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Pond filters etc


I have a pond in the garden approx. 10ft by 5ft. I have a pump in it and a filter with uv sitting at the side of the pond. I never think it looks tidy and I would like to hide it in some way. At the moment it is half hidden by a sprawling juniper. I was thinking today of digging a hole at the side of the pond and putting the filter in that, at least to half its depth which might help a bit, then making a box out of marine ply to sit on top.
Has anyone any other ideas of what to do? Anyone done anything clever with the gubbins of a pond?
'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
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Hmmm. I was thinking of covering the box with hypertufa! Perhaps not. But there must be some way of hiding it that does look pleasing. Thinking cap on.
We have a submersible now, you can still see it, a bit but there is plenty of planting., you could go for that option. used to have two feeding ponds, my Husband made a rustic box, affair which looked like a bird box, then put that behind a tree.
the filter box (the green bucket looking thing for those who don't know what it is) can be buried to the main lid joint, mine I then covered with a load of willow bark that had fallen off a dead tree nearby my house. pipes can all be buried but i'd put them in drainpipe so you don't accidentally chop thru them with a spade!
Burying is the way to go I think. I will get the spade out and dig a hole for the filter. Task for sometime this week.
How about doing away witht filter entirely? My pond doesn't have one and does very well... you need to have lots of plants in it though.
Katherine W do you have fish in your pond? We do and found that it went green and nasty looking in the sun, hence the filter system, we have covered 50% of the surface with plants as recommended
Tere's a squillion fish in my pond, they breed like rabbits. It goes briefly green (but not stinky) in May, when th water warms up, then it settles. It's never wholly clear, but the water is sweet and nice (I bathe in it from time to time!).
It just need to be kept clean in autumn when lots of leaves are blown in it.
I might add, that when the pond seems greener than I like I do one or both of these things: use some of the water for watering plants (the nitrogen loaded water is also a good fertilizer) and replacing it (usually just by rainwater, or - more seldom - from the tap), and adding about a bucket of fresh duckweed from any natural clean ditch in the countryside. Duckweed covers the water fast and discourages the algae. The goldfish will usually then get rid of the duckweed, or I fish out the excess with a net when the water has cleared.
This I either compost or, nowadays, give it to the ducks.
Easy and 100% natural.
(Never add any large amount of tap water, of course, the chlorine is not great for the fish. But letting the hose run for a little while helps oxigenate the water at the critical time in spring. )