Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So if you cant follow my diagram, its a 90 gallon pond, with a pump that is tee'd off from its output. one end goes up to a waterfall and trickles back down,the other goes to what ive come up with as a bio-filter, basically the water travels to the top of a 5 gallon bucket and drops down some PVC pipe and then at the bottom it tee's off and shoots out 2 separate openings, this causes it to swirl(important for some reason, so i have read) the water then rises back up through the bio medium and flows out the overflow and back into the pond. Any objections to this? BTW the intake of the pump has a cone of like coarse sponge material, thats to block large waste. also off of the pump's output tee there is a valve on each line so i can control the amount flowing through each. Thanks alot for any imput.

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CHONG188

What time of bio-medium would you use?

Well from the website i was reading that tells you how to make these, http://www.skippysstuff.com/biofiltr.htm , they use scrubbing pads for the bacteria to grow on, they said they've tried everything else, bio balls, lava rock, etc, but the scrubbing pads always worked the best. So i think i will give that a go.
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CHONG188

>>Well from the website i was reading that tells you how to make these, http://www.skippysstuff.com/biofiltr.htm , they use scrubbing pads for the bacteria to grow on, they said they've tried everything else, bio balls, lava rock, etc, but the scrubbing pads always worked the best. So i think i will give that a go.

Granted I never delt with ponds as much as I did with traditional aquaria, however their filter only deals with one of the three types of filtration. IMO a little of each is needed for a successful filter.

Filtration should consist of Mechanical, Chemical, and Bacterial filtration. Their unit discusses nothing but bacterial filtration, something that may be only necessary with pond filtration, again I am no expert. However because they don't address mechanical filtration I assume that they are counting on the bio media to do both, something I would never trust.

But I can't imagine that a pond filter would need no chemical filtration, I could be wrong.

I read nearly the entire website because I found they approach to the situation interesting, but they didn't mention water changes either. How often do you plan water changes?

Is the pond in their article intended to support life? If not their approach makes some sense.

Again their approach seams perplexing.

Thanks for any response.
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Jeremy

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" July 16, 1945 Robert Oppenheimer

1.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow RTB's
1.1 Hypomelenistic RTB's
0.2 Pastel Hypo RTB's
2.0 Double Het Stripe Albino RTB's
0.1 Suriname RTB
0.1 Anerthrystic RTB
0.0.11 Red Bearded Dragons
1.1 Rhinoceros Iguana's
1.0 Green Iguana
1.0 Ball Python
1.1 Cream Golden Retrieviers
1.0 Pomeriaian
0.2 Catus Terribilis
0.1 Spouse
0.0.1 Youth -coming soon-

Well i know in the website they say dont ever clean the filter itself, as it gets rid of the bacteria? Its a 90 gallon pond so i was thinking maybe doing partial water changes(maybe 20-30 gallons, every say 4-5 days) and then maybe a real good scrub and complete water change once every 2 weeks? Its for 2 water dragons so it wont get too dirty in that time.

Just to clear some things up for me mechanical filtering...that would be like catching like solids and what not? If so i was wondering that if the "pre-filter" on the intake of the pump would be doing that, its like a coarse, sponge material cone, that the water passes through on its way into the pump, so stuff not small enough to fit through would just get trapped on to it. And chemical filtering, i have to ask what that is?

Thanks for the interest
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CHONG188

Well i know in the website they say dont ever clean the filter itself, as it gets rid of the bacteria?

First my past is in fish aquaria not ponds so this is a bit out of my league or realm of knowledge but some of the same should apply.

But yes in every type of filter your generally never clean the bio matter, or the bio media of the filter, I say generally because there may come a time in which you have to.

Its a 90 gallon pond so i was thinking maybe doing partial water changes(maybe 20-30 gallons, every say 4-5 days) and then maybe a real good scrub and complete water change once every 2 weeks? Its for 2 water dragons so it wont get too dirty in that time.

Thats sounds fine but then why do you really need the filtration, if you are changing 1/3 of it nearly every week. All you really need is a way to seperate waste or the mechanical filtration part. Any other type is really a waste due to the fact that so much water is changing in such a relativly short period of time.

Just to clear some things up for me mechanical filtering...that would be like catching like solids and what not? If so i was wondering that if the "pre-filter" on the intake of the pump would be doing that, its like a coarse, sponge material cone, that the water passes through on its way into the pump, so stuff not small enough to fit through would just get trapped on to it.

Yes, and yes a prefilter would take care of most of that however with a lot of solid matter you will find yourself cleaning the prefilter a lot!

And chemical filtering, i have to ask what that is?

That would be using chemicals to treat and filter the water a carbon pack whould be a simple version. But with nothing actually living in the water you really don't need it.

I hope it all works out, is this an outdoor enclosure?
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Jeremy

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" July 16, 1945 Robert Oppenheimer

1.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow RTB's
1.1 Hypomelenistic RTB's
0.2 Pastel Hypo RTB's
2.0 Double Het Stripe Albino RTB's
0.1 Suriname RTB
0.1 Anerthrystic RTB
0.0.11 Red Bearded Dragons
1.1 Rhinoceros Iguana's
1.0 Green Iguana
1.0 Ball Python
1.1 Cream Golden Retrieviers
1.0 Pomeriaian
0.2 Catus Terribilis
0.1 Spouse
0.0.1 Youth -coming soon-

Thanks alot for all the help, i think i will take the route without a filter if i follow what i already described. The pond is going to be in an indoor cage, 8 ft wide X 6 feet tall (although, its really only 4.5 ft in the living area because the bottom 1.5 feet is blocked by a "sub-floor" which ive sunk the pond into) X 4 ft depth.

Just one more quick question, could i just not use the prefilter, and then when i do my partial water changes every 4-5 days, just use one of those gravel cleaner/siphon to pick out the waste thats settled to the gravel in the bottom of the pond?
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CHONG188