I have an open topped 30 gallon trash can sitting in my "filter pond". It has about twenty holes drilled in the bottom around the side. It is half full of lava rock. Four layers of the pads sit on top of the lava rock. The water flows by gravity on to the top of the filter pads, through the lava rock and out the holes. I clean the pads when they clog up and the water overflows the can into the "filter pond". In the spring I clean it about once a week. In summer it goes a month or more. It never needs cleaning in the winter. I almost never clean the lava rock. The filter pads keep the lava rock really clean. My "filter pond" is a 300 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank that contains the filter, the pump, and a bunch of floating plants. Water is pumped up to the big pond and flows back down by gravity.

Different perspective: My pond@ 1700 gal w/ bottom drain and skimmer; skippy is made from 70 gal stock tank; @ a dozen koi and goldfish. I only clean my skippy filter pads once a year. In the spring, we drain the skippy, take out all of the pads and vac out the bottom w/ wet/dry shopvac. I put the pads, @ 20 at a time in a large plastic container/"tub" and since I don't have a source of dechlorinated water to run through my garden hose, I just use the garden hose on "jet" setting to clean them. However, I do add either liquid bio-stuff or powdered "pond-zyme" to the pond. I bare root thalia dealbata and pickerel rush, which has overwintered in my pond, in the skippy's scrubby-sponges and the plants do great esp once they're fertilized by the "dirty" filter pads. (I do clean the filter pads in the compact Savio skimmer frequently.) The pond has been clear and healthy for 3, maybe 4 summers using this set-up and regimen.

Hey there. If you tilt the incoming pipe ends the way it should be done, the solids should be thrown to the side walls and upward by centrifical force. Sorry I can't give you any advice on the pumps. I have a Laguna 5000 and it does an adequate job as described on the box but I have had no experience with the others. Sandy

Its difficult to run a UV on lower power I guess, and I doubt a 12v pump would be up to much, only thing ya can get at 12v is pond lights.