pond filter in Clay?

I'm planning on digging a 300Gallon+ pond so i can have a few goldfish maybe PLECO!???!?! (it's been my dream)
the other stuff will be in another thread since it would be off topic (post later, i will send a link here)

it will have yellow clay on the bottom maybe some sand or rocks on top, pure yellow clay is our natural substrate here
what type and what are some examples i should get?

looking for a stronger filter that can handle a LOT more than 400 gallons probably since i have yucky goldfish
also create flow so there are no pesky mosquito

Ponds in general don't need filters let nature take over and everything will be fine

itiwhetu said:

Ponds in general don't need filters let nature take over and everything will be fine
View attachment 146229

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BEAUTIFUL POND i love everything about it
how do you keep Mosquito away

Sgooosh said:

BEAUTIFUL POND i love everything about it
how do you keep Mosquito away

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We don't have a major mosquito problem. Along with about one hundred goldfish. There are about sixty white clouds in the pond, the white clouds nibble through the mosquito Lavae

I pond would likely do best with some kind of water movement though, right?

edit: obviously yours is doing well, but in general I mean

Another couple of photos.

OliveFish05 said:

I pond would likely do best with some kind of water movement though, right?

edit: obviously yours is doing well, but in general I mean

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I would say it is not necessary to have any water movement or filtration. I feel ponds are about letting them find a natural balance for themselves. Our pond has green water in the middle of summer and then is completely clear in the middle of winter. Nature is a fantastic thing to watch work.

What my family did for our pond was dig out the hole, lay underlayment (to pad the liner) then pond liner. Then we spread pebbles (though you could do sand. Not sure about clay, I would think it would be harder to maintain water quality). We placed our waterfall then laid the rock work around it. Cycled the pond and added our fish. Over the course of a few months were able to find a large variety of pond plant.

itiwhetu said:

I would say it is not necessary to have any water movement or filtration. I feel ponds are about letting them find a natural balance for themselves. Our pond has green water in the middle of summer and then is completely clear in the middle of winter. Nature is a fantastic thing to watch work.

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That is incredible. How many gallons would you say yours is? I would have thought that being such a small body of water (in comparison to, say, a lake) it would be an issue keeping the water quality stable? Of course nature is always much more capable than any of us are at these things, but I would have thought that the pond not being natural it wouldn’t work out well. It very interesting and so incredible. What kind of goldfish do you have?

OliveFish05 said:

That is incredible. How many gallons would you say yours is? I would have thought that being such a small body of water (in comparison to, say, a lake) it would be an issue keeping the water quality stable? Of course nature is always much more capable than any of us are at these things, but I would have thought that the pond not being natural it wouldn’t work out well. It very interesting and so incredible. What kind of goldfish do you have?

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The pond is about eight meters in diameter and about one meter deep. It has a shallow beach where the fish spawn. Most people who have ponds want crystal clear water, that isn't what a pond is about for me. The fish are just comets and white clouds they breed every summer. A certain number survive and some of the older fish die. I don't worry too much. I only feed the fish in the middle of summer for about 3 months the rest of the time they fend for themselves. The population is pretty stable. We get the odd Kingfisher grab one or two and occasionally a white heron will grab one, but the pond is deep enough and the fish smart enough that the birds do very little damage to the overall population.

OliveFish05 said:

I pond would likely do best with some kind of water movement though, right?

edit: obviously yours is doing well, but in general I mean

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yeah....
ill try both!

itiwhetu said:

The pond is about eight meters in diameter and about one meter deep. It has a shallow beach where the fish spawn. Most people who have ponds want crystal clear water, that isn't what a pond is about for me. The fish are just comets and white clouds they breed every summer. A certain number survive and some of the older fish die. I don't worry too much. I only feed the fish in the middle of summer for about 3 months the rest of the time they fend for themselves. The population is pretty stable. We get the odd Kingfisher grab one or two and occasionally a white heron will grab one, but the pond is deep enough and the fish smart enough that the birds do very little damage to the overall population.

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true, i love nature and i love watching plants grow without any human interaction, theres this one barrel and the succulents go crazy in there

do you two have general care for ponds? water changes?
feeding?

what plants do you have in or around the Pond?

could i add clay underneath river rocks and sand? so i can have lotus

Sgooosh said:

do you two have general care for ponds? water changes?
feeding?

what plants do you have in or around the Pond?

could i add clay underneath river rocks and sand? so i can have lotus

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Pond plants are actually grown in pots if they are going to be in the water. This prevents their roots from potentially damaging the pond liner, as well as lets you control the potting material for each individual plant. For pond maintenance, we rinse the filter media in a bucket once every 3 months. We run the hose in the pond for half an hour to an hour once every two weeks or so, to top it off. In the warmer months, we feed two handfuls of the little pellets once a day. In the fall we feed one handful of wheat germ pellets once a day. Winter you don’t feed anything at all though I am sure it varies by the temperature in your area. We have about a dozen goldfish and two dozen koi, so you can get an idea of why we feed as much as we do

Sgooosh said:

true, i love nature and i love watching plants grow without any human interaction, theres this one barrel and the succulents go crazy in there

do you two have general care for ponds? water changes?
feeding?

what plants do you have in or around the Pond?

could i add clay underneath river rocks and sand? so i can have lotus

Click to expand...

Firstly there are a couple of approaches to ponds. One you think of it as an outside aquarium where you try to keep the water clear and the fish visible all the time, that method requires filtration and time maintaining it. The other method is what I do, set it up and let it go wild.
The plants I have in my pond are myriophyllum, Vallisneria, Ludwigia. Water buttercup and water lilies. The rain takes care of water changes, make sure you have an overflow system in place, I have a dry creek running from the back of the pond so when it floods the water goes down that. I have always lined my ponds, so unsure about how a clay base would be watertight. Evaporation can be a problem, so think about a float valve to auto fill the pond. Never leave water features on all the time, they will make your water level go down very quickly, put all water features on a timer to be on just when you are around.

The only plants I have in pots are the lilies, I never lift them. I have a black liner in the pond with gravel over the top all the other plants are planted in the gravel just like you would in a tank.