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Pond Pumps and filters


Emma two

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Perhaps some of you woul like to offer advice. About 12 years ago we sank an 8 foot by 3 foot dingy into the garden as a pond liner. It has proven a success in many ways, there is s thriving resident population of common frog, and the less visable newts, there are established plants and invertibrates, we don't keep fish in it, it is primarily an amphibian project.

 

We would like to intall a fliter and pump to clear the water, simply to make it more attractive, it's one of those things that have been waiting to get done for all these years. It goes 'pea soup' colour in summer as the algae booms (I have tried sunken barley straw to no noticable effect). Could some scientific type roughly calculate the volue of water it holds? and are there suitable pumps and filters, I can have it connected to a mains supply, but what is crucial is that the filrt should NOT suck the tadpoles into it.

 

Thanks in anticipation.

Edited by Emma two
"Some people hear their inner voices with such clarity that they live by what they hear, such people go crazy, but they become legends"
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If you can give an average depth, I can give you the volume - in fact, Google calculator will do it. If you search for

 

3 feet x 8 feet x 2 feet in litres

 

(assuming just for illustration it's two feet deep) it will do the calculation and conversion of units for you.

 

You don't need biological filtration if you don't keep fish, provided you aren't chucking fish food in for the other inhabitants. The simplest and most effective solution to getting clear water is a UV clarifier. This is a quartz glass tube in very close proximity to an ultraviolet lamp. The water is irradiated as itis pumped through the tube, and suspended algae are killed. Once dead, they tend to flocculate into large enough particles to be filtered out mechanically.

 

So you need a pump and a small UV unit. There is also the possibility that the dead algae will just keep being washed around the pond, so you may want to consider a very small filter with plenty of foam or filter floss in it. The dead algae will eventually decompose or settle without it, however.

 

There are two sorts of pump - the sort that traps tadpoles against their inlet mesh and the sort that sucks them in and chews them up. They are both pretty lethal, though I guess the former less so. The sort that sucks them in and chews them up will be sold as having better solids handling, and will be less prone to blocking up with detritus (and dead tadpoles). Whichever sort you use, you want to try to position it to minimise casualties.

 

The other thing to consider is that algae are the bottom of the food chain that the tadpoles sit in. You will probably see more algae growing on the liner once the pond is clear, which they will feed upon, but from their point of view your pond is probably better murky.

 

The natural way to reduce the occurrence of suspended algae is to cut down the light getting into the water column with more floating plants like water lilies and to suck up some of the fertilisers from the water with fast growing plants like watercress, but ultimately it's natural for a very small pond to go green at some times of the year.

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whatever pump you get through experience if its outside the pond its better to pump water to it and then drain back into the pond than let the pond drain to a sump and then pump the water back.

 

on my bosses ornamental pond (it was built by an "expert" ) and 6 weeks later after the pumps filter was so full of crap it burnt out the water still ran to the sump emptying the pond and he lost some nice fish.I had to get rather clever faking a above ground sump (in the end it ended up 30ft from the pond due to the surrounding paving) and it worked fine (probably still is) ,his next venture was 60ft across and a sump was built under an existing pagoda so the problem of the first never arose.

if the pump now fails ofcourse nothing happens only the return stops.as the pagoda was on a high bit of ground there was still a fall for the return to run back

for a small pond like yours though a EHEIM or fluval type external filter with its top flush to the water level in an external box would be fine ,with a big enough filter to it (say 1ft square built from a water lilly "pot" ,you know those ones full of holes you sink water lillies in as planters) full of open sponge would save the critters as there would be little water "VACUUM" per inch to suck them in ,but would need looking at weekly to clean (the motor would burn out if the water stopped)

Barley straw needs putting in ponds a couple of months prior to it being needed

ordinary fish tank powerhead type filters are not much use in even small ponds as theyy are far more dirty than tanks (blown in pollen ,flower bracts and dust etc) so would clog them very quickly ,the best pumps are those emergency flood ones hippos? but your tadpoles would be mincemeat very quickly but fine for my bosses big pool.surprisingly filters will not make cloudy water sparklingly clean you need to get down to having Diatomaceous Earth filters which need extremly clean water anyway to get the last hint of bloom out of the water ,not played with ponds or tanks for a few years but i doubt any big advances have been made in filters in the time ,generally the smaller the partical you try to remove the quicker the filter blocks trying to do it ,UV though may help but were getting expensive for a small pond

as with any electronics sense or 12v is needed ;)

Edited by chesters1

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Thank you for the replies, it was kind of you both to take time to pass your advice. I am still weighing up what to do.

"Some people hear their inner voices with such clarity that they live by what they hear, such people go crazy, but they become legends"
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I'm surprised a pond with no fish in it needs filtration. Usually it's only koi ponds that need it. I would have thought that with enough plant life and just amphibians it would be gin clear. You want enough water lilies to give about 75% coverage of the surface, plus plenty of oxygenating plants. Elodea canadensis is the best oxygenating plant, it grows well without getting uncontrollable (and it's free in Windermere). As that stuff grows and you cut it out you remove the nutrients that the algae needs. Don't worry about not being able to see anything because of the lilies, any bloke will tell you it's better when you just get glimpses of what's hidden.

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If you only have Frogs, Toads and Newts I would NOT recommend you use a filtration/pump system.

 

 

The young of those Amphibians do get sucked into the pump system and are killed.

 

As someone has suggested you need to put in some Lillies if you have not already done so.

Not only will they do shade the water but will absorb the nutrients that encourage algae blooms.

 

 

As to the application of the Barley Straw, the best time to apply it is from September - October.

Edited by Now there's a right un.
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