Make Your Own Pond Filter At Home. Building Pond Filters Easier Than You Think.

Once you understand the principles of a good pond filter you will quickly recognize that all that is often required is a box containing biomedia ... water is pumped through this box 24/7 so that colonies of bacteria that build up on biomedia surfaces remain strong and viable so they can do their natural job of purifying pond water.

Biomedia is a fancy word for almost any solid items such as stones, plastic rings, hair curlers, foams and other specially designed materials. These "things" are just surfaces on which bacteria can cling ... the best biomedia are those that have very high surface areas (called specific surface area or SSA) and that can be easily rinsed clean to remove solid debris that clings to the surfaces.

The advantage of buying a ready made commercial unit is that you don't have to do it yourself. In general these units are over-priced so do not be atken in by the bigger is always better approach. The really important part is the biomedia and for small to medium ponds try to find a filter with Alfagrog or Supra as the biomedia.

If you see plastic biomedia in use then almost certainly the box is oversized (and therefore more difficult to hide next to the pond)  ... it does not really matter what shape plastic is used in a filter since most of these items be they balls with or without spikes, ribbed tubes or tubes with protruding spikes, or those that look like miniature saddles, they all have a similar SSA.

At the end of this article I've copied the information from another page that will help you understand biomedia and filter choice better. It will also provide a link where you can find filters that contain the best biomedia.

The simplest of all pond filters is the black box type.

 Building a pond filter of such a type requires a rectangular or other shaped plastic box which contains some or all of the following. It is easy to make home made pond filters once you have an appreciation of the following:

  • Open cell foam used to mainly remove leaves, and larger particles of whatever can get into the pond filter. It has a limited amount of biological capacity

  • Brushes as an alternative or adjunct to foam to remove solids

  • Plastic tubes, plastic balls or other plastic shapes or other biomedia on which bacteria accumulate

  • Inlet pipe, outlet pipe and overflow pipes back into the pond perhaps. If you want to see how easy a diy pond filter is go to your nearest stockist and take a look inside one of the pond filters you see there.

  • The simplest homemade pond filters contain almost anything you can imagine from hair curlers to gravel.

Homemade pond filters are easily constructed to save money. Such a box type pond filters comes in different sizes to cater for different pond volumes. However a lot of this is to do with parting you from your money. My book will show you how to dramatically improve the biological capability of any box type pond filter. This will save you a stack of money.

Build a biofilter or Pond Filter

You can make a pond filter (diy pond filter) by incorporating inside a suitable container a solids catching device such as stiff bristle brushes and or flat foam. This would act as the first stage. You can make a pond filter second stage using biomedia through which water pours or flows (up or down the pond filter media). This pond filter media must be kept wet using recirculated water at all times. That is how simple it is to make a diy pond filter.

You must always remember there is a lot of salesmanship around pond filter selection. The prices of some larger pond filters are quite ridiculous I think. Do try to understand as much as you can about biofiltration and save yourself a lot of money.

You might want to take a peek inside commercial box pond filters and take home the ideas. Then create a diy pond filter; diy pond filters can be just as effective as most commercial box type not necessarily homemade pond filters.

The box type pond filter operates under gravity conditions and generally is placed at the highest point in the water circuit. My book identifies other ways of placing pond filters to save money and space - the Cyprio Bioforce filter introduced around 1998 introduced the concept of a small scale pressure filter to pond keeping. Since then numerous other companies have introduced similar designs to the cyprio bioforce filter.

The above components play a specific role in the operation of pond filters.

Open cell foam most pond filters have this in them. It is designed to remove larger solid particles from the water before the water enters the biological chamber (a fancy word for the place where the media is located). The foam also becomes a holding place for bacteria within the biofilter. Some designs spray the water onto the foam surface inside the biofilter as a means to introduce more oxygen. It is a gimmick.
Brushes (look like large bottle brushes) these tend to be found in larger box filters. They are designed to catch solids much like the foam. In very large very well oxygenated filters brushes can make a difference. For the rest they are a waste of money in my opinion.

Plastic shapes acting as biomedia the most common are ridged plastic tubing and things that look like hair curlers. The purpose is very simply to allow surface area to be provided onto which bacteria can create their colonies so that the nitrogen cycle can take place efficiently. These shapes generally have small surface area per unit of volume and they provide little resistance to flow of water through the biofilter. Items like flocor or bio balls or whatever name is used is generically referred to as biomedia. Not all biomedia is the same.

Connecting and overflow pipes are there for obvious reasons.

One important criterion to bear in mind is that water flowing into a gravity biofilter must be able to come out fast enough. You run the risk of pumping you pond dry if you try to pump more water in than can come out of the outlet pipe. Look for a biofilter with large outlet pipes, or even two outlets. Sounds obvious but believe me it has happened.

Some people refer to uv pond filters. You should note that the term uv pond filters or uv filters for water gardens refers to items NOT designed to purify water but to remove the pea soup appearance of pond water. uv filters for water gardens are covered in a different web site - see the ultra violet links. Pond filters with uv are however commonplace and can save a lot of hassle since it is normally simpler to install combined pond filters with uv than the two seperate components.

The Nitrogen cycle operates within a pond filters. For maximum performance your pond filter needs oxygen, food source and biomedia on which bacteria can reside. Pond filters come in all shapes and sizes. Choose your pond filter wisely. If you keep fish a pond filter is essential

More About Pond Filter Biomedia

Alfagrog Pond Filter Media & Alfacoral for Aquariums

It is important to understand surface area in terms of biomedia choice. You will save lots of money on your biofilter this way. The more bacteria you have in any pond filter the better your pond water quality will be. These bacteria transform toxic chemicals in the pond water secreted by the fish into plant fertilizer suitable for pond plants.

 Choosing the correct biomedia has a major impact upon your pond filter's performance and for me for most garden ponds using box type filters Alfagrog is by far the best biomedia to use.

AlfaGrog in Pond Filters

The AlfaGrog range of porous ceramic filter media is made under controlled conditions in Staffordshire, U.K.

Selected raw materials are rapidly sintered at high temperature to produce a foamed ceramic porous mass, which is crushed and sieved to a convenient particle size.

  • High surface area

  • Strong

  • Inert

  • Porous

AlfaGrog pond filter media has a very high surface area making it an ideal material on which micro organisms can adhere and boost biological decomposition of pollutants.

 The wide range of sizes available enable the user to maximise the optimum media surface area with high water flow rates.

The manufacturing process, which produces the ceramic media, ensures that no substances are present to adversely affect the health of fish or plants.

AlfaGrog is available in several grain sizes, ideal for the use in filtration systems, as aquatic gravel or aquarium landscaping.

Alfagrog is called Supra in USA Alfagrog is called Supra in USA and can be bought here ... it is best all purpose media for small to medium ponds . Alfagrog looks a bit like cinders, it is lightweight, comes in different sizes and you can literally blow through it because it is so porous.

For any pond product in USA click this link For widest range and best prices for all pond and bio filter products in USA

For any pond product in UK, Ireland and EEC click this link ... Get pond pumps, pond bio filters, UV and other pond equipment direct from UK's lowest cost supplier including range of OASE and Hozelock top sellers

"The Complete Pond Solver" by Tony Roocroft ...  2005 Edition. Essential reading for anybody who wants or has a garden pond. Get 12 Excel pond calculators free as well as "Water Lilies and Pond Aquatics" ebook also free

AlfaCoral

This decorative aquarium material creates an attractive natural looking underwater environment which is similar in appearance to real coral.

The extraction of real coral is causing extensive environmental problems in the oceans of the world. AlfaCoral is the responsible alternative to alleviate this damaging practice.

  • Lightweight

  • Porous

  • Displaces minimum water

  • Suitable for marine and fresh water

It's many cavities make it highly suitable for colonisation by marine organisms, which help improve water quality. However like real coral it has some sharp edges which makes it unsuitable for larger smooth sided species.

AlfaCoral is manufactured in the U.K. under strict quality conditions. It comes in a multitude of shapes and sizes, and is available worldwide.