so have the fish turned up anywhere?
New project, will take a long time
- Thread starter Yanbbrox
- Start date
The wife saw one last night in the pond, this no sign of the sturgeon. We've had a little cold snap so they may be hanging out at the bottom. I'm a little concerned as the system shut off valve is very hard to close which makes me think there maybe something trapped in there, I'm going to purge all the chambers again this week end to try and flush it out.greengiant;2997353; said:
I can't find the photo I was looking for this is the best I could find, you'll get the idea
System runs from right to left, pump in the last chamber. The water flows up through 1(on the right) and out of the top and down again into the bottom of 2 and again out of the top of 2 into the bottom of 3 and is pumped back to the pond from the top of 3.
The flow was reduced when I plugged the top hole in chamber one, when you can see the rubber connector. Flow was reduced too much for the pump to run it through and it ran dry. Also if as posted by Mrul07 one leaf could stop what ever is there and do the same thing.
There needs to be something there to stop debris and wildlife getting through to chamber 2, the same at the bottom of chamber 2 and the top of chamber 2. This is because it will be a fluid bed filter and without it the media will run straight through to chamber 3, and back to chamber one if the system was shutdown for maintenance. Chamber 3's intake does not need one as the media in three is flush with the sides of the chamber.
Does that explain it better?
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See that plug he uses at 2:17, that got me thinking. Get some pipe that fit inside the intake/outlet and attach a rubber bung like in the video. Cap the end of the pipe and then either cut the pipe and add some sort of metal strainer the width of the chamber or drill a million holes in it. The chamber would support the pipe and if there is not enough flow, drill another million holes.
It would sit something like this:
This way a few leaves wouldn't hurt.
Comments? good idea/bad idea? potential improvements?
See that plug he uses at 2:17, that got me thinking. Get some pipe that fit inside the intake/outlet and attach a rubber bung like in the video. Cap the end of the pipe and then either cut the pipe and add some sort of metal strainer the width of the chamber or drill a million holes in it. The chamber would support the pipe and if there is not enough flow, drill another million holes.
It would sit something like this:
This way a few leaves wouldn't hurt.
Comments? good idea/bad idea? potential improvements?
I just finished reading the entire thread up to now. A great read my heart sunk when I saw the cave in. Glad to see you got the the point that you are at. Tooling around with the filtration can get frustrating, but it's a lot less disheartening than a wall caving in during the dig. G/l with the rest of the build, I will be checking back frequently. Hope the job front winds up working itself out for you too.
ThanksLars.;2998869; said:looks great to me
Glad you enjoyed the read, I can always tell when people have read through it as they always comment on the cave inshaggz;2999276; said:
Hopefully it'll be up and running in a week or so. Stay tuned and thanks for the comments
Yanbbrox;2998768; said:
Alrighty, I now understand much better what the heck your talking about.
Please note the following is IMO:
Now since a few people here believe that bio-load of this filter ONCE it's going will be so great that feeding the bio-load a small 2~3 lbs woodland creature every now and again, may help in preventing the boi-load from seeking out and luring drunken "cannonballs with full beers or flying pigs" in to it's grasp
As I stated before placing lids on the tops of the vats/vortex's would instantly solve the wildlife problem, I guarantee it. Except it would create a totally different problem for you to go nuts over (go into that later). If killing off a few lesser critters doesn't really bother you that much and you don't mind swabbing them out of the filter every now and then, - problem (1) solved! (Unless you meant wildlife getting into your system through the drains at the bottom of the pond, but those drains should have strainers built into them).
Actually problem (2) the leafs getting stuck in the filter system and clogging stuff up, pumps burning out from running dry, etc, etc,. Solved, using LIDS! Because unless you Do Not have any type of strainer on your intakes in the pond. How else would leaf litter and what not be getting in to the filter system?
The only problem I see you need to think out is (3) the fluid media flowing out of vortex #2, in either direction. A simple DIY strainer with holes large enough to not interfere with the water flow rate but won't allow the fluid media to pass. But the more I think about your filteration setup and I know you'll correct me if I'm wrong:
You once said that your system was a gravity based ground level system. And you just said it runs right to left and bottom to top. And all vortex's sit level on the same ground, non are physically higher or lower than the next. This being true if the system where to shut down for some reason, the water and media of vortex #2 would not back flush into vortex #1, because of the pressure behind vortex #1, the pond. Your using bottom drains correct. So if the system shuts down without warning the water in the vortex's should equal out in a movement from right to left not the other way around. Yes if anything you may require a drain/strainer to prevent media from vortex#2 passing into vortex #3.
Also the back pressure from 3 would force the media back into 1. I'm trying to get a picture of K1 for scale but my dslr is being fixed again and since I've had it getting a p+s to take a half decent picture is a real painTequila;3000820; said:Alrighty, I now understand much better what the heck your talking about.
Please note the following is IMO:
Now since a few people here believe that bio-load of this filter ONCE it's going will be so great that feeding the bio-load a small 2~3 lbs woodland creature every now and again, may help in preventing the boi-load from seeking out and luring drunken "cannonballs with full beers or flying pigs" in to it's grasp
I'd much rather it be filtering fish waste though
As I stated before placing lids on the tops of the vats/vortex's would instantly solve the wildlife problem, I guarantee it. Except it would create a totally different problem for you to go nuts over (go into that later). If killing off a few lesser critters doesn't really bother you that much and you don't mind swabbing them out of the filter every now and then, - problem (1) solved! (Unless you meant wildlife getting into your system through the drains at the bottom of the pond, but those drains should have strainers built into them).
No the bottom drain is designed to handle heavy solids not contortionist frogs, swabbing them out as you put it means removing 150 litres of K1 and 8 pads of jap matting every time, far too much work when there are drain valves at the bottom of each chamber
Actually problem (2) the leafs getting stuck in the filter system and clogging stuff up, pumps burning out from running dry, etc, etc,. Solved, using LIDS! Because unless you Do Not have any type of strainer on your intakes in the pond. How else would leaf litter and what not be getting in to the filter system?
One intake design for maximum flow through the drain, via the vortex effect. I'm going to net the pond during Autumn to stop leaves getting in the pond, the odd one will still get in somehow, they must be a relation to the frogs
The only problem I see you need to think out is (3) the fluid media flowing out of vortex #2, in either direction. A simple DIY strainer with holes large enough to not interfere with the water flow rate but won't allow the fluid media to pass. But the more I think about your filteration setup and I know you'll correct me if I'm wrong:
Exactly what I need to do, any ideas, I posted mine, Greengiant and Mrul07 has posted, but it would be easier to score some chemipure on a street corner
You once said that your system was a gravity based ground level system. And you just said it runs right to left and bottom to top. And all vortex's sit level on the same ground, non are physically higher or lower than the next. This being true if the system where to shut down for some reason, the water and media of vortex #2 would not back flush into vortex #1, because of the pressure behind vortex #1, the pond. Your using bottom drains correct. So if the system shuts down without warning the water in the vortex's should equal out in a movement from right to left not the other way around. Yes if anything you may require a drain/strainer to prevent media from vortex#2 passing into vortex #3.
