DIY Pump

[Laura]

My husband and I were chatting about expanding the pond at some point in the future. Plumbing came up, and he suggested rigging an old circulating pump we had taken off the furnace (we have radiators). Has anyone done such a thing? We would obviously need to make a weather proof container for it.

[Catahoula Ranch]

I think for a DIY job you would be best off with a small water proof pump in a DIY sump bucket , you could make a filter bin out of another bucket, use a few stages of media inside it, gravel to remove larger substance, then next maybe a sponge and few layers filter material, make it so its easy to access and clean.
good luck.
heres a pic of a quickly fashioned bucket with small holes drilled in it, a sump pump, and a garden sprayer, had to use this to get rid of some ice.
http://catahoularanch.com/pond/1.jpg

[Laura]

Thanks! Your pond is fabulously huge (I'm very jealous). I will be doing one much smaller, so not sure how much realestate I can dedicate to the in-pond filter. I like the idea to keep it in the pond better than out though...

[Catahoula Ranch]

well you should see my nieghbours pond... get your lifejacket and Canoes ready.
I live in a wet area, lots of rain and ground water here, I don't use any sort of filters, in the picture you can see a green overflow pipe, so this skims the pond, in the dryer months I top it up with spring water.
As for a DIY filter any small submersible pump and a bucket full of media is not too hard to put together, you can get a good quality hi volume submersible at most hardware stores for a decent price, and get yourself some hose and a few hose adaptors and a black bucket, voila.