The Pond Solution

16 years ago

Hi, I am starting out, getting ready to put a small pre form pond in back yard, My main concern is making sure it stays clean. I plan on putting a few fish and a couple red eared sliders I have in it. I have read about skippys and adams filters. I have herd that they are great and I have herd that they are not very good. I came accross a website ThePondSolution. They make filter systems that seem like they would be pretty good. Does anyone have this system in and can anyone give me some advice on what I should do. I think the Pond is about 150-250 gallons. Not sure exactly on size.

Also I would be putting in a spot that is shade only. Would this be a problem. I plan on building a bigger pond in another spot one day, but I am doing this first to learn, and make sure I can maintain it before I start a huge expensive project.

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Comments (5)

ccoombs1
16 years ago
Did you read the info they post about maintenance?? It sounds very labor intensive. It involves removing the filter material, rolling it out on a flat surface and presssure washing it. it claims to have filter mats dense enough to filter out algae. If that's true, anyone who has ever put quilt batting in their filters to remove can attest to the speed that it clogs up. Personally, I think the filter is overpriced for the amount of maintenance it requires.

For a small pond a skippy filter works just fine. The maintenance is much easier. It needs to be drained and hose clean at least twice a month, but it is really a pretty good inexpensive filter for a small sized pond.
kalevi
16 years ago
Your basic skippy or other upflow filter is very low maintenance unless your pond starts really dirty. They control suspended algae once they kick in so that your water remains pretty well crystal clear. The other beauty of the skippy design is that it is very simple mechanically and so is easy to clean and set up. They are also fairly low priced if you build it yourself.
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kl85pond
Original Author
16 years ago
Ok, thanks for your responses, I think I will try that then, (also can you tell me what an upflow filter is or what it does) what about the pond being in shade 24/7. Do I need to do anything different then if it were in sun, is it better for a pond to be in sun or shade.

I also have a couple questions about a few different options I have. I will post those later with pics.

Thank you for your help.
hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
16 years ago
In shade you are going to have less algae bloom, which is a good thing. The drawback is that flowering pond plants such as water lillies want sun, not shade.

Hopefully whatever is shading the area does not drop a lot of litter (leaves, twigs, etc) because that does the water no good and is work to skim or net out.

Keep in mind the larger the pond, the easier it is to take care of. It's a good idea to start small and see how you like it (you will like it!). Then your little pond can be a quarantine or holding pond for the big one you will want to build. ;^)
kl85pond
Original Author
16 years ago
Yea luckly there are not trees around, it is up against the house, i am going to post a question on a new thread, if you have time to take a look, thanks
-Derek

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