I have made a fish pond out of an old sattelite dish...

funds were minimal but as my mom is VERY sick and REALLY wanted the pond done I used my brain and the materials I could get on the cheap.

For a line I used to layers of plastic painters tarp which I then covered with stones from the beach. test filled it for a week with no drop in water.

I have a 400 gallon an hour pump which cost $100 Canadian funds which I have flow into a plastic 45 gallon drum half filled with washed beach sand. I read that sand can make a great medium for a bio filter so I have the hose from the pump buried in the sand. I have had some VERY minor silt enter the pond but hardly any. I also have two small circulating pumps running in the pond just to create current and turbulance. The 45 gallon drum empties into a home made water fall wich is of the same design as the pond... painters tarp covered with rocks which leads to a waterfall created from a bucket split down the middle.

In the 2 weeks leading up to today before the pumps were all running permanently I had a huge algae build up in the still pond which I drained off totally and refilled... the insect population from the algae filled stillwater stayed behind on the refill... I left the pumps running for the last two days with no major green water happening so today i bought a large pond goldfish, a small comet and a tiny pleco.

I need some insight from you folks if this sounds like a set up which is going to work.

I hope I'm describing this in enough detail... just as a note...I do not have a UV filter and after reading this site have decided that is a good thing as I do not want the insect population to be killed before the fish can eat them... correct?

Please tell me if I'm missing anything... I have kept in door aquariums for years and basicly just thought of this a HUGE aquarium and buit the biofilter the same as I would for an aquarium(other than the sand which I admit is an experiment but one that makes scientific sense to me...

Sorry to hear about your mother. My mother has cancer. You have been quite ingenious in making a pond from what you had. Here are a few thoughts.

Keep an eye on the painter's tarp. It could get holes easily. Also, hopefully it was not treated chemically and is just plastic.

Using the actual beach sand may not be a great idea. First, being actual sand, it's going to contain microlife from the ocean. Once out of the salt water, that life will die, smell, and rot. Second, sand filters clog really easily and may require a lot of work to keep them flowing. Third, the sand will probably channel meaning most of the water will go through a mini stream made through it while the other areas become anaerobic (low in oxygen and stagnant) were bad bacteria will grow and again, stink. Just keep an eye on the system. If it goes bad, I would instead fill the filter with something with a good surface area. For low cost things, consider hair curlers, plastic army men of all things, polyester fluff, and other plastic stuff.

If you live in an area that gets a real winter, the pleco will have to come in over the winter. If it's not very deep, the goldfish may need to come in as well.

A UV filter costs a lot of money. It kills anything that flows past the light. If you have a pre-filter (filter material) around the pump, then larger insects and other animals wouldn't be harmed by the UV.

Good luck! Your pond is so unique! You should post it to my new free pond site - http://www.pondshowcase.com