Spring Flowers

Spring Flowers

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Pond Progress - Quick Weekend Update

My husband has been working on the new filter system for our smaller koi pond, and it's now up and running. We're very pleased with the results as this is a smaller version of the filter system he'll be building for the new koi pond.

He cut down a 55 gallon plastic storage drum, fitted it with pipes to go to and from the pond and filled the drum about 2/3 full of lava rock. The lava rock will be the filter medium.
 
He set the pump in a plastic bucket and weighted it with rocks so that it would stay in place on the bottom of the pond. Then he attached the fitting he created to the pipe that takes the water from the pond into the filter.
 
He added some basic furnace filters on top of the lava rocks for additional filtration and plugged in the pump. Water started flowing right away.
 
The filtered water then flows back into the pond.

This is what the water looked like when the filter system was first started. As you can see, it's a little green with algae and kind of murky.
 
But in just a little more than 24 hours, the water is clear and we can see the koi much more clearly.  We're thrilled with the filtering results and are anxious to get starting on the filter system for the new, big pond.
 
 
Click here to see a short video of the koi.
 
 

2 comments:

Beedeebabee said...

This is so interesting, Cheryl. I've always wanted a pond. The filter really made such a difference. I love the sound of the water. Does that huge fish have a name?! :) xo

Cheryl Patterson said...

Hi Paulette,
Yes, the filter has been great! This weekend my husband will be working on the filter for the new, big pond, so we're hoping to move the fish to their new home sometime next week. And yes, the really big fish is Moby!