Filtering questions

[Asches]

Greetings!

When we bought our house, it turned out there was a pond hiding under the snow that was on the ground when we looked at it. It was in a bad state of disrepair, had the systems gutted, and needed/still needs a lot of help. I have questions regarding the filtration and how to ensure I have it where it should be.

There is a Savio compact skimmer in there, that had no pump, basket, filters. It was just the skimmer body. I have added a sheet filter that fits in the front area where the basket once sat, a PondMax EV1800 from a local pond shop, and a filter pad in the waterfall.

I had to rinse the filter often, as the water was absolutely terrible from years of neglect. Yesterday, I ended up draining it, learned it's about 1.5' deeper than we thought, pulled up about 5 gallons of sludge, added new water with some dechlorinator, barley extract, and dosed with some new bacteria packets.

What I'm wondering is, do I need to rinse the filter out going forward? If so, how often? Is there a need for biological filter balls?

The pond is about 550 gallons.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum!

Post some pictures it helps us "see" what you have.

Any time the flow slows down you need to rinse the filter pads.
Maybe look into building a bog filter, I have a small planter pot bog filter on my 300 gallon hot tub pond. No filters to clean. My other ponds are all filtered by one big bog.

Bog building, also called upflow filter, eco filter, wetland filter

I was asked to start a thread on how to build a bog. This is my rendition on bog building 101............. Building a bog: Before you decide to build a bog, you need to know what you want its primary purpose to be. Total pond filtration bog filtration combined with another filter. If you...

www.gardenpondforum.com

 

[Asches]

No problem! I had to move the waterfall closer to the pond, the liner leaks somewhere along the little stream there, and was losing a lot of water.

 

[IPA]

Welcome. I am confused looking at the picture of the skimmer. Can you post a couple more so we can get a better perspective? Your set up looks perfect for a bog addition. I like skimmers but they do require weekly or even daily cleaning. Instead of the white filter material maybe just a leaf basket if the pump is rated as solids handling or the very coarse black or blue filter or combination of filter media. I have a bog and my pump draws water from about 1 foot off of the bottom, is protected by a leaf basket and I never worry about debris in the pond and it’s under a tree, live and learn. I have 2 chances to clean the debris, once in late fall before the cold sets in and in late winter before the good algae starts to grow on the bottom and liner. I used an Oasis all in one skimmer for a time but lost a favorite shubunkin when it got trapped and the skimmer floated up which it was prone to do.

 

[cas]

Nice looking pond.
In the spring I rinse the filter in my skimmer daily. As the summer progresses, I need to rinse them less often. The media in the biofalls (I am using Matala Filters) I only clean at the end of the ponding season when I am ready to shut the pond down for winter.