3600 Gallons Per Whoa

Learned a lot of stuff today.

1. The constant trickle refill of regular tap water I've been running might be killing the bacteria (because of the chlorine in the water) that kills the algae. Overgrowth.
2. The fertilized soil in the pots may be contributing to the algae's food supply. Overgrowth.
3. A 3600gph pond pump is like a boat motor and will move quickly and violently if you point it wrong.
4. Making your own pond filters isn't so hard, but you have to make sure you have one big enough to handle the pump output.
5. I'm going to need more pipe to slow the gph at this point because holy moly, shoving a gallon a second through this filter just won't be good for the filter or the pump. (3600gph / 60 minutes / 60 seconds)

Bought a TotalPond Submersible Waterfall Pump (3600 Gallons Per Hour). The next lowest was a 1200gph pump and it was only $50 cheaper; the pond itself is between 3000 and 4500 gallons, and one day I hope to run an irrigation system from it, so the gph x 3 option for only $50 more was something I was ok with. I certainly don't have to cycle the water THAT OFTEN, but I'm sure I can make this work somehow, even if I pump it up a few feet and then back into the filter. However it works.

The filter is going to take two rubbermaid 14gal containers run in-line with one another along the side step, which would give me access to them from the outside and allow me to run the pumping line up some to decrease the gph for now. I'm not setting them up initially to be biofilters, but rather to help clear some of the junk out of the pool, so having only 28 gallons of water space won't be too detrimental; biofilters are supposed to have less push-through than what I'll be charging into them, but for now, it's fine. One day I'll add a much bigger filter box in the line that will slow the flow and let the good bacteria have its way inside the boxes.

I need to go make some filters to stick into these boxes, and get some pipe fittings so I can attach them and detach them without breaking stuff. I think I'll make a draw out out a design and see how it looks.