I wanted to share my DIY bio-filter and hope people can give me advice on how to improve it and/or just give me feedback on what you think. Every comment will be greatly appreciated as I am a new member. I will try and explain the steps as best I can. Just to give a little background to my pond, It is about 1200 gallons, 5 feet wide and about 10 feet long by 3 feet deep. I live in Iowa so the winters can get pretty cold. This past summer was the first year in operation so the landscape around the pond is not finished yet. My pond has a bottom drain that is connected to pre-filter where the 1200 gph pump is located. I have three green matala mats in a row to catch the large debris before going to the pump and bio-filter.
The first picture shows how the water enters the biofilter. (I had nowhere to hide the filter so I had to bury it) It goes underground from the pump to the top of the biofilter. I put the screw on pvc at the top so I could easily remove the grates and filter material. It then goes down to the bottom and makes a cyclonic action to let the debris settle and then rises to the top through the material and out onto the waterfall, to the stream.
The second picture show the biomedia (poly string that was cut into shorter sections then unraveled. The come as three strands together but when you cut it you can take the strands apart.) I'm sorry I didn't show this, but under the material there is a grate above the PVC to hold the string out of the cyclonic moving water. I had to put rocks on top of the top grate to keep the string held down. Also, this past week I found some blue furnace filter that I will be adding to my filter this coming spring.
The third picture shows how I have tried to hide the filter and the first bigger waterfall that feeds the stream. The fourth picture shows my pond towards the end of summer. I have lillies, cattails, and a few Iris growing in the pond as well as a few floating plants I got from a friend. It was the first summer after the plants had been replanted so they didn't grow very well. I took the goldfish out of my pond so I can have only Koi from now on. I had three koi but after I took all the goldfish out one of the Koi, who was about 8 inches long died.
Hope I can get some feedback soon and I hope you like my pond/filter idea.
The first picture shows how the water enters the biofilter. (I had nowhere to hide the filter so I had to bury it) It goes underground from the pump to the top of the biofilter. I put the screw on pvc at the top so I could easily remove the grates and filter material. It then goes down to the bottom and makes a cyclonic action to let the debris settle and then rises to the top through the material and out onto the waterfall, to the stream.
The second picture show the biomedia (poly string that was cut into shorter sections then unraveled. The come as three strands together but when you cut it you can take the strands apart.) I'm sorry I didn't show this, but under the material there is a grate above the PVC to hold the string out of the cyclonic moving water. I had to put rocks on top of the top grate to keep the string held down. Also, this past week I found some blue furnace filter that I will be adding to my filter this coming spring.
The third picture shows how I have tried to hide the filter and the first bigger waterfall that feeds the stream. The fourth picture shows my pond towards the end of summer. I have lillies, cattails, and a few Iris growing in the pond as well as a few floating plants I got from a friend. It was the first summer after the plants had been replanted so they didn't grow very well. I took the goldfish out of my pond so I can have only Koi from now on. I had three koi but after I took all the goldfish out one of the Koi, who was about 8 inches long died.
Hope I can get some feedback soon and I hope you like my pond/filter idea.
