[Ethan25]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ethan25 Thanks for the ideas Mitten. I really appreciate them. I'll have to rethink what I am doing here. Ethan

So, I re-thought! Here was the pond before the re-do.



I had some help from people on this and other boards. I was given a 4 inch ball-valve for the cost of shipping ($35.00).
I had already purchased the 4200 Sequence pump. I had at my disposal as many 55 gallon barrels as I wanted from the local pepsi bottling plant. A member gave me plenty of pvc shavings, but I instead purchased a mile + roll of plastic strapping material. Another member gave me a bottom drain, complete with an air diffuser. I made an aerated bottom drain with this.

Here’s what I did:
I bought a 1200 gallon intex pool. I put my fish in it in the garage while I did the upgrade. I made a 55 gallon upflow type filter to house them in for the time being. My submersible pump would pump water to the bottom of the unit, where the water would begin to circulate clockwise at 2,000 gph. I had a layer of matting and bio balls, held down by pieces of PVC shavings and another layer of matting. This trapped fines well, and I backwashed each night or every other. Water parameters were wonderful throughout the entire month+ fish were in there. I fed quite a bit as well, and one fish went from 9 to 13 inches while being in this setup.





I removed liner and started to round out my hole. Since I had extra liner everywhere, I decided to go as deep as possible. I got to 47 inches deep at the bottom drain, with the sides being 40 inches, sloping to the bottom drain. I got rid of the shelf. A neighbor had a 120 gallon perform we put to the right of the pond for all our plants my wife likes. Works well. I began to dig an area for a small filter pit to house my pump, Settlement chamber, microscreen, and air pump.





I believe I am now at over 3,200 gallons. 9x13x3.7 avg depth. I decided on a settlement chamber using a 55 gallon barrel. I know that many of you said that I could not get settlement from it, but my yard is very small, and I really did not have space to do anything else. Whether I clean a microscreen or clean a static K1 unit, I did not care. Anyhow, I got a free Do it yourself microscreen from another member that was upgrading to a WLIM unit. Made nicely with heavy gage steel support on the inside.



After digging out the pond, I set my bottom drain in concrete, running the line through the wall to my now dug filter pit.





The pit ended up being 4x6, as big as the area I had would let me have. I used a bit that digs holes for bulbs to dig through the 3 feet of earth between my filter pit and the pond, for my 4” bottom drain line to go through.






So, I built up my filter pit using narrower blocks. They are 4x8x16 rather than the usual 8x8x16. I know I know, harder to keep straight and not as sturdy, but it held well with rebar and a footing. I needed to maximize the amount of room inside of the filter pit. This saved me 8 inches each direction.

Here is my line coming from my bottom drain into my 55 gallon barrel, with a 4” ball valve before it, allowing me to shut off the feed from the bottom drain.



I did not have room in the area for a sump area. What I do to clean it is once a week I shut off the 4” valve, drain the 55 gallon barrel to bottom, vacuum out the muck, and put microscreen back in and let barrel re-fill. Takes all of about 7-8 minutes, and worth the hassle. Like I said, absolutely no room to do otherwise. I had the sumppump already, so it has it’s use in the barrel.

I was having an issue keeping my Microscreen spinning, so I added another 90 degree elbow to the incoming line from the bottom drain to get it to spin. Before and after pics:





Pipework coming out of 55 gallon barrel to the pump


As you can see, I had two lines coming off my pump. One that goes to the Laguna filter falls, and one that will go to a spraybar.




Filled up pond and shut valve to see if bottom drain and everything held water. All good.


Microscreen spinning, spraybar working, water flowing.


Pipework….water flowing to the spraybar and the laguna filter falls. As you can see, I have ball valves to control the flow to each.


And the completed work


All not ideal, but all I could do with the little money we had to get it done. Lots of help from other koi enthusiasts, which helped so much. For me, it works. I don’t have show fish…all are pondgrade….but I do know a lot more about plumbing, water chemistry, bio, etc….from doing this project. And I know what I will do when I am older and will have a larger pond at another house (I’m only 26 now).

Any thoughts are fine…positive and negative.

Ethan