We have a small pond in the back. Nothing too big, maybe 75 gallons. For years it had a single koi. Once or twice a year I would move the koi into a bucket, drain the pond and give it a full cleaning. A dirty job and one of my least favorites. Mr Koi got so big I couldn’t put him safely into a bucket and I would use a siphon to clean the pond as best as I could, which usually wasn’t very good. Eventually Mr Koi disappeared (we suspect a raccoon) and I put a goldfish and a few minnows in his place, thinking it was just temporary.

That was quite a few years ago. My struggle turned to making a cover to keep the critters out, and the water quality has since been embarrassingly bad. I was looking on Amazon this week and found this pump / filter / UV sterilizer that got rave reviews. I had experimented with a few other pumps and filters, but none seems to do much. I figured I could plug it in every now and then to keep thimgs clean.

It arrived yesterday. Much bigger and heavier than I expected. I was thinking something for aquarium use, maybe the size of a brick. It is maybe 3x or 4x bigger than I expected. But maybe it will do the job. I just dropped it in the pond and plugged it in. Quiet and the flow is brisk but not overwhelming in the small pond. Will post some “before and after” photos if it works out.

Update: was going to post photos of progress over a few days. Probably not necessary. In just a few hours the water has gone from pea soup to crystal clear. Pulling out some green stuff by hand, stirring up the bottom a bit. Will let it run over night. Hope the filter cleans up easily. Even if I have to do this every few weeks it is a ‘win’.