Hi its lee from the Japanese Water Gardens,

Last year I made a video about building your own pond filter. “Build your own DIY pond filter”

The video did very well on YouTube and a lot of people have built their own filters based on the design. Thank you for watching it and I appreciate all the feedback I have received.

If you haven't seen that video it is well worth a look, it might be best to watch it first before this one.

So I thought it was about time to do a follow up video, point out any changes that I would make to the design and check on how the original filter has performed.

A lot of people have asked me about doing a multi bay version of this filter. No doubt there are many ways you could link together multiple tanks and have different media in each and so on but sometimes systems like that don’t perform how you think they will.

In this design water from the pond gets pumped into the filter at the top, then filters down through some sponges that trap solids and help maintain the water clarity, it then passes through the bio stage where bacteria break down any ammonia from the water and keep it fit and healthy for the fish.

The filter has run great on our pond at the Water Gardens.

It has not needed much in the way of maintenance.

On a weekly basis the sponges have been washed clean of debri and I have drained down the entire filter several times to give it a more thorough clean.

To help with draining of the filter I made up a section of flexi pipe with a hose tail attachment. It pushes into the valve on the bottom of the filter and the dirty water can be run out to soak away.

To further aid the water clarity I started using some pond underlay material to act as a polisher. This stuff is far cheaper and much more durable than pond floss. In fact it's so strong you can wash it out by hand or even pressure wash it clean. It lasts for ages and does an amazing job of getting the water sharp.

The down side to it is that it can become completely blocked and will not let the water pass so an overflow for the filter is a must.

It is worth considering a flow switch for your pump. These things are surprisingly cheap to buy from ebay and will shut off your pump should water level in the pond drop. Not hard to install, they will give you total peace of mind.

. My filter was done with 11/2” fittings, however there is such a small difference in price between the 11/2” and 2” fittings I would recommend using the 2” ones. This will help to get water out quickly and reduce the chance of the water rising up and spilling over the top.

You can make a filter like this from any type of container that is strong enough to hold water and not bulge out from the weight. You do not need a sealed barrel like this for it to work, however I realized that there is an unexpected advantage to using a barrel with a good fitting lid on. It can run as a pressurized filter. The water flowing out could be connected to a section of flexible hose and used to feed a waterfall or a blade for example.

I actually built another version of the filter for my small pond at home. Water from the pump is being pumped in from the pond passing through the filter and then it exits out on a flexi pipe. The flexi pipe goes up to the top of my water fall and the water then runs back into the pond.

The filter has worked great and helped to improve the water clarity.

I hope you found this video interesting, please subscribe to the channel and post a comment, if you like what you see thumbs up the video.

It's bye for now from Lee at the Japanese Water Gardens.

свернуть