Filtration/Plumbing Diagram: Please correct me if I'm wrong

[lfreem]

This is a very rough sketch of what I'm thinking in terms of my filtration to retro a pond I have inherited. I am just trying to verify with the pros here that I have the order of things correctly. I have not drawn in all the 90 degree angles and such (forgive me), but am just trying to keep this simple for purposes of understanding proper order.

For now I'll be using my existing laguna pressure filter which has been working quite well for 3 years, but ultimately I will replace it with a barrel bio filter next year. Bottom drains will unfortunately have to be retro aqua art above vinyl drains as the previous owner did not build this pond with filtration in mind or any bottom drains. 1 Bottom Drain will go into larger lower pond (about 1800 gals) and the other bottom drain will flow from a small upper pond that is about 300 gals.





Some Questions:

1. Should I use ball valves or knifes before and after the pump? Do I need knifes/ball valves anywhere else?
2. Should the pressure filter be after or before the pump?
3. As in my other post, I have the option of putting all the equipment (minus the pump which will stay at the lower end of the water line) at the top of the ponds (hidden under my deck) or at the bottom of the ponds at the low end of the slope. Not sure which is best?

Your suggestions are gratefully appreciated.


Here's the pond now as taken in early spring:




Happy koi fishies (the goldies, also inherited with pond are now in upper pond since it is too small for koi). sorry for the bad pic as I was shooting straight into the sun:

[luke frisbee]

ball valves between the bottom drains/skimmer and the settlement chamber will allow you to fine tune the flow from those sources.
Yes ball valves not knife valves

either place will be fine but remember the stettlement chamber is being gravity fed and therefore must be sunk to the level of the pond(s?). And that might be a fly in the ointment if the two ponds aren't at the same level

[JacksonvilleKoiSupply]

I don't have too much time to post this but since you are going to use retro-drains you can't gravity feed them to the SC unless the pipe stays below water level at all times!

You can't gravity flow from both of the ponds to the same SC unless both ponds are at the same water level! Also don't combine the three lines going into the SC. If you have to have all three of them going to the SC then run three separate lines.

Check valve should be I think 12" below water level for it to work best and it needs to be oriented vertically after the pump.

[Meg]

what you may want to do it add a bottom drain it the little top pond for flushing clean the bottom of that pond clean periodically. (as in leading to the garden or lawn. not part of the filtration)
then put the Sc off the bottom drain of the larger pond to the pump (both down grade) and pump up to the pressurised filter and back to little pond.

can't tell for sure in your picture, but looks as if you have rocks on the bottom(might just be a dirty bottom)...ought to pull them out

[lfreem]

Thanks Meg. No. no rocks on the bottom--I haven't broken that cardinal rule.

I want to make sure I understand this comment correctly:
"then put the Sc off the bottom drain of the larger pond to the pump (both down grade) and pump up to the pressurised filter and back to little pond"

Are you saying feed the bd of the larger pond to the sc then to the pump and then last to the pressurized filter and finally going to the little pond? If that's the case, it is exactly what I intend to do.

Thanks for your reply.

[Meg]

you got it. your diagrahm has things in line properly but I took off one bottom drain

making it a bottom drain to nowhere from the little pond just so it is easy to clean out

skimmer on the larger pond right?

glad there are no rocks...it is a bear of a job pulling them out.
and that stuff on the bottom will be swept clean by the bottom drains

[Rich L]

Manifolds need to be quite large to reduse high vortexes which will increase friction that will lower the water flow potential. It's also a bear to balance the entering lines due to those vortexes. A minimun size is at least two sizes larger than the largest line entering.

Run all the lines directly and eliminate the manifold.

Also, when running a skimmer to the sump where you want it to share with BDs you should run the same sized line. Skimmers often fail to work well because the head needed to cause water to flow is larger than the head created in the sump due to the water provided by the BD.