How To Make A Pond Swimmable

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While there are commercial pond filter systems you lot can purchase, many people choose to build their ain to salve money. You tin put together a surprisingly capable pond filtration system using commonly plant household tools and a few components purchased from your local aquarium supply or pet store.

1. 1

   Get a saucepan or trash tin can with a sealable chapeau. Having a sealable chapeau volition help keep other debris from falling into your filter cloth and prevent the filter from flood if it starts to drain slowly.^[i]

   • 5 gallons (19 L) buckets with sealable lids are available at most hardware and large retail stores and make for great filter housings.
   • You can also use similarly sized trash cans or Tupperware containers as long as they have a sealable lid.

2. two

   Purchase a water pump if y'all don't already take ane. If you have a h2o pump in your pond for circulation, that pump should suffice. Otherwise, purchase a good quality pump that'due south rated for the size of your pond. Most pumps are rated in terms of how many gallons your swimming tin hold. If you are unsure, you tin can find pond calculators online to help yous decide your pond's size in gallons based on its measurements.^[2]

   • You don't need to buy a new pump if you have one for apportionment already.
   • Y'all tin use either a submersible pump or one that's meant to remain out of the h2o with a line that goes into the swimming.

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3. 3

   Lay out where the pump and filter will be located in relation to the pond. In club to determine how much hose you need to buy, place the plastic container that will concur your filter and the water pump where yous intend them to be one time y'all're finished. Then use a measuring record to make up one's mind how much hose you'll need to run one line from the pump to the filter, and another from the filter back into the pond.^[three]

   • It's best to position your filter and pump in a shady location. If y'all tin can place them under some sort of shelter, that is optimal.
   • A submersible pump is meant to be placed in the water, whereas a non-submersible pump should be placed side by side to the filter with the inlet hose placed in the h2o.
   • Keep the filter and pump equally close to the water as possible to reduce the corporeality of hosing the water needs to run through under the pump's power.

4. four

   Purchase rubber hose to connect the filter to the water pump. Measure out the diameter of the outlet nozzle on your h2o pump, then take that measurement to your local hardware store. Buy rubber hose of that inside diameter in enough length to run from where the pump will be placed to where you want to position the filter itself. Then buy another length of hose for the return line.^[4]

   • Keep the measurement for the hose then know what size hole to cut in the lid.
   • Your pump may have come with the necessary hosing already.

5. 5

   Cut a hole in the lid of the container that's but big enough for the hose. Use a drill with a pigsty-saw fleck of the same diameter as the hose to drill a pigsty through the lid for the hose. If yous don't have a drill and the lid is a sparse enough fabric, puncture it with a pocketknife. Place the chapeau on the bucket and press the knife downwards through the lid where you intend to run the hose. Once the knife punctures the plastic, utilize it to saw a hole in the lid of the guess size and shape of the hose.^[v]

   • If y'all don't have a drill, brand sure to use a sturdy utility pocketknife for cut the plastic, rather than a thin kitchen knife.
   • A drill with a hole saw is the recommended way to make the pigsty.

6. six

   Drill a hole in the side of the container for the h2o outlet. Make the hole the same approximate size the height 1, which should be a snug fit for your hose. The h2o will menstruation in from the top, laissez passer through filter media, and then return to the pond via an outlet hose. Choose a spot on the side of the container about 1 inch (two.5 cm) from the bottom and employ the hole-saw bit on your drill to create an outlet hole.^{[half dozen]}

   • Drill the pigsty almost the base of the container, every bit far down it as you can get.
   • Remove any debris created by drilling from the within of the container once you're done.

7. vii

   Insert the hoses and seal them with a fish-friendly sealant. Insert the end of 1 hose into the lid and utilise a sealant meant for utilise with aquatic wildlife around the top and bottom of the hole to create a waterproof seal. Then do the same with a length of hose for the hole nearly the lesser of the container.^[7]

   • You lot tin can buy fish-friendly sealant at larger pet stores or on specialized websites.
   • Read the instructions on the sealant you lot cull to know how long information technology needs to cure earlier you can move forrad.

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1. 1

   Pour a layer of ruby-red lava rocks into the bottom of the container. The lava rocks will serve as both a ways of filtration and a way to hold your other filter media up away from h2o render nozzle at the lesser of the container. The layer of lava rocks should be simply deep enough to embrace the pigsty for the render hose.^[8]

   • You tin purchase carmine lava rocks at most aquarium supply stores or large pet stores.
   • Fill the bottom of the container with lava rocks until the return hose is hidden below them.

2. two

   Cut filter material to lucifer the shape of the container. Filter textile often comes in rolls and is made out of layers of coarse and fine fabric. Unroll it and trace the general shape of the container onto the filter textile. Cut the shape out and then echo that process iii more times until yous have at to the lowest degree 4 layers of filter textile to identify in the container.^[9]

   • You can purchase the water filter material at aquarium supply stores or on specialized websites.
   • If you tin't notice filter textile, you can also use a mesh laundry bag filled with household sponges.

3. 3

   Place the filter material over the lava rocks. Lower a layer of filter fabric into the container and position information technology flat on tiptop of the blood-red lava rocks. Then place each boosted layer on superlative of the previous one and then the water has to laissez passer through multiple layers of it before reaching the lava rocks.^[x]

   • If you take problem getting the filter material to stay on elevation of the rocks, you can add a layer of the metal screening you used at the end of the inlet hose to make it stiffer.
   • If you used a laundry purse and sponges instead, make sure the pocketbook and sponges completely embrace the lava rocks.

4. iv

   Seal the meridian of the container with the chapeau. The lid will prevent any debris from falling into the filter while as well preventing overflow if the filter drains slowly. Once the lid is on the filter, motility it to where you intend to set it up.^[11]

   • Make sure to seal the hat once you put it on.

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1. 1

   Attach a plastic screen to the end of the input hose on the pump. The h2o pump you put into your pond has an input hose that draws the water in. Use the aforementioned fish-friendly sealant y'all used to seal the hoses to the container to gum a metal screen to the end of the input hose to stop it from sucking up large debris. Wrap the screen around the terminate of the hose and then use the sealant to glue it in place.^[12]

   • You can use whatsoever pliable screen material, including the screening ordinarily used for windows.
   • Purchase the screen at your local hardware shop.

2. 2

   Connect the pump to the filter inlet. Adhere the hose running from the lid of the filter to the outlet on your water pump. Place a hose clamp on the hose before you connect it, and then use a Phillips head screwdriver to tighten the clench over the hose and outlet nozzle to ensure information technology's secure. At this stage, the pump is not connected to ability, then it won't function yet.^[xiii]

   • Place both the pump and the filter at the pond'due south edge once they're connected.

3. 3

   Place the water pump in or near the pond and position the filter adjacent to information technology. If the pump is not designed to be submerged, position it in a covered spot near the water's edge and just submerge the inlet hose. Place the filter nearby on the water's edge. When you plow on the pump, water will period through it and into the filter.^[14]

   • Submerge the screened end of the inlet hose in the h2o.
   • Read the package your pump came in. It will clearly specify if your pump is meant to exist submerged in water.

4. 4

   Run the filter render hose dorsum into the pond. The lower hose on the filter volition let the filtered water to render dorsum into the pond. Simply orient the filter so the pigsty points toward the swimming and run the hose from the hole into the water.^[15]

   • This hose returns the clean water to the pond after it's been filtered.
   • Position this hose as far abroad from the pump's inlet hose as you can.

5. 5

   Connect the pump to power and switch it on. Plug the pump into a power source like an outdoor wall outlet. With the pump running, h2o will movement into the top of the filter, pass through the filter material and lava rocks, and back out the render hose.^[16]

   • Information technology may take a few minutes for the water to fill the container plenty to brainstorm pouring out the return hose.
   • If water completely fills the container and does not exit from the render hose, the outlet is blocked by the lava rocks. Disassemble the filter, clear the outlet, and attempt once more.

6. 6

   Clean the filter media every month. Open the lid of the filter and remove the filter material. Rinse it thoroughly so remove the lava rocks. Employ a hose to rinse them off completely and then put both filters back into the container.^[17]

   • If the pond is very dirty, clean the filter every two weeks instead of every month.
   • Supervene upon the filter cloth if it becomes too muddy to allow water to laissez passer through.

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Add New Question

• Question

  How can I go rid of algae in my swimming?

  

  Scott Johnson is the Possessor and Lead Blueprint Consultant for Concrete Creations, Inc., an award-winning landscape and design company based in the San Diego, California metro surface area. He has over 30 years of experience in the pool and landscape structure industry and specializes in large estate outdoor environment construction projects. His work has been featured in San Diego Abode & Garden Magazine and on Pool Kings Television receiver Testify. He earned a BS degree in Construction Management with an emphasis in Architecture and CAD blueprint from Northern Arizona University.

  

  Mural & Design Consultant

  Expert Answer

  

  Back up wikiHow by unlocking this expert answer.

  You can ever aspect algae in a swimming to the sun. If you desire to get rid of the algae but you don't want to kill any fish or annihilation, go an algaecide that's safe for fish and it'll work just fine. In the bound and summertime, yous most e'er get an algae flower, which is totally normal. Don't freak out about those blooms, merely employ a dose of the algaecide and you'll be fine.

• Question

  What (if anything) prevents the pump intake from clogging? Practice I need to put in whatever kind of screen?

  

  I put my submersible pump inside an upside-downwards plastic mesh waste basket (from the Dollar Store), then wrapped the exterior of the basket with nylon window screen. Over the class of the summer I typically have to remove the screen twice and rinse it off with a garden hose. This keeps the pump intake from clogging and reduces the number of times the filter media has to be changed likewise.

• Question

  What filtration material do I use for this organisation?

  

  You lot can add Bio-Balls, Bio-Rings, carbon packs, rock and sponge pads, which you lot use in your aquarium filters. Yous must layer them on top of each other.

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Things You'll Demand

• Water pump (if y'all don't already have ane)
• Plastic container with a sealable chapeau
• Prophylactic hose
• Drill with hole-saw bit
• Fish-friendly sealant
• Carmine lava rocks
• Filter material

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Commodity Summary X

To build a pond filter system, purchase a resealable, lidded garbage bin, a rubber hose, and a water pump. Then, position the bin and pump relatively close to where they will be in the pond, and cut a hole in the lid of that bin that'southward just large plenty for the condom hose to fit into. Side by side, drill a hole in the side of the container for a water outlet, and seal the hoses into the openings with an animal-prophylactic sealant. Finally, fill up the bottom of the container with a layer cherry-red lava rocks and a layer of filter textile cut to fit the bin over top of the rocks. For tips on installing the filter in the swimming, read on!

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Source: https://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Pond-Filter-System

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