DIY pond filter and Koi holding pond

[ILLUSN]

AS some of you would have seen, I've been looking for a CHEEP pond filter for some Koi that i need to move on.

not wanting to spend too much on something for short term use only i decided to do a bit of web serching and with some advice from a few forum members went DIY.

almost everything i needed i had lying around, so the toal build cost for this filter was $40. and for the project, pond and all $280

to build this filter you'll need
1x 60L container
1x old plastic dish rack
1x 1m old UGF filter
some hose
10kg of scora
a hole saw and a stanley kinife
a pump
some hose
a small plastic box or bucket.
some kind of corse prefilter material

butcher up the dish rack and UGF to compatmentalise the 60L storage box.
you want and empty space belkow your biomedia and a screen to stop the biomedia from entering the pond.

[ILLUSN]

the scora was washed (this took a LONG time) before being added to the bio chamber of the filter. a bit of old filter media i had sitting idle in one of my other tanks was used to seed the new filter bed.

the trick to this filter is that it is BIO FILTRATION ONLY.
so as i wont have to clean or maintain it for the few months its running, all the mechfiltration will be done internally with a prefilter, which houses the pump.

[Ben]

looking good. That was a great pick up with all the eheim media's! Washing scoria is a bionic pain in the butt!

[ILLUSN]

the filter sits elevated to the pond (on some besser block i had in the yard). the pump sucks water into the prefilter, then sends it up to the back and bottom of the filter.

to get the flow rate right i started with 2 25mm holes. i kept adding holes untill the filter didn't overflow (it took 4).

the holes are about 40-50mm above the surface of the scora, in the event of a power cut the media will stay wet and hopefully keep the filter bacteria alive

[Ben]

Looks good mate! can i ask where you got those ponds from? I like the size and shape.

[ILLUSN]

G'day Ben, got them on Ebay, I bought them 2nd hand, hence the great price) they're 2m long, 0.52m deep and 0.9m wide, just on 900L.
the second one in the back ground is going into the fishroom oce i sort out some space for it (the discus fry are gonna love it!).

[Ben]

I will have to keep an eye on ebay if anthing similar shows up down south.

I took this pic of my pond, at the moment it is housing some bristlenose varients. I put a little pond fountain on it to give it real pond features! lol

[ILLUSN]

Nicely done mate, whats the capacity?

Love that top filter, isn't that the same style of pond that the asian discus breeders use?

how may types of bristlenoses do you have in it?

[Ben]

its 6'x4'x2' full it holds just under 1200L. Your right it is the same as the asian discus breeders use. In the pond is long fin marble, albino longfins and standard longfins.

[ILLUSN]

If only i had the budget.......

VERY TIDY!!!!!!!!!!

[Mattzilla]

love it!!!!!

will keep a copy of this thread for one day when i can have one of these!!!

thanks for sharing

Matt

[ILLUSN]

UPDATE1 the DIY temp filter lasted 18 months (almost to the day) then the plastic finally perished ( complete failure of the filter on all 4 sides :) ) due to too much UV, so if any one plans to try this at home make sure you replace the filter every 12-18months max :)