Imo stick with goldfish, thats too small for koi.

For a pump I would suggest something over 1500lph that will allow for losses and still get you over the often sited once every two hours. Look at the running costs as well as the purchase price. Look in the likes of B&Q, they will be cheaper than garden centres.
Use the biggest bore hose you can, ie the biggest compatable with the hosetails, that will reduce your losses. I think I can email you a loss chart but its 1.83MByte can your email take that?

Hi,

Yep it can,

djfroadshows@gmail.com (about 2.5gb space... yeah baby!!)

Yeh I think I will stick with goldfish and the like and not go into koi lol. Are orfe OK though?

Also anybodies thoughts on systems i could get and opinions on those systems would be much appreciated.

I found DIY shops quite expensive as well s garden centres and find online stores and aquatics specialists can give better value.

Oh yeah, also is it ok to post links to online shops on here? If so could you chuck me a few links to webshops. Ive found quite a few but was wondering if there are anymore out there.

Thanks,

Daniel

Also I was thinking of getting a second maximus pump. The 1250 would probably give me about 1000lph. I have now decided to encorporate my current pump into the system which is a 600 lph so I think I could get about 1500lph out of both pumps as the head of the system is only going to be about 0.75m max above pond water level.

Thanks,

Daniel

Bump,

Where is everyone?

Thanks,

Daniel

My pumps and filter are made by Oase which I have found to be excellent. I don't know if you can get them for under £100 though. I am sure mine was dearer but my pond is about 1500 gals.so I needed quite a good pump.
Alison

Sent

Recieved.

Thanks,

Daniel

Well, I'll do my usual thing and recommend a DIY skippy filter if you have enough space.

Still very pleased with mine, it's into its second year of operation now. I have clear water, and so far NO maintenance or cleaning has been required whatsoever. For me this is a BIG consideration. No dreary filter cleaning... I just enjoy the pond, watching the fish and the teeming life in there.

I don't use UV, so no extra on the electricty bills, and no new UV bulbs every year.

Skippy's do need to be big compared to commercial filters, but mine is half buried, and forms part of my waterfall return, and is almost entirely hidden by plants and rockery around it, and watercress growing in the top. And it works WAY better than the commercial filter and UV that I had before.

Note that although my water is clear, I have a LOT of mature plants in the pond and waterfall return, and about 60% surface coverage from lily pads, frogbit, water hyacinth, water lettuce, duckweed and azolla. This undoubtedly helps.

Also, in my design the skippy filter is sitting in a lined "well", a few inches bigger than the skippy itself all around. So filtered water overflows into the well, and then overflows from the well into my waterfall return. ie. the well allows some additional settlement time for anything that gets through the skippy.

By the way, the watercress and veggie filter stage (plants in the waterfall return) seem to be working extremely well, because the duckweed and azolla is not as rampant as previous years. Only need to scoop some out once or twice a month.

Hi,

That thing is a beast. However I dont think it is the right filter for me as I am the kind of ponder who is into the whole system and couldnt possibly leave it alone. also I need to filter system to be quite small so am chosing to use a multi tank system so i can situate tanks where possible.

Also hopefully this filter will be put in a garage so I cannot see plants liking that.

Thanks,

Daniel

according to your dimensions this is what you get.
Dimensions: 180cm L x 150cm W x 100cm H/71" L x 59" W x 39" H
Volume: 2700 l./595 gal.
Pond surface area: 2.70 sq m/29.06 sq ft approximately
Stocking density: 151.06 cm/59.47" of fish (built up gradually)
Fish recommendations: 6 goldfish (maximum)

got all that by using the link below

so you could have a couple of koi but thats it

Here is a link that might be useful: this link

Hi,

Yeah thing is my pond aint a normal cube shape. So even though the depth is 1m it isnt 180cm wide at 1m depth. It is sort of like an upside down pyramid as you have planting shelves on.

The volume comes to about 1700L

Thanks,

Daniel

Hissy what do you have 'planted' in your skippy? I am just about to commision a veggie filter and have loads of arrow heads, based on the recommendations of our american comrades. In addition I was thinking of iris and perhaps pickeral, with a coating of azolla, I can hold the azolla behind a boom.
Daniel, NO KOI.

dont worry I dont plan on having koi lol.

Thanks,

Daniel

Sean, in the top of the Skippy itself, I have only watercress. But the waterfall return has marsh marigold, water forget-me-not, pickerel, and bowles golden sedge. These were chosen for their proprties according the online RHS plant finder eg. hardiness, perennial, tolerance of water/light conditions etc, disease resistance, RHS award, etc... rather than for any effectiveness as veggie filters!

They are all pretty rampant, except the sedge, and occasionally need cutting back lest they "escape" or block the flow.

The plants in the pond itself may be a big factor too... submerged oxygenators are prolific in the depths, and all the floating plants I mentioned above grow well. Then there's a wide variety of marginals, rushes, lillies etc.

Everything is growing well, but there now appears to be a clear competition for nutrients, because the duckweed and azolla doesn't spread nearly as rapidly as previous years.

Hissy can you post a photo, ta

Sean, there are still photos of my pond in the gallery, page two. It is the same as before, only the top of the filter is more chock with watercress, and the return is chock full of pickeral and water-forget-me-not at the moment. And surface coverage on the pond itself is much greater now.

How much did you spend on your pond filter? Seems like you can build one cheaply.

Here is a link that might be useful: how to build a cheap diy pond filter