Pond filterpump capacity

[Remi de Groot]

With the high energy prices in Europe at the moment we are looking more and more into places where we can save some energy. One of the biggest 'users' at the moment is our outdoor pond, with the filter running 24/7 and a UV light in summer. For that reason i'm currently looking into cheaper options for the filterpump.

The most common way of filtration here in The Netherlands in aquariums seems to be a cannister filter. Last few years i've been following co-op and learned about the benefits and way of working of other filtration systems. This makes me believe that most of the tanks in this country have way more filtration then actually needed. I guess Eheim did a good job advertising strong filters here ;).

Same thing seems to be for outdoor ponds. Most of the information i can find online in Dutch are about Koi ponds with filtration that seems to be even more powerfull then the system filtering our drinking water (ok, not that strong. But you get the point 😉).
This makes it hard for me to decide how much filtration i actually need.

So i was wondering about your opinions.
Our pond is 12.000 liter (3.170 gallon) and has 15 adult Golden Orfe (Leuciscus idus) and about the same amount of baby's from last spring. Besides that we also have 4 Comet Goldfish in the pond.
The pond is a bit planted. But because the way they the previous owners build the pond it's not as much as i've wanted.
The pond has a pressure filter with sponge as filtermedia.

How much liter/gallon an hour would you guys use for a pond like this?
I've seen numbers online going from 50% of the total water in the pond up to 2 or 3 times the watercapicity.

Picture of the pond. But because of the winter hard to see.
Only planted area is a small strip on the left side of the pond.
Mostly planted with yellow iris.

 

[RennjiDK]

With the roughly 300-500w your pond pump is pulling, I wouldn't exactly call that an energy hog. Unfortunately, part of having a larger water volume is the increased energy and maintenance costs that comes with it. If you only have a sponge doing the biofiltration, you could certainly be doing better, but not at reduced energy costs. It's kind of like buying a Ferrari and asking how to use less petrol. It's just part of owning a luxury item like a 12,000l tank.

[Remi de Groot]

With the normal energy prices I would agree it's just part of the hobby. But with the current prices of gas and electricity in Europe since the war in Ukrain things have changed.

Energy bills have increased up to 300/400%. Even people that never had a struggle with paying the bills are looking into ways to save some energy to be able to pay it all. At the moment I'm paying $0,55 per Kwh. So a 400 watt pump is 3500 KwH a year. Makes it a $1925 bill. If I could split that in half and save $900 that's sounds like a good saving to me. I have to work a couple of weeks for that kind of money.

Even people with a Ferrari that can't afford the high fuell prices will look for a cheaper gas station before selling the Ferrari.

Edited January 31, 2023 by Remi de Groot