DIY Pond Filter

Thanks to the following site for giving me ideas to build my own pond filter:

http://www.interall.co.il/filter.html

I had been unhappy with the lousy pond filter designed by the crappy contractor because it didn't filter the water properly. The damn guy just partitioned a small section of the pond with a piece of plastic and pump the water into it and expected the water to be filtered. In reality the plastic kept falling apart letting all the debris escaping back into the main pond.

Please take from my experience not to trust any contractor to design a pond. Make sure you have personally done your own research on building a pond with proper filter. Design it yourself and ask the contractor to build it. Fire him if he refuses to follow your design. DO NOT ever trust any contractor!

I have decided to build my own DIY pond filter with some ideas gained from the website stated above on Christmas eve. The duration to build one took a few hours - most of the time was "drilling" holes on a plastic container purchased from Tesco. It is an easy task even for a DIY noob like myself. Just have to be careful not to melt the holes too big at the plastic container or burn yourself with the soldering gun.

Tools:

1. Soldering gun - I use this to melt the plastic container to "drill" holes. You could use a drill for the same purpose.Soldering gun costs less than RM30.
2. Old cloth soaked with water or old newspaper for wiping plastic sticking on soldering gun. Costs RM0.

Components:

1. A square plastic container. Costs RM6+.
2. Three PVC bulkheads - one for water to flow in, one for water to flow out and another for overflow. Costs RM1.50 each.
4. One PVC "hose connector". Costs RM1.50 each.
5. One PVC adapters to join my hose connector and bulkhead that have different diameters. Costs RM1.50 each.
6. Water hose that fits your "hose connector" for water to flow into your filter. I use 2 types of hose to fit the powerhead and the PVC bulkhead. Costs RM2 per meter.
7. Filter media you wish to put inside your filter. The cost depends on what you put.
8. Powerhead. Costs RM0 because I re-use old one.

PVC bulkhead:

PVC "hose connector":

PVC adapter:

Here are the steps to build the filter:


1. Mark the diameter of bulkhead by drawing circles on the plastic container. One circle for water inflow (near the top of the container). One circle at the bottom of the container for water outflow. Another circle slightly lower than the water inflow circle for overflow. The overflow circle could be at the side of the container or any place you want (depending on your requirement). The overflow is optional but it is good to overcome water overflowing in case the outflow is blocked.

2. Melt the plastic container where it is marked with the circles with soldering gun. You may want to wear a mask. You may need an old newspaper or old cloth to wipe off the plastic sticking on the soldering gun every now and then.

3. Install the bulkheads into the holes.

4. At the bulkhead of the water inflow, connect the PVC adapter and hose connector. Your filter is completed!

5. Test the filter by filling in water to test for any leakage at the bulkheads. Fix it if necessary.

6. Connect one end of the water hose to the powerhead and the other end to the water inflow bulkhead.

7. Add the filter media into the plastic container aka your new filter box.

8. Turn on the powerhead when it's placed in the pond to test run the filter.

My DIY Pond Filter:

Internal Section of The DIY Pond Filter: