drain to throw water. Moving up the picture is the next compartment after the water in this has rocks then bags of bio rings then on the top the blue filter material you can see on the top. This blue material has to be washed and changed 3 times a day. The next compartment up the picture is also rocks and bags of bio rings. Finally at the very top is a compartment with 5 100watt UVC lights and the 2 pumps.

 

[Nature Discovery Villa]

This is the 2 types of filter cloth I have in the second compartment. These have to be cleaned frequently.

 

[Nature Discovery Villa]

Some people say forget the filter and let the bacteria take control but I have tried that and it goes bad quickly. I have read about bog filters but actually don't understand how to do this. Then add plants I am all in favour for but the call ducks 4 and fish will sure eat them. I am at a loss because I don't know what to do. The pond is catch and release for our guests we are a small private bed and breakfast operation you can see more pics at our website if you wish to see. www.mcmoutdoorcenter.com
So I need advice how to install planters and lots of plants that will help keep this clean.

 

[GBBUDD]

I BELIEVE I SAW THIS BEING BUILT NOT THAT LONG AGO . It appears you have a shelf around the inside of pond with gravel is this gravel area by any chance about a foot deep and has pvc pipe running along the bottom burred by the small stone? All is not lost . though it is a large pond and will require a bit more then just a air pump in my opinion.
Larger ponds are easier to stabilize but there are limits before it gets rather costly due to energy needs to run pumps. The following is a way to get the pond to a state i believe your looking for . How ever it will not happen over night it takes time for the bacteria and organisms to get stabile and take things into there own hands. Over build a bog and youll be amazed you have many of the parts already with the stream and interest with falls.

 

[Nature Discovery Villa]

Many thanks I have watched the video and here are my issues, we are in Malaysia and yup we have very few people with knowledge and extertise, we also have next to no where to buy all the stuff required except to order from US or UK where it is possible to get all of these things in order to follow this video. So we are sort of stuck, yes we have 3x3inch pipes from the 2 submersible pumps, one goes direct into the pond just in front of the filter box and pushes water up along the right hand side of the pond back up towards the waterfall. The other pump splits into two one goes to the waterfall and one enters under the last waterfall pushing back down the other (left) side so this makes an anti clockwise flow from the filter looking to the other end. This then in theory pushes the water and dirt back to the filter box.
Also yes you are correct we have a step and in some places two steps in around the sides that go about 1-1.5 feet deep. I would like to have more planted areas and I really don't want to spend my days continually cleaning the filter cloths.