At Last

[Gallagher]

Well I’ve finally started the pond. Most don’t know me I’m more of a lurker type but have posted a few things. Anyway since 2000 (when I ripped up the small water garden Koi pond) I’ve been keeping Koi inside. The reason? Mostly cost to bld a proper pond. But there’s also a certain amount of fear to take the plunge. As time goes on the more I learn the more I find that I don’t know, not to mention the cost increases incrementally with you knowledge base.
I’ve been collecting pond components over time and have the following:

2 -1/4 pumps
1 - 1/3 pump
3 - air pumps of varying sizes from 40 to 80 lpm.
2 - bottom drains that need to be fitted with air domes.
1 - Savio skimmer.
1 - 80watt Gamma UV
6 – 55 gallon drums
Various plumbing parts
1 - 12X23X6 foot hole in my backyard, w/ 7X11 filter pit.
Since I’m such an Einstein it’s all been planned out in great detail. NOT!
Really I’m more of the type that has the gen concept and vision in my head but have a hard time putting it down on paper. I just plug away at things and see what happens.

Last wkend I took the jump and this is what I have so far.
Feel free to chime in and help me with my vision.
Jim

[KoiCop]

glad you've finally taken "the plunge." I'm sure you're gonna enjoy it.

And be sure to keep us posted on your build.

[Steve Nguyen]

how exciting!!! btw, your filter pit is bigger than my pond.

don't know for sure but I think you will need more than 80W UV for this big pond.

Steve

[Birdman]

Looking good Jim, keep the pictures coming.

[koiczar]

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

[Gallagher]

Wkend 2


This wk I worked on getting the forms ready for the filter house and back wall. I also laid the 4” pipe for the bottom drains and 1” for the air lines. I also readjusted my vision and cut down on the size a little so I can have the thing sprayed with poly. The filter pit and footing for the back wall were poured yesterday. My brother came to help but wrenched his back 1yrd into a 3-yard pour (what a mess) I had to finish it myself. I was fighting time the whole way not to mention the H & H heat and humidity of 95/65.
To day it’s going to be worse.

Thank you all for your encouragement and understand that if I don’t respond to your questions in a timely manner it’s because typing is a two-thumb process for me. I’ll try the best I can.
First off, this will be an evolutionary process, since I don’t have unlimited funds …. Come to think of it the funds are quite modest, so I’m putting in place now, what would be difficult to impossible to change later.

That being said please don’t stop telling me what might be inadequate since this information may be put to use in the future.

The ‘right now’ plan is that the filter pit will house a5 to 600 gal vortex which will feed two banks of three 55 gal drums filled with kaldness, they will be fashioned similar to Murices, with the first chamber in each static followed by the moving beds. One return pump or two could pick these up. I’m not sure what would work best.

Thanks Mike for your suggestions. Where do you find a settling chamber that size?

[koiczar]

A settling chamber that I described would be formed/poured concrete. For what you pay for a "vortex" settlement chamber, you could pour it out of concrete and probably still save money! But if you already have the vortex, go ahead and use it. Also, now that you have explained in detail what the 50gal drums are being used for, you might be all right. I still think 3 pair instead of 2 sets of three will work better as less flow passes through each set per hour - BETTER CONTACT TIME!

Anyway, it's looking good so far. Appreciate the updates. Keep up the good work. Sorry to hear about your bro's back. That must have been fun!!?? NOT!!!!!!

[mitten]

The big blue tank, cone bottom, that was used in Uncle Tim's pond as well as all of the cone bottom tanks in Dunkel's Magic Filter Pit and all the cone bottom tanks in the AES catalog come from...Minnesota...so the shipping that kills us is a small cost for you. Try this polytank

Mickey the windowman

[Russell Peters]

Polytank's PT-316 would work very well, and would probably cost less than concrete. It gives you 500 gallons with a 45 degree bottom on the tank. Keep going, it looks like a great pond set up.

Russ

[Gallagher]

I'm not sure what happened to this web site but I'm glad it's back up and running.

It's been some time since I've been able to update my progress and tomarrow is the day we shoot the concrete, and I cann't sleep so let's see: block work is done on the filter pit and back wall. As you can see I re-evaluated and made the pond smaller not by much, mind you, but smaller. The skimmer is in, and the returns are plumbed through the walls.
Today we laid rebar for the shotcrete shell. did I mention I cann't sleep. I feel I'm in one of those dreams that you cann't wake up from. I'm really in over my head and there's no turning back now.
I do keep plugging along and it does resemble a pond??