Pond Fountain and Water Filter

thingiverse

Decorative floating pond ornament and solar powered water fountain that can also be used to help eliminate algae, clean and oxygenate the water (needs a cheap solar pump off the typical selly selly sites). I designed this fountain to fix a yucky looking green water problem in our own pond. Frogs were happy but the fish were getting proper grumpy. When my wife and grand kids started refusing to drink it I decided I would have to do something. I first looked at commercial algae filter systems but the price was crazy and they all needed some installation setups. I imagined I would have to use some fine filter papers to trap algae along with a cheap solar pond pump. To my pleasant surprise it turns out pretty much anything in the bottom of the cups will act as a very good filter of green yucky stuff. Proper filter papers blocked very quickly and simple cotton wool pads seemed to be most practical solution. The tiers of cups can be rotated to change the style of the petals. They also share the same snap on fitting so that the position or number of tiers can be changed. There is a small and large option where the bases are different sizes. The small option uses just 2 levels of petals (or cups). For the floatation I used a piece of closed cell foam trimmed to shape. The algae elimination has passive and active elements. The passive elements include shade from sunlight under the petal and the oxygenation effect of the fountain. Active filtering can be used by placing some sort of filter in the petal cups. The fountain can be enjoyed without filters but, if required, the design of the petal cups allows different levels of filtering to be used. At the low cost and relatively easy end of the scale you can use cotton wool or strong tissue paper. A mid cost option is to use coffee filters. For more effective filtering, papers can be acquired in a variety of grades from laboratory suppliers. The floats push into the center section using dovetails (make sure they are the correct way up). They lock into each other on the edges. No glue should be needed but a spot here and there might help depending on your printer. If you are using a pump there is a cover that snaps in the bottom to hold the motor. I used PLA which works fine. The thing is sitting in water and when the direct sun is out the pump is water cooling the PLA nicely. If you left this thing out in the sun and not in the water you would probably end up with a very funky looking shape. You would also void your warranty on the pump.