Setting Up an Eco-Friendly Environment by Adding a Pond Filter

Posted on October 14 2009 by Guest Author

What type of a filter should you have for your water garden pond? How big does it need to be, and how clean does your miniature ecosystem need to be kept? These are questions to ask yourself when you build a water garden in your yard. It isn’t just a matter of adding a liner and a pump, and sitting back to look at your little pond. You want water plants and most likely fish to flourish in the little habitat you’re creating to make it both beautiful and appealing. Do not think of what you’re building as nothing but a hole in your back yard, but understand it for what it is – an eco-system. Building a pond filter will assist you in keeping your system clean, and it isn’t going to cost you half as much as it would to buy commercial filters.

You should begin by measuring the size of the pond. You can make use of a rope for this purpose. You need to know how much area you have to filter so that you be sure your filter will be able to handle the job. One way you can lower the requirement for filtering is by adding waterfalls and streams to your system. These will keep moving the water around naturally through the system as well as propel it into the filters. A water garden is in reality a delicately-balanced system that requires all of its component parts in order to maintain the health of the plants and animals living there. You need a way to clean out the impurities that can destroy the environment and encourage the growth of good bacteria that rid the pond of fish waste and organic materials.

There are two kinds of filters you can employ to help you develop the ideal pond environment. A mechanical filter will rid the water of debris and contaminants. A bacterial filter, on the other hand, will break contaminants down into materials that the plants and fish can use. To create your own filter, you can start with nothing but a big plastic pot, mesh bags, large lava rocks, and an underwater pond pump. Fill the mesh bags with lava rocks, being careful not to overfill them. Sit the pump in the bottom of your plastic container, adjust the tubing and cords, place the lava rocks in the container, and you’ll have a simple but effective pond filter.

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