| Hydroponic lilies or pond filter?
It’s both. Water from the koi pond is filtered through a series of 4 wooden half-barrels. In this way, I get both a cleaner pond, and attractive, almost maintenance-free plants. |
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 Each barrel is slightly lower than the one before. Pond water is pumped into to the top half barrel, and gravity takes care of the rest. |
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These plants are obviously not nutrient starved. From the levels they get in these last two, I’d say the system could support another pot or two.
If I were to use a more traditional design, I would have pots that needed added fertilizer to do well, and a normal pond filter to remove unwanted elements from the koi pond. By combining the two, not only do I avoid expenses like fertilizer and new filters, I avoid the work in adding and changing. I do not claim this system to be maintenance free, but most of the time all it needs is simply clearing the pump intake, or removing plants so they don’t overgrow. Peace, love and puka shells, |
I bet your water quality is really great with all that filtering. I only have a wall fountain but would love to someday have a pond. Koi are too much to hope for up here….
Christine in Alaska
Very nice! What medium are you using in the barrels?
The water from the previous barrel empties into a chamber at the bottom of the barrel in a “T” shaped end with elbows in an attempt to encourage some sort of movement at the bottom, and trap the largest particles.
A notched cinderblock holds the pipe in place.
Then there is a plastic mesh, that I think at one time was part of a light fixture.
This holds up a layer of dishwashing scrubbers that I picked up at a discount dollar type store.
And lava rock fills the rest.
Top it off with plants, and repeat for each barrel.
The next time I have one apart, or the next time I make a new one (more likely, since I haven’t had to take one apart since I built it), I’ll take pictures, write it up and post it.
What I suspect is going on at this point though, is that the different layers aren’t making much difference, and what is really filling the buckets is a huge mass of roots.
Now and then I have to rip out double handfuls of plants and roots or it just overgrows to the point that the water has trouble passing though it.