Crystal Clear Water with a Bucket - Cheap and Easy Bucket Filter

How to get crystal clear water fast, cheap, and easy making a bucket filter. This is version two of the bucket filter we had on the channel years ago.
The parts you'll need:

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[cegli]

Thank-you much for this video! My husband and I were prepared to spend between $500 and $1000 (Canadian dollars) on a filter for our fairly large fish pond that came with our new (to us) home. I also have a 75 gallon fish tank in our home, and the rocks and pump and stuffing made sense to me for a filter as it is similar materials in my fish tank filters. However, my husband was not convinced. Off I went to the pet store and lucked-in by speaking to someone in their pond department who had just started working there, and before that, he had spent years working at commercial fish farms. He told me to build my own as well, saying that at the commercial farm, they had used everything from foam curlers, sponges, & the plastic netting that comes around oranges, avocados and other produce in their filters for thousands of fish. He convinced me! I showed my husband your video and explained what the store employee had told me, and off I went to Home Depot to buy the supplies. I was in a hurry to get the filter made, so I didn’t want to order the pump from Amazon. All the pet stores told me that I wouldn’t find a strong enough pump in our city, but I just changed what I was asking for. I asked for a “sump pump” at Home Depot, and bought one for $98 Cdn that moves over 1000 gallons an hour. I bought a 5 gallon white food grade bucket with a snap-on lid and a 2-inch hole saw at Home Depot too. I used a garden hose to attach to the pump and bought O-rings to put on either side of the bucket where the hose exits the bucket. The only thing I did differently from your design, was that I pulled the electric cord out through the batting to one of the holes in the top, wrapping it with plastic netting so the batting couldn’t escape. With all the supplies, your home-made filter idea cost me $128.00 and better yet, it has been 24 hours and I am already noticing a big difference! I did read the review where the person had to clean the batting several times before getting their pond totally clear, so I will likely have to do that as well. I also left the garden hose long enough to prop-up between some rocks to make a 2nd little waterfall for more aeration. Last Fall I thought that a Blue Heron had stolen all of my 7 fish from my pond. I had shut down the waterfall and the whole pond last Fall thinking that I would “deal with the pond” in the Spring. Earlier this week, I thought I saw one fish in the murky, pea-soup-like pond water, so that is why I was in a hurry to get the filter made. As of this morning, I can see well enough into my pond that 3 larger fish actually survived the Heron attack and they also lived through the winter! Sorry for my long comment, but I made it in case anyone else reads this and is in a hurry like I was to get a filter made! Thank-you again for your idea! I hope it goes “viral” and will share as much as I can!

[dawnacahill]

This video inspired me to make one myself. Watched about 5 other videos with pvc pipe and valves which were too complicated. Thanks for sharing. Super helpful! Like that you have condensed the info. No babbling about worthless info. Thank you!

[kellyharrison]

So simple! I have been agonizing over how to filter my 1, 500 gallon pond without spending a lot of money. You just answered my prayers!

[PaulWB]

Adding batting to my pump has been the only effective way I've ever kept my 800 litre pond clear ...great video!

[zgrothus]

This is great, thank you! I made a couple changes: I wanted my filter to pull in water from close to the bottom of the pond, so I drilled a bunch of holes along the bottom, but still on the side of the bucket. I drilled smaller holes so my fish can't attempt to swim inside and get stuck. I stuffed the bucket with quilt batting and then put my pump on the top, just below the lid. Works like a champ!

[markthomas]

I'VE BEEN POSITIVELY PREACHING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HOME MADE BUCKET/TOTE BOX FILTERS FOR YEARS AND YEARS...

[pshewitt]

A big thank you and shout out for this video. I recently bought a house and inherited a 6000L pond and a bunch of koi in a dire state. After already spending £££ on a new pump and pressure filter I could just not clear out silt in the water, even after many water changes! In desperation I decided to try this hack to get the water cleaned and its gone from being a brown silted up mess to being able to actually see some fish! Thank you! For those reading, as I already had a pump and filter I just put my existing pump into this bucket with the rocks and floss, so its almost like a pre-filter water polisher...

[jonisolis]

I have bucket filters in three small 110 gallon ponds I have and they work great. I use two large old 100% acrylic knit sweaters in one of the bucket filters instead of filter floss. The sweaters are easy to hose off when dirty. Reuse and spend less! I used old used buckets and some lava rocks.

[wells]

Finally! Thanks to your instructions and easy delivery style, after viewing this video no less than 20 x to make sure I'd make no mistakes. My 150 gal stock tank is beautiful! The pump I got was way too powerful so I had to use PVC/valve to control water flow, but the water is crystal clear. Pond enhanced with mountain stones, lots of caves and hiding places, but more importantly, is that I feel confident enough with this filtration system, that I'll be doing pond #2 in '25. Thank you for the video.

[ziggiedobe.]

Thank you from Greece! Your suggestion is plain and easy to make. The materials you use can be found easily. And at a reasonable cost too. I think you hit bulls eye with this project because you caught the essence of any diy project which should be kept simple, effective and accessible to anyone. No unessecary babblings or elaborated, expensive, sophisticated tools or materials. A diy project must be ingenious in its simplicity, inventive inexpensive and efficient. Thank you for the excellent idea! Which works fine too!

[mnemosynevermont]

Go one step further and point that exit hose straight up to create a fountain which will add oxygen to the water for the fish.

[EZXLR]

We have struggled for the last several years with green water. We were about to give up. I built one of these and the only changes we made was putting bio balls at the bottom. We covered that with lava rock instead of river rock and then added the filter fabric on top. After the first 2-3 days we were very discouraged but I knew the filter was accumulating lots of junk. I cleaned the top fabric twice then after running for 6 days I took the whole thing apart and rinsed all the stone, the balls and thoroughly cleaned the batting. After all that the water finally cleared up in one day and the fish look very happy. We can see the bottom. This works! You just have to rinse frequently if your pond is really bad like ours and then keep at it. Eventually it should clear up. Thank you!

[ijsmale]

I built a filter almost identical to this about 15 years ago for my pond. This past week I added 3 inches of reticulated (open cell) foam to the top layer, with batting below and bio-balls at the bottom. My water had been cloudy for a week since I drained and cleaned the pond, and after adding the foam it cleared up in 24 hours. Submersible filters like this are ideal when there is nowhere to hide a filter beside or above the pond.

[fausto_life_explorer]

Superced results and expectations. MIne was green and with a lot of particles floting on it, I did clean it ALL....over night, so clear i can see the bottom of the pond. and the fish. THANK YOU ! THANK YOU ! Water its so clear

[FrankMatthys-nqxp]

I want to say... this is the best method for a filter.. I have made me one in a smaller version! For a small pond... its like magic! I had instant results... with a timer on it... the water is now cristal clear! And the filter is easy to clean... just the upper cloth remove, put some new one in.. Thank You! Frank, Belgium, 14 april... 9.15 o'clock...

[ThomasAmbrosio]

Works better than the $400+ filter with UV light that I bought last year for my pond/fountain with gold fish. The $400+ filter did not work well at all. Even after adding chemicals to kill algae, my pound and fountain were deep green and the white marble fountain was green all over. After 2 days of running the 5 gallon submerged pump shown in this video I was able to see to the bottom of the pond. (I did clean the bucket and batting after the first day because the pond was pea green with algae. Thank you very much for sharing your video.

[kevinphillips]

Wow, amazing I could not believe how well it worked, so simple yet so effective, my pond has never looked better in the summer months, I can see all the fish and the bottom of the pond.

[terryl.]

Affordably solves so many water problems for me. Thank You !!🍒

[bobbluestone]

Works! At first the algae kept growing back just as fast as the filter removed it. Finally added muck defense and barley extract. After a two days it started to clear and the next morning I could see down 4’ 4” to the bottom of the pond with water crystal clear!

[wells]

Must have viewed your video at least 20 x to make sure that I wouldn't be making any mistakes when making my filtration system. The GREAT news is that my 150 gal pond has been functioning extremely well for a month now, my 12 Shubunkins are thriving, and I feel confident enough to think about a second pond in '25. My chosen pump was far too powerful for the filter, so I had to use PVC piping with valve to control the water flow as it was coming out of the bottom way too strongly. All else turned out just fine. Thank you!