Hi all,

I just built my first pond with a very simple pond kit. It turned out SO nice but I had an algae bloom within 3 weeks. I pulled out the pump and attempted to pull that green hairy algae out of the intake vents of the pump and guess what...the pump froze up and died! Now I'm looking into replacing it with some type of filtrated pump.

Keep in mind my pond is tiny. It's an in-ground pond, about 2 1/2 feet x 3 feet x 14 inches deep. When the pond is clear, you can see right to the bottom of it so I'm concerned that any filter/pump will be pretty big, unsightly and will be the main visual focus of the cute little pond! With the small pump I was using I just laid a flat rock over it to hide it, but I don't know if that'll work if the whole pond floor is full of devices.

What would you do at this point? Can I make a prefilter by wrapping a small pump with some type of mesh that will catch debris before it enters the pump? Simple and discreet would be great since there isn't room to camouflage!

I've never have a pond with fish so I really don't know what I'm doing. That's why I started small. I don't have any plants yet and maybe that would have helped prevent the algae?

I'm including photos so you'll see what I'm saying about the pump I was using. It is a very small pump that looks just like my pumps I use for little waterfalls...no prefiltration or anything.