skippy filter size and filter media

[xrozhija]

I am planning on digging a pond come spring, and am considering a 900-1000 gallon pond (3500-4000 liters)
having no supply of rubbermaid tanks, or anything similar here in my country, i am thinking of using a 50 gallon (200l) rainwater bucket for my filter.

But will this be enough to filter my pond? I will most likely have around 10-15 goldfish in the pond, no koi's or larger fish.

Also, which type of scouring pads is better for the filter? small thin ones, like the first picture, or thicker ones, like the second picture?

Hope theres some who will help me, as I would like to do it right the first time, to not have to redo the filter because it becomes to small for the pond.

 

[MitchM]

Welcome xrozhija!
The 50 gallon barrel will be fine, oversized, even.
How much water will your pump be putting through your filter?
The first type of filter material you pictured will be more durable than the second type.

 

[xrozhija]

I have decided to go with a Jebao eco pump, just havnt decided the size yet.
The pond will be 1-1,1 meter deep on the deepest part, and the 50 gallon barrel is aprox 80cm high, so the water will have to be lifted 2 meters, and the filter will be around 3-3,5 meters away from the pump, with what I have read, that length will add to the pump having to lift/push the water 2,5 meters.
So to keep the flow to ½ the pond size through the filter pr hour, that would mean i need their 5000l/hr pump, as accoring to their chart, thats the pump that will give around 1500l/hr at that lift.

http://shop.wiltec.info/product_inf...-Pond-Pump-submersible-Pumps-5000l-h-30W.html

 

[MitchM]

In order to stir up the detritus that will accumulate and get it to your filter, it is generally recommended that your water turnover rate be 2X the water volume of your pond, so you should be looking at a pump that is about 8000 lph.

 

[xrozhija]

Thanks for the help.
I can see I even got the wrong pump linked, this is the make i was looking at
http://shop.wiltec.info/product_inf...ar-Filterpumpe-EcoTeichpumpe-8000l-h-50W.html

Would 1" hose be sufficient for this setup?

 

[morewater]

I am planning on digging a pond come spring, and am considering a 900-1000 gallon pond (3500-4000 liters)
having no supply of rubbermaid tanks, or anything similar here in my country, i am thinking of using a 50 gallon (200l) rainwater bucket for my filter.

But will this be enough to filter my pond? I will most likely have around 10-15 goldfish in the pond, no koi's or larger fish.

Also, which type of scouring pads is better for the filter? small thin ones, like the first picture, or thicker ones, like the second picture?

A 30-40 Gallon barrel would be more than enough. Look into getting a food-grade plastic barrel (make sure that food was shipped in it, no chemicals), they're available for resale all over the world. As to your choice of media, they're an absolute pain to clean and so I would avoid them unless you're planning on them being "disposable". Spend the money instead on proper filter material for ease of cleaning.

Hope theres some who will help me, as I would like to do it right the first time, to not have to redo the filter because it becomes to small for the pond.

 

[xrozhija]

in my country, a food grade barrel of 30-50 gallons, costs close to 30$ used and uncleaned. Where the 50 gallon rain water container costs 15$, and comes with preinstalled 1" drain plug.

Filling a 50 gallon barrel with "proper" filter media, will costs over 500$, as theres hardly any pond/aquarium supply stores in my country, so theres no competition on the prices, and no stores like Lowes/home depo, and shipping from other countries will be very expensive in shipping costs and probable import taxes and VAT if buying larger quantities, which is why i am considering using the sponge types, as i have seen others use those as well, and filling the barrel with those types can be done for around 100$

 

[morewater]

The barrel doesn't need to be "filled". Put a milk crate in the bottom, place a cut-mesh plastic lattice on top of the milk crate and add about a foot of the media that you choose. I've seen people use dollar store plastic hair rollers as media. The media only needs to be about a foot thick. Filling the entire barrel is overkill.

 

[koiguy1969]

heres my build... I must recommend staying away from the scrubbies with the sponge.. bad move!
https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/koiguys-55-gallon-bio-filter-skippy-style.2766/

 

[mgmine]

The problem that I see is that your pond is 900 gallons and your barrel is 50 gallons. The pump that you need can very likely fill your barrel faster than the water can leave it. In my skippy filter I use plastic fence. If I remember correctly it cost about $10 dollars. I also use material similar to the scouring pads but thicker. I got it off Amazon for about $30 dollars. Here is a link to what it looks like on Youtube

 

[Trent]

I really hope someone can help me because I'm ready to scrap the whole skippy filter project and I'm wasting a lot of money trying to fix my skippy filter.
After last year's mess of having to clean the 4 pressured filters with UV every other day (5 sponges each) and still having extreme green water no matter how much chemicals/barley and other "clear water stuff" I poured into it, I installed a UltraKlear 5000 UV installed, with no results .I decided over the winter to build an oversized filter to take care of my algae problems.
So after 5 months of planning and doing research, buying plans, i built a 150 gallon skippy filter in the spring (March) which is suppose to be for a 4,500 gallon pond, mine is 2,000 gallons.

Unfortunately, there is only 1 foot from the back of the pond to the fence, so the closest area I could build it was 47 feet away from the pond. There's no spot closer. (filter is behind the gazebo)

During the build I installed a 6 inch PVC pipe underground from the pond to the filter to run power, tubing, security cameras, etc... I also, bought 2- 7,900 GPH pumps.
So here's my problem.... I have no problem getting the water from the pond to the filter, no problem at all. Having a impossible time getting the water back to the pond.

Solutions I've tried..... As seen in the 1st picture above....

During planning I knew that just connecting the tube to the outlet of the (non-pressurized) filter was not going to work, even though the filter is much higher then the pond (I tried and nothing flowed through the tubing). So from the filter, it goes to a 55 gallon collection barrel with Pump "B" in it and a low and high water cut off switch to keep the tank from flooding and pump from running when it did get low (not cheap). Kinda like a sump pump but with a high water cut-off switch too. Thinking that both pumps are the same it should be no problem. Well..... On some tests the pump empties the tank faster then the filter drains to the tank, but 85% of the time the pump is not keeping up and the tank starts to fill up within 10 minutes. Also, during the test I didn't like how the pump was cycling on and off. So I bought a extremely large, expensive 9,000 GPH sump pump with built in float from a plumber friend and added the high water cut-off to it. Same results.

So, to bring you up to yesterday....
So I purchased a 13,200 gph varible speed inline pump with primer, So I connected a small length of tubing from the outlet of the filter tank to the inlet of the pump and then the outlet tube to the outlet of the pump and see what happens. Well, it had worked for a minute or so then the filter tank started to fill up and I had to power down before "Noah's Flood" was going to happen.

So I'm at my wits end... and broke LOL....I need help...... No problem getting water to the filter, how do i get it back to the pond RELIABLY without a human watching it to make sure floods don't happen. Please, oh please give me suggestions on what I should do, is there a pressured filter I could just buy for a 2,000 to 5,000 that I'll just install in the filter area that is extremely easy to clean and WORKS. I'm ready to tear out the whole pond.
Thank you in advanced.

 

[mgmine]

I think your problem is that the system has too much volume and pressure and it should be easy enough to straighten out. Does the water going back to the pond through the large pvc pipe on the black tank? If so what is the purpose of the black pipe going into the white pvc at the top,does that go to the 50 gallon blue barrel? Also how do the two frogs get the water to spit? is that water coming from the filter?

 

[MitchM]

I really hope someone can help me because I'm ready to scrap the whole skippy filter project and I'm wasting a lot of money trying to fix my skippy filter.
After last year's mess of having to clean the 4 pressured filters with UV every other day (5 sponges each) and still having extreme green water no matter how much chemicals/barley and other "clear water stuff" I poured into it, I installed a UltraKlear 5000 UV installed, with no results .I decided over the winter to build an oversized filter to take care of my algae problems.
So after 5 months of planning and doing research, buying plans, i built a 150 gallon skippy filter in the spring (March) which is suppose to be for a 4,500 gallon pond, mine is 2,000 gallons.

Unfortunately, there is only 1 foot from the back of the pond to the fence, so the closest area I could build it was 47 feet away from the pond. There's no spot closer. (filter is behind the gazebo)

During the build I installed a 6 inch PVC pipe underground from the pond to the filter to run power, tubing, security cameras, etc... I also, bought 2- 7,900 GPH pumps.
So here's my problem.... I have no problem getting the water from the pond to the filter, no problem at all. Having a impossible time getting the water back to the pond.

Solutions I've tried..... As seen in the 1st picture above....

During planning I knew that just connecting the tube to the outlet of the (non-pressurized) filter was not going to work, even though the filter is much higher then the pond (I tried and nothing flowed through the tubing). So from the filter, it goes to a 55 gallon collection barrel with Pump "B" in it and a low and high water cut off switch to keep the tank from flooding and pump from running when it did get low (not cheap). Kinda like a sump pump but with a high water cut-off switch too. Thinking that both pumps are the same it should be no problem. Well..... On some tests the pump empties the tank faster then the filter drains to the tank, but 85% of the time the pump is not keeping up and the tank starts to fill up within 10 minutes. Also, during the test I didn't like how the pump was cycling on and off. So I bought a extremely large, expensive 9,000 GPH sump pump with built in float from a plumber friend and added the high water cut-off to it. Same results.

So, to bring you up to yesterday....
So I purchased a 13,200 gph varible speed inline pump with primer, So I connected a small length of tubing from the outlet of the filter tank to the inlet of the pump and then the outlet tube to the outlet of the pump and see what happens. Well, it had worked for a minute or so then the filter tank started to fill up and I had to power down before "Noah's Flood" was going to happen.

So I'm at my wits end... and broke LOL....I need help...... No problem getting water to the filter, how do i get it back to the pond RELIABLY without a human watching it to make sure floods don't happen. Please, oh please give me suggestions on what I should do, is there a pressured filter I could just buy for a 2,000 to 5,000 that I'll just install in the filter area that is extremely easy to clean and WORKS. I'm ready to tear out the whole pond.
Thank you in advanced.

It sounds like you're trying to balance the water flow between one pump pulling water from the pond and another pump pushing water back to the pond. I don't think that's a good idea.
A pressurized filter would be a better choice. This one for example:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3500-Gal-Pr...er-Koi-Fish-2100-GPH-Water-Pump-/261943808080

What size plumbing lines do you have going to and from the pond?

.

 

[Trent]

The Black tubing at the top of the rubbermaid tank (the skippy filter) is the feed from the pond to the filter. The White PVC pipe from the Black tank to the blue (pumping tank) is "Filtered" water from the filter. There's a pump in the blue tank to pump the water back to the pond through the black tubing coming out of the blue tank. The vertical PVC pipe in the middle with the leaf bad next to it, is the underground conduit where the 2- tubing, power, some cat6 network cable and some security camera cable run through.
Hope that helps

This shows the inlet and outlet system of the filter

This is the pumping tanking

This is where the underground conduit lives

And just for laughs, don't try this... seconds later, I was wet LOL

 

[Trent]

This is the biggest tubing I could fit in the PVC conduit. Tubing by Alpine: FPH100 1" Black Flexible PVC Tubing, not easy stuff to work with at all. I owned that pressure filter, and this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/3000gal-Pon...229213?hash=item43afae10dd:g:T9oAAOxyHE5RpEAl and this one http://www.tricker.com/Item/clear_flo_3000_kit_laguna and this one http://www.123ponds.com/an-321.html the sponges had to be clean ever other day and they never did filtered anything. That's why I went with a skippy filter. Last year I decided that i would hook all 4 up to the pond with 4 separate pumps and all, but it didn't work. I only have 20 goldfish you get from the pet store to feed turtles. It's not like I have too many fish. I have 4 water lilies and 20 water lettuces. It is in full sun, I'm thinking about putting up a shade awning over the pond.