I really love fancy goldfish, and I want to have a smaller outdoor pond, as my larger pond is going to be devoted to comets, commons etc. I was wondering, whats the price estimate of a bare 200 gallon with just an adequate filter?

If your thinking about using a stock tank for a pond. The price for a 300 gallon stock tank is around $170. I haven't been looking at the prices of the smaller ones but they would be a bit cheaper.

Thanks. But do you know how much an outdoor filtration system would cost?

diy filters for a 200gal with a pump would cost you 45-70$ depending on deals and online with a pump is around $60-80....All depends on what you want and ect... As for the pond I reccomend a liner always because of it being cheaper. and for a stock tank..... anywhere from 150-200 is going to get you one. On craigslist there have been some good deals here on them and sometimes you can find a package with everything needed.

A DIY filter? Can you provide some insight on how to make one? Search isn't working for me at the moment.

diy as in do it yourself.....there are skippyfilters, bog filters, homemade gravity flow filters, trickle falls,(biologically mostly...) personally i use homemade gravity flow filters were water comes in the top and flows down through thicker to thinner mats then out the bottom. This cleans the water very well but green water does not go all the way away. Water can be green and still be healthy by the way.....When you come to this, this is where the uv's come in handy. They clump algae together so it is large enough for filter mats to catch it and then you have crystal clear water. (Although Uv's can be a little pricey....even having a small one will do wonders for both you and the fish)



(to make....run a pump to a rubbermaid box....have an inlet at the top for the water to come in..... fill the top with the larger mats to the more finer mats at the bottom...then have an outlet at the bottom)
As for the UV place it before the filter box

Oh I see, the guides on the internet were a little off the deep end, but now I get it, thanks!

easy to add bottom drains to those stock tanks. Would recommend 2 on either a 200 or 300. Run to a settlment chamber and pull water from that with a pump to filtration.

Filtration can be a couple hundred $ or less than $100 if you DIY. Lots of good filters out there.

Really like settlement chambers from bottom drains as it gets so much of the heavier solids out of the water before the pump and filters. Makes filter cleaning easier as less crud gets in the filter. No pulverized poop by the pump before filtration either