Minnows could help keep down the mosquito population.

Okay, I went out at lunch and bought this fella :

http://www.harborfreight.com/258-gph-submersible-fountain-pump-47117.html

$20 after a coupon and inspected how it work before I bought it. There is a small foam filter before the water hits the impeller.

Looks like a small skippy can't hurt.

Now that I know how the intake and out takes work, I am going to use one of those 3 gallon Quikrete pails, wash it out real good then dry it well, drill intake holes at the bottom of the bucket, then a hole for the fountain head on the lid. If all works well, I'll spray paint the bucket black.

Anything else I should or should not do?

The purpose of this pump is to move water. Not entirely filter everything as I do want to encourage wildlife into the pond.

Thanks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pump

Hi Greengardener: I made a Skippy-type filter in a 5 gallon pail. We moved to a new house last year and I wanted a quick little pond. It is maybe 100 gallons and the 5 gallon skippy works great. One problem you may have is the little foam prefilter getting clogged almost daily. I ended up using a stainless steel kitchen strainer for my prefilter.

Jeff

Jeff,

Thanks for the info!

What type of strainer do you mean? I am thinking of a couple of different kinds right now and am not sure which on you mean?

Do you mean replace the one in the pump or place it on the outside of the pump? Or use them in the skippy?

I was going to use the green scrubby type things for the inside of the skippy.

Many of us remove the cage and foam filter because they are simply not adequate. For my 1000 gallon pond I use a well point filter with several step downs to make it fit the pump housing. You might look for something smaller since I use a much more powerful pump. Tetra makes a similar one that has adequate foam that is easy to clean. Cleaning the pump impeller occasionally to see how much gets through the external pre-filter should be done until you get the hang of how much debris gets through. Adjust cleaning schedule accordingly. The pump out-take goes through a hose to my skippy which is outside the pond. You may not have enough pressure or maybe too much pressure with the lid opening to use for a fountain but its worth the effort to try. It may blow off the lid. Screw on lids work best. There are adapters that allow you to adjust the force going to the fountain with enough for a waterfall if the pump is strong enough but your pump is fairly small. Try it out in the bathtub or kiddie pool to see what kind of pressure you have. You might want to upgrade. Don't put the pump inside the pre-filter if you are using the bucket for that purpose inside the pond. All it does is recirculate dirty water and the fish often wind up inside of the container. Then they get pulled in by the pump.

The pond will need the oxygen that circulation, a fountain or a waterfall provides or the minnows won't last long. Wildlife makes things dirty especially if there are raccoons. And raccoons are everywhere. Mosquitoes love still, stagnant water and it stinks.

My pump in in the bottom of my pond. I know it is recommended that you put the pump on a cinder block or something to keep it off the bottom - but there is no room for that in a small pond - so my pump sits on the bottom. I put the pump inside a medium size tupperware-type container - with holes in the top of the container. I experimented by drilling various size holes in the tupperware lid. Small holes clog easily and large holes permit too much junk and the junk will clog the pump impeller. The best solution I came up with is one large 6" dimater hole in the tupperware lid and place a 6" diameter kitchen strainer in that opening. I have two strainers and when it starts getting clogged - I simply pullout the dirty one and drop in the clean one. It works great for catching leaves as well.
The type of stainer I use is like a half sphere metal mesh and has a handle - which I cut off. A combination of gravity and the pump suction keeps it in place on the tupperware container.
The little pond is maybe 18" deep: so I can just reach down and lift it up to swap the strainers.