- Joined
- Jul 14, 2018
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- 540
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- Location
- Huntsville, AL
- Hardiness Zone
- 7B
- Country
We have the water from our skimmer (3,200 gph) split with about 40% to bog, 40% to bio-balls waterfall, and 20% unfiltered to a small upper pond (150 gallons) that waterfalls into lower pond (1,200) gallons. I decided to put a nylon stocking on the 1 1/4” pipe feeding the upper pond. I used a 1” piece of pipe 4” long and used a pipe clamp to attach the nylon to the pipe. Then I slid the 1” pipe into the 1 1/4” inflow pipe so that I could at a later time pull it out and dump the sock out.
So far this “filter” has worked great. It soon was covered with algae and baby trap door snails. After three weeks, I removed the sock and dumped it out into my shop sink. Inside was some detritus and many creature including snails, tadpoles, and many insect larva. I collected all the living stuff and put it back in the upper pond that has no fish. I gently rinsed the sock in pond water and put it back on.
After two more weeks, I repeated the clean-out and found the same assortment of creatures and about about two tablespoons of detritus.
I am happy with this “filter” as it seems to operate like a mechanical filter, bio-filter and creature habitat. Note the pond is mostly clear with a small level of micro algae so the sock would fill up with algae if the pond has other types of algae in it. See picture of sock before I cleaned it out and after dumping and replacing.
The plants in floating pots are spider lilies I trapped in upper pond as they kept getting caught under the waterfall and loosing all their clay soil to the pond.
I hope someone finds a use for this idea. I am pleased with the results so far. I now plan to let it go for four weeks before dumping.
So far this “filter” has worked great. It soon was covered with algae and baby trap door snails. After three weeks, I removed the sock and dumped it out into my shop sink. Inside was some detritus and many creature including snails, tadpoles, and many insect larva. I collected all the living stuff and put it back in the upper pond that has no fish. I gently rinsed the sock in pond water and put it back on.
After two more weeks, I repeated the clean-out and found the same assortment of creatures and about about two tablespoons of detritus.
I am happy with this “filter” as it seems to operate like a mechanical filter, bio-filter and creature habitat. Note the pond is mostly clear with a small level of micro algae so the sock would fill up with algae if the pond has other types of algae in it. See picture of sock before I cleaned it out and after dumping and replacing.
The plants in floating pots are spider lilies I trapped in upper pond as they kept getting caught under the waterfall and loosing all their clay soil to the pond.
I hope someone finds a use for this idea. I am pleased with the results so far. I now plan to let it go for four weeks before dumping.
