HELP: Koi pond filtration ideas

I've done some searching around and I've found various biological
filtration systems available and I was hoping for some recommendations
for a 1000 Gallon pond that WILL have a 1200-1800 GPH pump. It needs
to be external and small / and/or buriable. Preferrably one of the all
in one that's not heinously expensive. Probably looking at something
pressurized and either with a backflush mechanism or cleanable media.
(Preferrably backflush, for obvious reasons.)

Unfortunately, I don't have a bottom drain, so that's going to screw
with the asthetics as the pond is built up about 20" high around the
edges in a circle. (If anyone has any bright ideas on hiding all the
power / tubing, I'd love to hear that too. ;-)

Also looking for recommendations for on-line vendors, etc. I was
impressed with what PondPetsUSA.com has to offer, I was hoping to get
some more information before I leap off a cliff and buy the wrong
thing.

Any help you can lend would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

DC

Lots of us have gone for veggie filters. Have you the room to put one
or more in? Ours on the berm have bottom drains. Easy flush...open a
2" port. You could put a submersible on the bottom of your pond and
push the water up a pipe to a berm and falls. You could pretty much
hide the pipe by letting algae grow on it. We have no mechanical
filtration beyond the roots of many plants. If you could lay a veggie
filter alongside your pond, it would look like a grass bed...20" up as well.

People have gone to burried barrels...lots of hassle cleaning.

I wish I had a really good idea for you. Maybe someone else will.

Jim

DC wrote:
I've done some searching around and I've found various biological
filtration systems available and I was hoping for some recommendations
for a 1000 Gallon pond that WILL have a 1200-1800 GPH pump. It needs
to be external and small / and/or buriable. Preferrably one of the all
in one that's not heinously expensive. Probably looking at something
pressurized and either with a backflush mechanism or cleanable media.
(Preferrably backflush, for obvious reasons.)

Unfortunately, I don't have a bottom drain, so that's going to screw
with the asthetics as the pond is built up about 20" high around the
edges in a circle. (If anyone has any bright ideas on hiding all the
power / tubing, I'd love to hear that too. ;-)

Also looking for recommendations for on-line vendors, etc. I was
impressed with what PondPetsUSA.com has to offer, I was hoping to get
some more information before I leap off a cliff and buy the wrong
thing.

Any help you can lend would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

DC

Lots of us have gone for veggie filters. Have you the room to put one
or more in? Ours on the berm have bottom drains. Easy flush...open a
2" port. You could put a submersible on the bottom of your pond and
push the water up a pipe to a berm and falls. You could pretty much
hide the pipe by letting algae grow on it. We have no mechanical
filtration beyond the roots of many plants. If you could lay a veggie
filter alongside your pond, it would look like a grass bed...20" up as well.

People have gone to burried barrels...lots of hassle cleaning.

First off, I agree the veggie filter is a good way to go, but hey, if you
don't have a barrel system, no put downs please. ;o)

I clean my pre-filter only 3-4 times/season and it only takes 45 minutes,
the bio-chambers I clean once/year (and one of them runs all year around).
When I took it apart just a few days ago, it really didn't appear to need
cleaning, but we did it anyway. *My Filter* www.jjspond.us

Currently the lids for my system should come next week, I'm excited.

Now if money (and space) were no object I'd tell the OP to look into a
Vortex filters, imo. ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

Hi Jan,

I don't mean to put down your barrels. As I remember it, they were out
of the ground. DC was talking about in-ground or easily hidden filters.

As I see it, buried barrels at ground level would be a lot of hassle to
clean! That was my reference.

Jim

~ jan JJsPond.us wrote:
Lots of us have gone for veggie filters. Have you the room to put one
or more in? Ours on the berm have bottom drains. Easy flush...open a
2" port. You could put a submersible on the bottom of your pond and
push the water up a pipe to a berm and falls. You could pretty much
hide the pipe by letting algae grow on it. We have no mechanical
filtration beyond the roots of many plants. If you could lay a veggie
filter alongside your pond, it would look like a grass bed...20" up as well.

People have gone to burried barrels...lots of hassle cleaning.


First off, I agree the veggie filter is a good way to go, but hey, if you
don't have a barrel system, no put downs please. ;o)

I clean my pre-filter only 3-4 times/season and it only takes 45 minutes,
the bio-chambers I clean once/year (and one of them runs all year around).
When I took it apart just a few days ago, it really didn't appear to need
cleaning, but we did it anyway. *My Filter* www.jjspond.us

Currently the lids for my system should come next week, I'm excited.

Now if money (and space) were no object I'd tell the OP to look into a
Vortex filters, imo. ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

On Sat, 30 Jul 2005 20:18:52 -0500, Phyllis and Jim Hurley
wrote:

Hi Jan,

I don't mean to put down your barrels. As I remember it, they were out
of the ground. DC was talking about in-ground or easily hidden filters.

Nope, they're buried, only 2" of rim is above ground, takes up 4X4 space,
but OP wouldn't need 4 barrels. I'm putting 2 on my 1,000 gallon lily pond
(when I can get the guys to move in that directions).

As I see it, buried barrels at ground level would be a lot of hassle to
clean! That was my reference.

Hmmmm, haven't read my website regarding this?

No hassle, I pull the screen door stuff out with a garden claw on a long
handle. Toss it on the lawn and spray it down. Drain the water out of the
barrel with an extra pump and suck the muck out of the bottom of the barrel
with a shop vac. The only thing easier would be to have a vortex, where I
could open the bottom drain that would drain the muck out. We poor folk do
what we can. ;o) ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

I stand corrected. Your barrels are under the ground. The screen makes
good sense. You seem to have streamlined the de-mucking process well,
too.

I guess I still prefer the open-the-drain method of cleaning out the
muck. We just open the drain by turning a handle and watch the junk
exit. In the WH ponds, I have to pull out the dead WH after the water
has left. Once in a while, I have to pull it away from the drain as the
pond empties. I generally flush them with a hose to get the last stuff
out. Phyllis laughs when I do...so little left and soon to be replaced
by new muck.

Jim

~ jan JJsPond.us wrote:
On Sat, 30 Jul 2005 20:18:52 -0500, Phyllis and Jim Hurley
wrote:


Hi Jan,

I don't mean to put down your barrels. As I remember it, they were out
of the ground. DC was talking about in-ground or easily hidden filters.


Nope, they're buried, only 2" of rim is above ground, takes up 4X4 space,
but OP wouldn't need 4 barrels. I'm putting 2 on my 1,000 gallon lily pond
(when I can get the guys to move in that directions).


As I see it, buried barrels at ground level would be a lot of hassle to
clean! That was my reference.


Hmmmm, haven't read my website regarding this?

No hassle, I pull the screen door stuff out with a garden claw on a long
handle. Toss it on the lawn and spray it down. Drain the water out of the
barrel with an extra pump and suck the muck out of the bottom of the barrel
with a shop vac. The only thing easier would be to have a vortex, where I
could open the bottom drain that would drain the muck out. We poor folk do
what we can. ;o) ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

The main reason I'm not considering a Veggie filter is that I simply
don't have the room. I'll have to post a link to a couple of pictures
of the pond and related destru... construction.

I have serious questions about whether I'll even have room for the
70Gal Skippy (thanks for that recommendation RH and for BestNest...
good site I hadn't found). This is why I've been leaning towards
something along the Aqua Ultima II 1000 or 2000 (a little pricey but a
great formfactor) or the Cal Pump Torpedo Plus 2000 (probably more
maintenance, but need to get some user feedback.)

The other factor that I haven't mentioned previously is time. I've got
about 2 weeks. (Part of a larger, interdependent plan.)

On 31 Jul 2005 10:08:39 -0700, "DC" wrote:

The main reason I'm not considering a Veggie filter is that I simply
don't have the room. I'll have to post a link to a couple of pictures
of the pond and related destru... construction.

I have serious questions about whether I'll even have room for the
70Gal Skippy (thanks for that recommendation RH and for BestNest...
good site I hadn't found). This is why I've been leaning towards
something along the Aqua Ultima II 1000 or 2000 (a little pricey but a
great formfactor) or the Cal Pump Torpedo Plus 2000 (probably more
maintenance, but need to get some user feedback.)

The other factor that I haven't mentioned previously is time. I've got
about 2 weeks. (Part of a larger, interdependent plan.)

Do you have a 2' X 4' area, and be able to dig down 2-3 feet, rims need to
be a tad higher that the highest level of the pond? Do the words "bulkhead
fittings" scare you? If you get all the parts together the filter can be
made in a few hours. Connecting it up, which you have to do with any
filtration system, probably more time. Silicone everything and 24-48 hours
cure time. 2 weeks? Plenty of time if you get all the parts order before
hand. ~ jan


~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

Buyer beware. Pond filters are notoriously over rated. They will usually
take care of a pond that is half as big as they say, and that is if you
don't overstock too much. I would get a filter rated for at least 2000-3000
gallons, if I bought one of the commercial filters. Jim and Phyllis
described the veggie filter, and it needs to be at least 10% of the surface
area of the pond or larger. Larger is better. Gives slower flow rates,
better cleaning, and more room for more plants.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html

"DC" wrote in message
ups.com...
I've done some searching around and I've found various biological
filtration systems available and I was hoping for some recommendations
for a 1000 Gallon pond that WILL have a 1200-1800 GPH pump. It needs
to be external and small / and/or buriable. Preferrably one of the all
in one that's not heinously expensive. Probably looking at something
pressurized and either with a backflush mechanism or cleanable media.
(Preferrably backflush, for obvious reasons.)

Unfortunately, I don't have a bottom drain, so that's going to screw
with the asthetics as the pond is built up about 20" high around the
edges in a circle. (If anyone has any bright ideas on hiding all the
power / tubing, I'd love to hear that too. ;-)

Also looking for recommendations for on-line vendors, etc. I was
impressed with what PondPetsUSA.com has to offer, I was hoping to get
some more information before I leap off a cliff and buy the wrong
thing.

Any help you can lend would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

DC

Hint...

Bestnest.com and azponds.com...Also check on the SKIPPY filter.

I just built one and it works great.

Rich

"DC" wrote in message
ups.com...
I've done some searching around and I've found various biological
filtration systems available and I was hoping for some recommendations
for a 1000 Gallon pond that WILL have a 1200-1800 GPH pump. It needs
to be external and small / and/or buriable. Preferrably one of the all
in one that's not heinously expensive. Probably looking at something
pressurized and either with a backflush mechanism or cleanable media.
(Preferrably backflush, for obvious reasons.)

Unfortunately, I don't have a bottom drain, so that's going to screw
with the asthetics as the pond is built up about 20" high around the
edges in a circle. (If anyone has any bright ideas on hiding all the
power / tubing, I'd love to hear that too. ;-)

Also looking for recommendations for on-line vendors, etc. I was
impressed with what PondPetsUSA.com has to offer, I was hoping to get
some more information before I leap off a cliff and buy the wrong
thing.

Any help you can lend would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

DC