I made a ghetto pre-filter (pics)

ohbly

AC Members
Feb 9, 2006
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New Zealand
I have a small pond with a gardena pump. Its a good pump but its pre-filter is pathetic, it needed cleaning about every 3 days. It was also a pain to clean because I had to take the whole pump out and pull it apart to get the sponge out and wash it with the hose-
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So I made a ghetto pre-filter from things laying around..
I got an old plastic plant pot and melted a hole in it. I cut up a coke bottle and used it as a ghetto bulkhead-
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I stitched some woven windbreak cloth above the bulkhead-
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I heated up some wire on the stove to melt holes for the thread

IMHO pumice gravel is the best medium for pre-filtering ponds so I added about 70mm
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I stitched some more windbreak on the top
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I left a decent gap between the pumice and the windbreak so that pumice has room to shake loose the muck that it traps.

I flip it upside down and flush it with the hose to clean it
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I joined it to the pump with some pipe
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it fits loosely so its easy to remove and clean. I also stuck some java moss on the top to make it look better and it acts as a pre-filter too.

so far its working well, its been almost 2 weeks and it hasn't needed to be cleaned yet. I would of rather used a black or dark green pot but free is free :)
 
Creative!
 
ghetto or not if it works it works ! DIY is always fun especially when it works :) GOOD JOB
 
Ghetto Fab...
 
Good stuff. I'm planning on building a pond with waterfall. Your Filter looks like it'll make an appearance :)
 
Hey, MacGuyver did things ghetto... thanks for putting up pics. Great idea!
 
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