I know another pump question
Don, we planned to use lava rock only to quickly and inexpensively get us through the rest of this season. The plan was to take the rock out and using it for landscaping after the season. And put in some more suitable bio media next spring. My understanding is the beneficial bacteria dies anyway once the water temperature gets into the 40’s degreees F, and we don’t plan to run the filter all winter (pond is in the suburbs of Chicago, IL). We are trying to get a “quick and cheap” filter going but for a variety of reasons it still isn’t started yet. We did make a lot of progress yesterday, and plan to have water going through the filter today. We’re anxious to get the bacteria going so we can move the koi over from their old home, but we’ll wait as long as necessary for the pond ecology to be safe for them.
The pond is in the 2200 - 2400 gallon range, roughly oval. There is a bog area at one end, dropping to an area of 4′ depth, then to an area of 2′ depth, and an area of 1′ depth where the waterfall will enter the pond. We don’t have the koi or a skimmer in it yet. We do have a smaller filter and pump running in the 2′ section to get the biological proceesses going. Also have a lot of water lettuce and water hyacinths, water lilies, and other bog plants in and flourishing. A Max Flo 2400 pump is running in the bottom of the 4′ section to give us circulation and aeration - this is, in effect, our bottom drain and is the pump that will feed the filter. At 3′ of head and 20′ of 1.5″ ID hose and 8′ of 1.5″ PVC pipe, we’re now estimating 1800 gph, so we’ll probably need to route some of the water directly to the water fall. The home made skimmer will be located just outside the bog area, have its own pump and output will be routed to a fountain head or venturi type nozzle to add aeration.
The best way to describe the filter is to give you a link to a graphic of the commercial filter used for inspiration, the Hydro Max. http://www.emperoraquatics.com/pondhydromax.php Our filter will not have a UV sterilizer nor brushes. In our filter, water will be top fed in to a settlement chamber through 1.5″ pipe drilled with multiple .125 and .25″ holes to act as aeration nozzles. Dimensions of the filter are 5′ long, 2.5′ wide, and planned water level about 2.25′ deep. Settlement chamber is created with a 14″ high partition at the bottom running across the width of the filter, about 14″ in the length dimension. Water moves laterally through 4″ of coarse then 2″ of fine fiber filter mesh that is mounted vertically in the filter, to act as mechanical filtration. Then water moves laterally through the bio media area which initially is planned to be lava rock wrapped in plastic garden mesh. Different than the commercial filter, we’re taking the output from near the bottom, for aesthetic reasons. We’ll run the output pipe along the ground, then plumb it to a 90 degree elbow up to the height equal to the desired water level inside the filter. That will be an input to the waterfall. Finally, there are two 1.5″ bottom discharge drains going to valves for flushing, in the settlement chamber and at output end of the filter.
Don’t have the ability to take a picture of our filter right now, but hope to later this week.
Thanks in advance.
Frank
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
