How would you filter a series of barrel ponds?

[Hop-frog]

I want to setup 5-6 barrel ponds in the backyard. They'd more or less be the same height, so it isn't as if I can easily setup water to flow from one to the next. They'd be placed against the wall of the house. I think providing aeration to all would be simple, so maybe sponge filters would work? Is there a more effective way to filter them all at once with one piece of equipment?

 

[mrsclem]

Unless they are connected you will need a filter for each one.

 

[Lisak1]

Will the barrels be touching? Do you plan to connect them with plumbing? I mean, if you drill through the sides and plumb a line that runs down hill from barrel 1 to barrel 5, you could then have the filter and pump at the end of the run and then pump it back up to #1... in theory anyway!

 

[Hop-frog]

No, not touching, Maybe spaced a meter or two meters apart, at various corners and places around the house. I could certanly drill through, I think the water is not much so no danger of flooding any neighbors if it leaks.

 

[poconojoe]

If you connect them, use bulkhead fittings for a positive seal (in the holes you drill). They have bulkhead fittings that you can glue your pipe into or ones that you thread your pipe into.

 

[brokensword]

you could have each barrel be connected using the siphon technique and make the last barrel (or add one more) be your filter where the pump resides. Put an aerator in this one and you can then have all the pond barrels be both filtered and aerated by one barrel. I'd also add some sort of pump float switch to the barrel prior to the filter barrel just in case you lose siphon on any of the first barrels. The siphons can be cut so you lose siphon X inches down. When this last barrel loses siphon, it'll drop the float switch and cut off the pump, thereby saving water in all the barrels. You only risk overflowing the first barrel this way, prior to pump cutoff but no barrel will ever drop below your siphon level.