DIY Solar Powered Pond Filter - It Works......very well

This is a filter made with a small solar powered pump I bought on Ebay but it is also available on Amazon. Links below.
Solar powered water pump (Ebay): ebay.us/U7ofCD
Solar powered water pump (Amazon): geni.us/M22pjdB
The pump is the 200 lph / 1.5W version.
Solar powered pump video: • Small Solar Power Wate...
Hydroponic system using this pump can be found on my Thousand Yard Stare channel here: • New Solar powered Hydr...
Foams, Biogravel and mesh bags: www.filterpro.c...
Some of the links above may be to my affiliate programs on Amazon and Ebay so they will throw a few pennies my way if you make a purchase - it costs you nothing extra and helps towards keeping the lights on in my bunker.

[@pondguru]

This is a filter made with a small solar powered pump I bought on Ebay but it is also available on Amazon. Links below. Solar powered water pump (Ebay): ebay.us/U7ofCD Solar powered water pump (Amazon): geni.us/M22pjdB The pump is the 200 lph / 1.5W version. Solar powered pump video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bXubpHVnjptjjLs Hydroponic system using this pump can be found on my Thousand Yard Stare channel here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sGiZe2B6iNBjgKc Foams, Biogravel and mesh bags: www.filterpro.co.uk

[@78tag]

Well done. Very clear and simple - I like that DIY filter. I am always taking leftover parts and making something for the ponds. BTW, I watched your series on the large pond filter system you built and I got some good ideas I could scale down. Thanks, I have always enjoyed your inventiveness. I try not to pay the mark on "name" products by building as needed.

[@ThousandYardStare]

@@78tag (my other account) No worries and I'm glad you find some of the stuff useful. Having the ability to make something from very little is so handy so I wish you the best with your projects.

[@mikeharrington5593]

Very interesting. Maybe you could buy push-on end stops for 4" drainage pipes to stop the sponges flopping out the ends, (after drilling out a 3" diameter hole in each end stop)? In practice what has been the working life of the solar panel & mini pump? Do you remove the whole apparatus in the winter months?

[@pondguru]

@@mikeharrington5593 I made the vegetable garden leading up to early 2020 as I knew there would be some sort of global nonsense (the Covaids) and the solar pump has been in the water butt since the start so it has been operating continuously since later 2019 and still works fine. That's the actual pump I used for this video and it stayed in all through the Winter.. With regard to the end caps I have 2 different types, one which fits inside the pipe and one which fits over the end of the pipe. The type which fits over the end are better as far as I'm concerned and I will be shooting a video in the next few days if we get sun and no wind which will show the end cap on an 'emergency' filter I've come up with which can run off solar pump, USB pump or a USB air pump - it is a simple design so can be made by anyone. There's also a smaller version of this filter as an alternative to the upright filter which will be the main focus of the video. I realize that a video of that nature will have a tiny audience but it's important to see what can be done with very little.

[@ssc18]

In order to circulate water and filter through a connecting 'bog' (with plants and gravel), will a solar panel/pump suffice? I just want it for wildlife (no fish) but want to be sure it is clean and oxygenated. What wattage of solar panel/ submersible pump would be required? *I have a small preformed pond with connecting smaller pond/'fall' which I'd like to make a bog filter, if possible. Thanks in advance!

[@gillianlittley5639]

Great idea! Made your diy filter and have the water spitting out of a tilted small watering can, instead of under the water. Day three and the pond is 90% clear. Thank you!

[@pondguru]

I'm glad the pond is clearing always great to hear.

[@Iamadrummer]

Filters should be run 24/7 and not only with solar. Short term it will work as you see. Long-term like 1-3 years down the road if the filter is not running 24/7 you will begin to have and see issues and wonder why my pond is no longer clear. During the time the filter is off some of the debris from the filter will be reintroduced back into the pond and due to no aeration and movement in the filter the biobacteria will begin to die off. This will cause long term problems. In the short term it will seemingly work but in the Long-term when you notice a problem it will be hard to correct and you could potentially start loosing fish.

[@jasoncarty2175]

I'm thinking about digging out a wildlife pond from looking at your video on that,and quite frankly this is brilliant Richard,il be definitely using this for it 👌👍

[@pondguru]

Yes, it's a really simple but highly effective way to filter a wildlife pond. Not sure why I didn't think of this before, lol

[@martinhouckham3333]

Thank you for making this video, I made one today and already seeing improvements in the water. 😀

[@pondguru]

Nice one - it's a really simple filter. Mine is still working great.

[@Iamadrummer]

You will see improvements over the short-term. If a filter is not running 24/7 the long-term effect can be devastating.

[@UrbanGrrl69]

Brilliant design and easy for anyone to make.

[@keepingitkoi]

I've used these solar pumps for years cracking little pumps 👍

[@Iamadrummer]

Solar pumps are fine to use as long as a filter is not attached to them. A pump fo added aeration or a decorative fountain is fine but a filter needs to run 24/7 or the Long-term effects can hurt the pond and all in it.

[@pondguru]

This is a filter made with a small solar powered pump I bought on Ebay but it is also available on Amazon. Links below. Solar powered water pump (Ebay): ebay.us/U7ofCD Solar powered water pump (Amazon): geni.us/M22pjdB The pump is the 200 lph / 1.5W version. Solar powered pump video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bXubpHVnjptjjLs Hydroponic system using this pump can be found on my Thousand Yard Stare channel here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sGiZe2B6iNBjgKc Foams, Biogravel and mesh bags: www.filterpro.co.uk

[@safesclart]

im looking at the same mate but with about 10.000 LPH to run through a bog filter for my pond BUT i'm struggling to get my head around all the maths involved with solar conversion 12v 24v 240v 220v, amps, inverters etc lol i am reaching out for some advice to some preppers but nothing yet... Also mate yes plz to the build on this small filter.

[@helenjohnson7583]

I’d love to see a build video and be able to visualize exactly how the pump inside is working! Will definitely check your previous video on the solar pump though. Do you know if there anyone in the U.S. that carries the bio gravel mediums for sale? (The special rock filter materials you use were not possible to buy here in the states a couple of years ago.) Thanks for all you do & share!

[@pondguru]

@@safesclart A 10,000 lph pump is huge to be trying to run on solar due to the wattage it will be and you'll definitely need at least a couple of full sized panels for that project as well as a large capacity storage (1kW at a guess), inverter etc. but I don't know enough to recommend the exact gear - it would work out mighty expensive and as far as the gear I have I would go with the Jackery 100W storage battery (as that has everything built in) fed into by 200W-300W of outdoor solar panels (i'm not sure of maximum feed in for the unit). I did a review on that here but I don't think it is what you're looking for when DIY options are available much cheaper: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gpulmp6KmadsrMU I am shooting the filter build video this morning.

[@pondguru]

@@helenjohnson7583 I'm shooting the filter build this morning so that should be uploaded in the next few days. The Biogravel is available from Greatwave Engineering in the US - that is by far your cheapest source www.greatwaveeng.com but if that link doesn't work then the link I put in the video description and pinned comment which goes to www.filterpro.co.uk and that has links at the top of every page to the international suppliers - the link for Greatwave is the US flag.

[@stevenattridge9823]

Made one using a coke bottle, with both ends removed. It worked; and no electricity bill!

[@Iamadrummer]

Filters in a pond or fishtank needs and should be run 24/7 or the long term effects can be devastating. Decorative pond fountain can be run with solar but filters need constant power to work properly and benefit the pond or you will encounter problems down the road.

[@mellymonks]

I'm putting mine together tomorrow. I've used some pond pods and now the water looks like milk 😢! Can't wait to get it going and hopefully clear it all up!

[@pondguru]

Sorry I thought I replied to this ages ago. Best of luck with the pond. This filter will draw in suspended particles and help to keep the water clear but it may take a while to clear if there is fine particles clouding the water.

[@Iamadrummer]

If the filter is only run by solar electricity, you may have a problem. At night or cloudy days, you will not have any filtration or aeration. This can affect the health of the fish and ecosystem. A filter in a pond or fishtank needs to be run 24/7. The times it is not running debris from the filter can and will leach hack into the water. Also, most fish do not do well when high aeration is turned off and the water loses oxygen and starts becoming stagnant. When the filter is off, any bio bacteria that has been established in the filter will start to die off. This will definitely affect the overall health of the pond and inhabitants in it. You probably already went ahead and put a solar filter in the pond. My suggestion is to 11:25 hook the filter up to 24/7 power. You may not see any problems short term, but in the long-term, it will start to cause problems. Solar fountains for decorative purposes are fine. A filter needs and should have constant power.

[@suewestby824]

Love this! Thank you 😊 I now have the pump so will put together a filter like this one for my deck pond. Oh, and what a garden!

[@TK42138]

Nice work. Going to do the same for my small wildlife pond.

[@pondguru]

Good one - mine is still working fine although I have upgraded the pump and solar panel - it is much better and I featured that one on my Thousand Yard Stare channel here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZ-yZ2ODjs6mf7M That pump and panel (with battery back up) is so much better.

[@billgarfit3174]

Brilliant

[@pondguru]

I'm glad you found the video useful - thanks for watching.

[@simongibbs9392]

Love it. I'm going to make something very similar with stuff from around the shed. Cheers for the idea

[@pondguru]

Good one - best of luck.

[@ThousandYardStare]

A bigger, better version of the pump with battery back up. Solar Pump on Amazon: geni.us/jdKjbr

[@leonsfish5871]

Nice video mate😄👍👍

[@edwardsdeacon]

🤔 great filter idea.

[@wendysanders781]

Thank you for sharing - we’ve been struggling with our pond and this would be a fab solution

[@ThousandYardStare]

(my other channel) Nice one and best of luck with the pond - I'm glad you found the video useful. Today I'm setting up an ebb and flow hydroponics system over that water container so I will film it and upload to the Thousand Yard Stare channel.

[@Iamadrummer]

A filter needs to run 24/7. In the short-term it will work. Long-term when the filter is off debris from it will leach back and due to no aeration or water movement in the filter any good biobacteria will start to die off. There is no obvious short-term problems but long-term this can effect the health of the pond and inhabitants.

[@fishmanc5357]

this is a great filter 👍🏻👊🏻

[@CryptoKoi]

Absolutely great video, thank you

[@UncalBertExcretes]

Your probably on one of youtubes "lists" because your content is educational in a way that saves people money and teaching survival and off grid techniques which big corp does not like us to know and also they would prefer it if we didnt know how to survive independently so eventually they can control the population hence why we are at the point of a human cull starting to happen, but lets face it spend 5 mins driving on british roads and you will soon understand why they want a cull.

[@pondguru]

You have eyes which can see. You're probably on a list too, lol

[@UncalBertExcretes]

@@pondguru we all have 3 eyes it's just only some of us have figured out how to use the 3rd one. Don't drink the tap water ;)

[@pondguru]

@@UncalBertExcretes 100% - So many people are starting to wake up in the last few years so I'm super positive about the long term outcome of all this current nonsense. I'm starting to realize that I'm not one of the 'crazy' ones - it was everyone else, lol Seeing that light-bulb moment occur in people is a sight to behold.

[@Iamadrummer]

Solar filters are a bad thing in the long term health of a pond and it's inhabitants. Solar is good for decorative fountains that do not need constant power. A filter needs and should have constant power.

[@grantcruickshanks9264]

That’s brilliant great help thanks

[@ThousandYardStare]

(my other channel) No worries and I'm glad you found the video useful. I will be setting up a very simple solar powered hyrdroponics system over that water container in the next few days - video will be uploaded to the Thousand Yard Stare channel.

[@happybunny3021]

Great video! I've just finished my 2nd second pond. Can you give me the links for your bio media and sponges please. Thank you 😁

[@wam2610]

👍

[@gillianlittley5639]

PS bought a solar pump with solar battery and it runs the pump around 18 hours a day even in cloudy conditions

[@pondguru]

That is a good result - nice one.

[@patrickdijkman8974]

Question though, the bacteria in the filter wont die when the filter is not running, hence at night or on a dark day?

[@bartosznosal5485]

Was wondering the same

[@pondguru]

Not if it is underwater - that's why solar and filters generally don't mix as the pumps won't run 24/7 without expensive battery back-up. If you have an above pond filter the media will either dry out or be poisoned if the water doesn't flow (as the water in the filter will quickly go 'bad') but if it is under the water it is fine.

[@TheMalibuman77]

Do you think using it with an air pump like a sponge filter would have similar results?

[@pondguru]

Yes it would work as a filter to some degree depending on the design. Ideally the sponge(s) would be contained =in a similar way to how they are in this video so the water was forced through them.

[@juliesmart9255]

Brilliant video, I have solar pump with built in battery, my question is - can you buy an extension cable that allows me to have a longer cable for solar panel? If so what am I looking for? Much love Ju xx

[@Iamadrummer]

You will have to cut the wires and splice a longer one to it.

[@stevenattridge9823]

Love it and made my own, but is there any way of making an external filter so it does not take up space in my tank / pond

[@paulwhitaker2816]

Hiya great video, quick question , will this filter clean green water and also are the filter pads pre bought or are they cut from a larger piece ... THANKS

[@pondguru]

The foams I use in the video are just normal pond foams 11" x 17" and the white pad is a fine particle matting of the same size. I sell them on the FilterPro site so I've got a nation of them but they're available all over the internet and from most garden centres and aquatic stores. This filter has not got a UV light in it so it would be unlikely to clear green water. I have found a better solar pump than the one in this video and I showed it in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZ-yZ2ODjs6mf7M

[@12vLife]

Here in Sunny Florida. I've got a giant sandy hole in the ground and I want to drop in a 300 gallon tank. I'd like to build a pond and keep it clear enough with only solar, no batteries and minimal maintenance (at most once a month). Possible?

[@ThousandYardStare]

In Florida that will be entirely possible but the bigger the pump is the larger the solar panel(s) will need to be - Ideally if you have fish the filter would run 24/7 to keep the filter alive and fully functional but if you could integrate a filter into the pond it could run during the day and have downtime during the night with little ill effects.

[@stevenattridge9823]

Initially made one with a coke bottle with both ends removed. 'Upgraded' to a drain pipe. Is there anyway of making this external so as to avoid taking up space in the pond?

[@pondguru]

You could make an external filter from a sealed container and suitable fittings but if the pond is so small it requires a filter smaller than the one featured in this video then it probably doesn't need a filter since it will be too small to have fish in it.

[@stevenattridge9823]

@@pondguru Pond is a fibreglass tank of approx 350L. Would I be able to construct an external filter without drilling the tank?

[@ThousandYardStare]

@@stevenattridge9823 (my other channel) If you can't build an overhead filter it would be best to go for a decent sized canister filter as long as you can protect it from the elements (since they are designed to be used indoors). Without seeing the tank I'm stuck as to what the best method of filtration is so feel free to send pictures to [e-mail]

[@TheSpeedGodz]

Hi. I'm making a mini pond in my garden but I'm thinking of making a bog filter for my pond. Will it be as good or better than this type of filter?

[@vbsfiji]

Sorry for the newbie question. How do you clean the filter?

[@pondguru]

I just lift it out of the water and pull the foams out from each end, clean them in a bucket of water then return them to the filter.

[@robowen66]

Can you tell us how much gravel is in each mesh bag?

[@ThousandYardStare]

(my other channel) In the video I used Biogravel in mesh bags in each side of the filter - I said in the video that it was 2 x 700g but if you're using a 4" / 100mm diameter pipe for the filter you can use anywhere from 700g - 1000g in each of the 2 x mesh bags on either side of the (central) pump. I have the Biogravel media listed on my website www.filterpro.co.uk (Biohome media page) and you can buy as much or as little as you want.

[@uksupporter8867]

So what happens when the sun goes in and the bacteria die

[@pondguru]

Bacteria don't instantly die when the water flow stops and the more porous a filter media is the longer it will last without flow. However, in an ideal world the filter would run 24/7 to be most effective. When it only runs during daylight hours it's there more as a mechanical filter containing a fair amount of bacteria as opposed to a mechanical and efficient biological filter containing the maximum population of filter media. Basically having some filtration is preferable to having no filtration and while this filter does offer a fair level of filtration it will be nowhere near effective compared to iif it was running 24/7.

[@stephenhusband348]

looking at doing this myself but i am just wondering are you not supposed to filter through the bio gravel/lava rocks first to catch bigger debris and then the filter sponge afterwords to catch micro deposits? or am i over thinking it

[@ThousandYardStare]

(my other channel) The mechanical part of the filter (foams) will strain out the muck before it hits the biological part of the filter (Biogravel). That helps to keep the water relatively clean in the biological part and that is beneficial for porous media to support the maximum amount of media. Anything small enough to travel through the filter will be caught next time round. Ideally you don't want good quality media sitting in heavy muck as it reduces efficiency.

[@stephenhusband348]

@@ThousandYardStare aaaaah thank you for explaining it for me :)

[@ThousandYardStare]

@@stephenhusband348 No worries and best of luck with the pond.

[@LP-hs6yz]

Would this work for an 800 gallon stock tank? It is 8 ft round and two feet deep. Thank you.

[@ThousandYardStare]

(my other channel) It would be way too small for that volume of water - it's really for a small wildlife pond.

[@Iamadrummer]

Solar filters are not that great. It will only work during sunny days. At night, the filter is off. This is bad as at night or cloudy days, you have no filtration or aeration. Also, when the filter is off debris from it, it will leach back into the pond. A pond filter or any fishtank filter should and needs to run 24/7 for the health of the fish and water ecosystem. If the filter is harboring good benifital bacteria, it needs the filter to run 24/7, or you will have a die off of bacteria affecting the overall health of the pond and filter. You may not notice any bad short term affects of this but long term this can cause the pond to "crash". If you use solar for a decorative fountain and not a filter this is fine. With the filter not running 24/7 it is like you only vaccume some of your house but never the whole thing and throw some of what you vaccumed back around the house. Eventually it will get real bad and you will learn from your mistake.

[@pondguru]

Yes and no. The filter will support bacteria at a decent population as long as it is submerged and with regard to the trapped muck leaching back out that doesn't happen since the foams hold the muck. Ideally a filter would run 24/7 and that is certainly true of an external filter but it is less important for a submerged filter. Since making this video I have upgraded my solar pumps and they have a much bigger solar panel which has a battery back up - that extends the running time approx. 1 hour after sunset. They are much better pumps which run even on cloudy days. I would never pump out to an external filter using a solar pump which is why I came up with this design which is fully submerged at all times.