| Jim
based on the dimensions mentioned for your excavation, you'll end up with about 11-12000 gal of water, based on whether you use a liner or gunite or cinder block walls. Excavation look very good from what I can see.
In your list of acquired equipment you mention a 80 watt Gamma UV unit. I don't feel that will give you quite enough. I would recommend 120 watts if in shade or 160 watts if in full sun. You could always add another 80 watts on your skimmer system.
You also mention you have 6 50 gallon drums.What is the planned useage for these? What are you using for a settlement chamber to handle your bottom drains? Please don't tell me you have found info that says that those 6 - 50gal drums will take care of your entire filtration requirements. That means you'll be using approx 250 gallons to filter 12000. That definitely WILL NOT WORK PROPERLY. Just looking at your pumps you have listed, the water will have to flow too fast through those drums to do you any good. Ever sat in the grandstands at an Indy race. Your bacteria will be doing that exact thing. The food supply will be going by so fast they'll get whiplash just trying to catch it. If you use that filter compartment to house, say, a settlement chamber 3' x 7' x 6'deep, that would give you about 900 gallons of water. Then you could gravity feed it slowly, through your drums. If you run 3 pair in parallel, then you could use the larger pump to pick the water up from all three sets and return it to the pond via throughputs or a waterfall. This way, each pair will only flow 1/3 of your pumps volume therby slowing down the water as it passes through the system. Your Savio skimmer could be pulled with one of your 1/4hp pumps, through a Ultima bead filter and return. You could return the water to the pond via whichever method you didn't use for your main filtration. Your Gamma UV units could be attached after the pumps.
Good luck with your system and keep us posted as to the progress.
Mike |