# pond filter



## markperr (Jan 7, 2008)

Does anyone use a bottom filter on their pond, and if so, how often do you need to clean them? My pond is about 30" deep and right now I have a pre-filter material that i use in front of my pump located in a skimmer attached to the pond.


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## Brandon (Jul 6, 2011)

I do, my pond is about 60" deep and has a 4" koi toilet BD. Frequency for cleaning a BD depends on type of BD, size of the BD and what comes after it. If it goes straight to a pump and doesn't have any sort of screen on the BD you're going to be cleaning it very often. If it only lets in very small debris (1/4" or smaller) probably only every few years. 

My pond BD has been installed for 2 years and I have yet to open up the drain and manually clean it out inside. My BD does flow into a 240 gallon settlement tank that is entirely below ground (about 4'x4'x4' in size) and that settlement chamber gets drained about 2-3 times a year and when I empty/clean that SC I keep the knife valve that goes between the BD and SC closed and then open it up. With that much water pressure above the BD and the SC empty the BD it flushes out the 4" pipe and BD quite well (since they are lower than the SC and also act as a SC because of this). The BD does go about 2' below the inlet on the SC but that much water pressure pretty much flushes anything in the BD out, including pieces of metal (dropped in by accident during construction) and 1" rocks (I now have the cap of the BD set to not allow anything larger than 3/4" in).


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