New project, will take a long time
- Thread starter Yanbbrox
- Start date
Right, I'm getting ready to turn everything back on again, fix the things that need fixing and stock it.
As the weather is starting(finally) to get milder things are happening again. I've emptied the vortexes today for a look to see how things have held up over the winter.
The settling chamber was very dirty with lots of crap on the bottom, at this point I should explain that I only purged it a few times during the trial run last year, the reason being is as it was never getting stocked until the spring I didn't see the point, as the shut down became planned in the end. No leaks from that chamber but an obvious problem has immediately been discovered, see below:
The black is the vortex chamber, grey it the tank connector to waste and the brown is the waste, see the problem? I'm off out tomorrow to get more pipes so I can use a 90 degree bend on the tank connector so it sits a few mm from the bottom of the chamber, this needs adding to all three as nasty waste could build up even with daily purges when I would think all was well.
I'll move on to chamber 2 in a minute, just need to re- sketch the diagram
As the weather is starting(finally) to get milder things are happening again. I've emptied the vortexes today for a look to see how things have held up over the winter.
The settling chamber was very dirty with lots of crap on the bottom, at this point I should explain that I only purged it a few times during the trial run last year, the reason being is as it was never getting stocked until the spring I didn't see the point, as the shut down became planned in the end. No leaks from that chamber but an obvious problem has immediately been discovered, see below:
The black is the vortex chamber, grey it the tank connector to waste and the brown is the waste, see the problem? I'm off out tomorrow to get more pipes so I can use a 90 degree bend on the tank connector so it sits a few mm from the bottom of the chamber, this needs adding to all three as nasty waste could build up even with daily purges when I would think all was well.
I'll move on to chamber 2 in a minute, just need to re- sketch the diagram
My freehand is not the best so no laughing
Sketch of the new 90 and pipe to the bottom of the chamber:
Moving onto the troublesome chamber 2 which was empty due to the leak, the green in the above snap is resin sealer that went on everything after the huge leaking problem, regular thread readers will know that this worked on everything but this join. The new plan is to remove the chamber(should be fun, considering the bracing can't be removed) and re mount the tank connector with a fine layer on the inside as well and re-do the outer fix, hopefully this will solve it.
The bottom of this chamber also had a layer of waste much more than I was expecting, the good news is the layers of matting filter media were still very clean, there was only a slight bit of a build up and the very first piece which is excellent news.
Chamber 3 was remarkably clean the K1 has a little bit of algae build up on some of the outer bits but as stated before a UV will solve this as will clean the slight green tint in the water. I've done the glass test on the pond and the water is still remarkable clear even if visibility is only about 2 foot. The only problem is the outlay for a UV is a gamble with my employment status so I may need to live with it for now.
Fired up the air with no problems, so that brings me onto stocking. Been out to a few places of the past few weeks, since beginning the plan was to add 10 small ghost carp and have located some at a good price, I've never been a koi snob and over time they can get up to 15lbs or so in weight but they will cycle the filters slowly. Once the fixes are in place and the flags are finally laid which I should get down in the next couple of days all will ready to go apart from a UV. The plan has alway been to stock the pond over a few years due to the price of really nice koi, so even if the work thing turns into the worse case senario we'll have 10 nice ghosts to swim about with nothing to purchase apart from a UV.
I'm working on the full stocking list later tonight so should be able to post that soon.
Thanks for reading, I'll update when I can(p+s on stand by
)
Sketch of the new 90 and pipe to the bottom of the chamber:Moving onto the troublesome chamber 2 which was empty due to the leak, the green in the above snap is resin sealer that went on everything after the huge leaking problem, regular thread readers will know that this worked on everything but this join. The new plan is to remove the chamber(should be fun, considering the bracing can't be removed) and re mount the tank connector with a fine layer on the inside as well and re-do the outer fix, hopefully this will solve it.
The bottom of this chamber also had a layer of waste much more than I was expecting, the good news is the layers of matting filter media were still very clean, there was only a slight bit of a build up and the very first piece which is excellent news.
Chamber 3 was remarkably clean the K1 has a little bit of algae build up on some of the outer bits but as stated before a UV will solve this as will clean the slight green tint in the water. I've done the glass test on the pond and the water is still remarkable clear even if visibility is only about 2 foot. The only problem is the outlay for a UV is a gamble with my employment status so I may need to live with it for now.
Fired up the air with no problems, so that brings me onto stocking. Been out to a few places of the past few weeks, since beginning the plan was to add 10 small ghost carp and have located some at a good price, I've never been a koi snob and over time they can get up to 15lbs or so in weight but they will cycle the filters slowly. Once the fixes are in place and the flags are finally laid which I should get down in the next couple of days all will ready to go apart from a UV. The plan has alway been to stock the pond over a few years due to the price of really nice koi, so even if the work thing turns into the worse case senario we'll have 10 nice ghosts to swim about with nothing to purchase apart from a UV.
I'm working on the full stocking list later tonight so should be able to post that soon.
Thanks for reading, I'll update when I can(p+s on stand by
)
Red Devil;2850673; said:
Thanks Liz, I knew someone would end up posting mid update
More snow here:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=193801&page=8
I know, so obvious looking retrospectfully, one of many design flawszennzzo;2850945; said:
I just checked the weather, rain all day, I don't care I'll get wet, got to get it done, plus some of those ghosts need to come home
Off topic, took some tank shots with the p+s on manual of course.... the result was, well, I need my DSLR back
Well rain it did, I was sure i'd get something done but seriously what's the point in trying to seal a leak or lay flags in heavy rain It just won't last, and tomorrow apparently the snow is returning 
I fail to see the 'great' in the 'Great british weather'
Oh and the 90's I got wont fit the threads on the inside, no big deal I'll just take them back, having a friendly pond guy down the road really helps and I didn't pay for them anyway It's great when you get build up a relationship that's basically 'I need something to do this' and get the response of 'er take this and this and this if it doesn't work bring it back and I'll find something else that will'. Saves money changing hands, I've got a shed(literally) of bits to go back when it's all done
It just won't last, and tomorrow apparently the snow is returning I fail to see the 'great' in the 'Great british weather'Oh and the 90's I got wont fit the threads on the inside, no big deal I'll just take them back, having a friendly pond guy down the road really helps and I didn't pay for them anyway
It's great when you get build up a relationship that's basically 'I need something to do this' and get the response of 'er take this and this and this if it doesn't work bring it back and I'll find something else that will'. Saves money changing hands, I've got a shed(literally) of bits to go back when it's all doneYanbbrox;2855434; said:
I always thought the irony in that phrase was intentional.
