home made filters

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Does anyone make home made filters and sell them I'm in need of one and I don't have the money to buy a good one.
 

Mmathis

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I think most of us use a filter that we've made ourselves. What do you have in mind? How big is your pond? Do you have fish -- koi or goldfish?
 
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My pond is only around 400 500 gallons. I had comets in there and snails at one time then I had a gold fish that I guess was sick woke up one day and everything in my pond was dead. Then when that happened I cleaned the whole pond up bought a uv clarifier light and it's been running for about 3 weeks with noting in it yet.
 
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A filter is really nothing more than a container that holds something for good bacteria to grow on (I use plastic snow fence) and some filter material to catch the crud. Check out Youtube there are lots of them that you could make.
 

sissy

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You could get buys on a pot that is pretty and fill it with lava rock and put it on a concrete block in the center of the pond .You would only need to drill a hole in the bottom and run your hose up into it and let it spill over the top back into the pond .The lava rock will be the filter
 

tbendl

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This is what I use for one of my filters, I run a tube from a small pump up through the bottom and then put quilt batting in it. I only use it for small particle filtering but I'm sure you could fill it with filter pads or bio balls and make it work. Any pot should work, the only thing I had to do was dremel around the sides of the hole in the bottom to make it a bit larger.
new water feature 1.JPG
 

Mmathis

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@fish pond Den And one thing to keep in mind [unless you seriously think there is a disease in the pond....], is that you should leave everything alone as in DON'T empty and re-fill and definitely, DON'T "clean" the liner. When you have fish, your pond has to establish the good bacteria that @mgmine mentioned, called "cyling", and that can take weeks. That bacteria is what gets rid of the ammonia and nitrites [from fish waste], so it's something you want to keep happy! Any time you "clean" your pond, it will have to go through the "cyling" all over again.

I like @tbendl's pot, and @sissy does a great job with her filters. You might have something lying around that would work, or you could easily find a pot or container -- even a 5 gal. Home Depot bucket would work if you don't care what it looks like, LOL!

Are you planning to add fish in the future! If so, I would recommend that you get a test kit to be sure your water quality stays good and is healthy for the fish. We all prefer "drop" kits rather than the strips -- they are more accurate [but will do in a pinch]. You'll want to test for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH, and KH at the bare minimum.

Let us know what you end up coming up with!
 
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Wow lots of good ideas and I love the pot one I thought I would need a filter that's 100 and 100 of dollers. Thanks everyone I'm sorry still new at this.

one question if I take a pot and fill whit lava rocks how would I run the hose. Can I take the one end of the hose from the uv clarifier light cause I have that hose running off a rock for another waterfall or do I need to do something else.
 

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I'm not sure I understand. Any hose that is pushing water from a pump will work, you just need it to force water up the pot, through whatever filter media you choose and allow it to spill over. I went with quilt batting for the weight. I wanted something lightweight to be able to pull out, clean and replace. If you use the lava, I don't know that it will filter out the fines, )these were the cause of murky water for me).
 

Mmathis

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Now, why did I type "cyling" repeatedly in my above post...... Hopefully, you all know that I meant it to be "cycling."
 

sissy

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lots of video's on you tube that will show you how to build your own filter .We love to help and love to see people save money and enjoy there pond more .Like turtle mommy said we have lots of ideas for filters ,some unconventional but they work as long as you give them time .Plus you get the satisfaction from doing it your self you can even put a crate inside the pod with your pump inside the crate with lava rock .I do that also
 

Mmathis

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Wow lots of good ideas and I love the pot one I thought I would need a filter that's 100 and 100 of dollers. Thanks everyone I'm sorry still new at this.

one question if I take a pot and fill whit lava rocks how would I run the hose. Can I take the one end of the hose from the uv clarifier light cause I have that hose running off a rock for another waterfall or do I need to do something else.
You can do a search here, under "pond construction" or "DIY" for other ideas and instructions. Also, Google something like "DIY pond filter" and maybe include keywords like "pot" or "barrel." Or better yet, maybe make that be "flower pot," or "terra cotta pot" instead of the one 3-letter word -- no telling where that will take you...... And there are ideas also using pots, where the pot is outside the pond, but pours into it. Keep in mind that clay pots can be pricy, but there are alternatives.
 

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