Pond filtration

[Brianemone]

Im wondering what type of natual filtration I could use on my pond project. I would like to have a fairly sizable pond but do not want the added cost of huge pumps and electricity.

[Caryl]

Watercress is supposed to be good.

[Brianemone]

Watercress is supposed to be good.

That shouldnt be too hard to find in my area.

Has anyone run a pond using no mechanical filtration at all??

[jn]

The pond at our rental had no filtration and was doing quiet well under the previous owner's care. It had a good number of very large plants and was lightly stocked. 1100L with about 7 fish.

The pond was above ground and made of concrete. There was a pretty standard pond pump (not a massive turnover one!). Intake to the pump was near'ish to the top of the waterline. This ran to an inline pump which fed back to a pedestal where the water trickled down. She had the pond 'serviced' twice a year. Not sure what they did but maybe some vacuuming or tidying up the plants, clean the pump etc. She had the healthiest layer of spongy looking algae I've ever seen. It grew in patches on the sides and the bottom, just the very short green mossy looking stuff. The fish loved it. Water was crystal clear.

She had 2 massive arums in terracotta pots sitting in the water (crowns above water level of course) and many large lilies, some papyrus and around the base of the pedestal she had acorus. There was some lilaeopsis grasses too as a spawning area.

With the intake being in the top level of the pond the pump stayed clean and the pedestal stayed in pretty good nick too. So basically this was aeration only.

We've added a submerged biofilter that sits on the bottom ($70 I think) but only because our first tenants really screwed things up and the amount of crap that settled in the bottom was alarming so we thought if we could draw water from below instead of from the waterline we might be able to help slow down any accumulation of detritus on the bottom. The down side is that it does suck up a huge amount of much and the pedestal is almost alwasy dirst because of it (I think I need to put some extra filter wool in there or something).

I have considered taking the submerged filter off, since we've had a change of tenants and the current ones are absolutely meticulous with the pond and the poor folks have to scrub the pedestal every other week!

Some of the veggie filters you see on the net just have water being pumped to them and then they just trickle through pots of stuff like watercress and aquatic mint.

[Brianemone]

Hi Jn

Thanks for that post, great to hear your experiance's. It does give me a little bit more hope that I might be able to acheive something sustainable.

I have alot of space and a fair amount of energy to through into it but the funds for such are project will be minimal untill the more important house projects have been paid for.

[jn]

Oh.. the only other thing I can say is that the pond is about 35-40cm deep and long and narrow so none of it is hard to reach. The tenants have a net and are encouraged to scoop off stuff that falls onto the pond before it settles in the bottom (in a little courtyard there's not much else to do!!). We come along every few months and reach in and grab out anything that has settled down there before it rots.

We did buy a cheap vaccum that works by hooking it up to the garden hose and creates a syphon. It has its drawbacks but cost us $25 and is a big help for getting fine muck out if there are few stones/leaves (or else they catch in the discharge hose!). We used to hire a pondvac from the local watergarden specialist but they don't have it available anymore! Used to cost $20/half day. Excellent value!