My pond build from this past summer

[mp3coupe]

Just a few updated pics
Another 10 more inches until it's full, need to cut in skimmers


Airlift pit / sump - 5' 6" below water surface


Airlift manifold , (4) 1 1/2" airlift tubes - attaches to blue drum in pit, basically extends the drum so I can get air injection at 5' depth


white drum just there for mock up


So many valves, I figure by the time the airlift gets completed 17 valves in the pit

 

[HungDang]

it took you more than a year for this upgrade ? where do the fish live when you doing upgrade like this?

 

[Muske]

Beefy and Burley.

A couple of dumb Q's...
What does the pit do and does it get a liner or anything?

 

[Gruntking]

Just read through your thread, great build!

 

[mp3coupe]

it took you more than a year for this upgrade ? where do the fish live when you doing upgrade like this?

I started in Oct/Nov 2010 just before the cold weather hit. I have all my fish in the garage in about 750 gallons (QT). Just using a settlement tank and a sand and gravel filter for bio and to polish the water. Here are a few pics just snapped

Edit I just found the build thread for the tank
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=282848

 

[mp3coupe]

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/member.php?u=16941Muske, The pit allows water to gravity flow, which makes it much more efficient when adding pumps to move the water. I need to put up 4 walls and roof on the area, I'm rushing to get the plumbing done so I can get the fish outside.
Oh, are you talking about the pit within the pit the sump? That area is for the airlift -much more efficient then a water pump to move water. It will also serve the purpose of a low spot to get whatever water that accumulates in the pit to get pumped out.

Thanks Gruntking!

 

[mp3coupe]

A little progress.....

Ran (2) 3" pipes from the tote into the drum which will contain 9,000 feet of poly strapping


Finally tied in the 3 pond returns that sit about a foot from the bottom of the pond. The plan is to have (1) 2" and (2) 1 1/2 pipes gravity back to pond.


Not sure how the wall is going to get put behind all that crap!


Need to connect a flange to the blue drum to turn downward into the sump
The next image gets attached to the drum




The airlift manifold sits in that hole


(4) 1 1/2 pipes connect to this drum - not sure the height yet. It's estimated that a 2" pipe will flow 900
gph at 1 inch of height. Air gets injected into the pipes at 5 feet below water surface. Black mark is water height of pond.

 

[mp3coupe]

air-lift is up and running. 3k gph @ 86 watts. I'm going to tweak it some more since I think I can hit the 4k gph mark @ 86 watts.

airlift pipes and air loop




6"mark shows water level of pond, pond still needs another inch of water. Total head required to flow through 1) 2" and 2) 1 1/2" returns is 6" = 3k gph

 

[gangster]

That looks like some intense plumbing! So is most of it gravity fed? Is that the reason for airlift?

 

[mp3coupe]

That looks like some intense plumbing! So is most of it gravity fed? Is that the reason for airlift?

Yeah by far the most intense plumbing job I've done by far. Everything that flows into the pit is done via gravity - the biggest reason why is do to efficiency. By having a pump directly pull from the bottom drains isn't a good idea imho. The fish waste hits the pump blade which liquidizes the waste you want removed. Also pond pumps are much more efficient than pool pumps, works with much less head. As for the airlift, something I read about and wanted to try it out. In reality I really needed to run 3" or bigger returns to the pond, I'm only using one 2" and two 1 1/2 returns. It requires 6 inches of head to be able to move 3k gallons back into the pond. Had those returns be larger I could probably have used 2" uplift pipes instead of 1 1/2 and doubled the flow on no increase of electric.
The waterfall will be using an evolution es 4500(gph) that draws 207 watts, which I guess isn't all that bad. I plan on doing some more experiments with the airlifts to increase flow, if I can get the flow to increase, I'll add 2 or more exits from the barrel and use it to provide water to another 5" waterfall or something. The es4500 will be on the skimmer circuit, pulls from the other blue drum and then into 2 sand and gravel filter to polish the water.