IBC Above Ground Pond: Filter ideas? Plants?

[vwill279]

Hi everyone! I'm currently in the process of building my 200 gallon above ground IBC tote pond. However, I'm stuck as to how to filter it properly at a reasonable price. It is about 3 feet tall and will not be buried. I want some kind of a waterfall on the cheap, like with pvc, to help with circulation.

Any ideas on how to rig the pump and what kind of filter I could go with? It is only going to have a few fancy goldfish and some guppies for mosquito control, so waste load shouldnt be too high. I will be adding a few plants as well. Any ideas on pretty floating plants? Water hyacinth is illegal in my state, but I really would like something like that.

Tank is going to be painted with fake rock spray on the outside and should look pretty neat when it is done. It has a valve on the bottom for draining and water changes so I shouldnt need any kind of a vacuum.

 

[pbeemer]

i've never seen this tried, but perhaps you could build a many-stemmed air siphon filter, like a classical internal aquarium filter (air goes in at the bottom of a tube, the bubble pushes a slug of water up the pipe as it rises, replacement water flows down thru the filter media).

basically a plastic 5 gallon pail (to make it easier to pull out when you finally need to change the media) with gravel at the bottom to make it sink, siphons made out of cheap rigid plastic tubing punched into holes in a sheet of semi-rigid plastic (Tupperware lid?), with floppy airline tubing stuck in near the bottom of each tube, and layers of media on top of it all. balancing the air manifold to get each tube working at about the same speed might be a pain.

the only expense would be a large-ish air pump with enough pressure and flow to work at that depth.

 

[mela]

Hey vwill, sounds like an interesting project. My thoughts are to try one of the small pools that Walmart sells. They have a small pump and filter. It could be hooked up to the bottom drain valve on the IBC and using the canister filter that is attached. One of the good deals of that is the pump will be flooded. There are also some small sand filters too.

Possible other spots are Dohanies(spelling) pool supplies and Leslies pool supplies. Good luck

Mel