new pond design needs your feedbacks

[mitten]

And I compliment the design too. Kick it up a notch where you can and then have fun. Surely the Finance Minister is a little flexible.

I took a crack at mortar plastering the inside of my concrete waterfall. Results were adequate, but made the sanitred a lot easier and I have no leaks. Mortar is cheap and it would be a good way to achieve the measurement of 39 1/2 when using 8" block that measures 7 3/4.

Mickey the windowman

[Clay]

Hi Steve, my current pond construction has 4 pumps in the design for circulation and one trash pump to empty the sump that the filters empty into, so I believe in redundancy. I am also running Sequence pumps and they have 1 1/2" outputs but you put a simple adapter from 1 1/2" to 2" right out of the pump and then everything else is 2".

On the bioreactor this is a link to a commercial unit but you can easily make one: http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/...etail/iid/7831

Here is a simple line drawing of what I made for my indoor system out of a couple of 55 gallon barrels:

Here is the link to the slotted pipe: http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/...etail/iid/8550

Bioreactors or aerated K1 / Kaldness chambers are very efficient and there is 0 maintenance - I love mine. In the new pond I will incorporate a larger version based on William Limm's Wave 36 settlement chamber like the attached.

Rick

[dcny]

Hi Steve,

I realy like all of Rick's suggestions and as he said you can still use 2" plumbing w/ your existing pump. Just place the conversion as close to the pump as possible. You'll cut your head loss due to friction by half.

I understand what you're saying about getting too complicated with two pumps but you don't necessarily have to change your filtration components. I actually think it simplifies your design. You two circuits could be something like BD > spirex > bio chamber and skimmer > ultima > UV. The advantage here is that you have the greater mechanical filtration where you need it at the bottom drain. You can gravity flow that entire circuit. On your skimmer curcuit, you have you're pressurized equipment. This will allow you to size your pumps appropriately.

I'm not a big fan of matala for mechanical filtration because maintenance is such a manual process. Have you looked into building a DIY microscreen? It seems like that would be the ideal solution since you already have the spirex settlement chamber. Another option that is a simpler DIY project would be a static media filtration such as an Eazy. Both of these options would be alot easier to clean than matala. On the microscreen, you would just need to flush the settlement. On the DIY Eazy, you should just boil the media and then flush the settlement. A few minutes tops, no need to get wet.

For the skimmer, you can use an in-wall pool skimmer on the pond instead of a Savio. Using a pool skimmer gives you a small footprint and gives you alot of flexability.

-Dan

[Steve Nguyen]

Hi Mickey,

that's my bad. I do value your comments/compliment as well. I would say you kicked up a couple notches.

I am glad to hear sanitred is working. that gives me some confident in the product. I take it that no special applicator is needed other than a new paint brush and a tray. if you have any tips on how to apply sanitred, please send it to me. the instructions come with the product are not always best.

thanks,

Steve

Quote: Originally Posted by mitten And I compliment the design too. Kick it up a notch where you can and then have fun. Surely the Finance Minister is a little flexible. I took a crack at mortar plastering the inside of my concrete waterfall. Results were adequate, but made the sanitred a lot easier and I have no leaks. Mortar is cheap and it would be a good way to achieve the measurement of 39 1/2 when using 8" block that measures 7 3/4. Mickey the windowman

[Steve Nguyen]

Hi Dan,

I updated my drawing with 2" pipe as others suggested as well. thanks for the tip on placing the conversion close to the pump. it makes a lot of sense.

I received my good suggestions included those thru private messages. I like the setup Rick has a well but I will save some of these good suggestions for the next pond. it's true matala rolls in settling tank will require some manual clean up but settling tank will need some clean up anytime on regular basis during the feeding season so a few extra minutes is manageable. I'll try this out and post some update later a year later to see if my opinion change. I saw a microscreen setup in the settling tank at one of the local koi kichi guy's pond but I am not too crazy with application since manual cleaning still needed for the settling tank plus lost some of the water redirect back to the settling tank for the microscreen to work.

I like the suggestion on the pool skimmer. that's probably good enough for my setup.

Thanks,

Steve

[Steve Nguyen]

Hi Rick,

that bioreactor looks cool. it's big and look very sturdy. this is the way to go for diy project. how do you like your Sequence and Wave pumps? are they whisper quiet as compare to Artisian? I was a friend's pond and he has Artisian pumps. we stand a few inches from the pumps and can't even hear any noise at all. it's incredibly quiet. I was told that Sequence Primer and Wave Dragon are also very quiet but I have not see them in action to compare the noise level.

thank you for posting the pictures of your setup.

Steve

[Rich L]

If you decide on an easy for your mechanical filter, I have some sinking media similar to kladness you can have. I expect you will need about 4 cubic feet. That Sound right?

You should still have a settlement before to catch the larger stuff first.

[koiczar]

Steve

As far as Sequence Primer and Wave Dragon are concerned, they are equally as quiet as Artisian. I've had my Dragon 1/3 running for 4 years - I have to check the leaf trap to see the water flowing to know if it's running. IT'S THAT QUIET!!! Sequence are the same way. Both put out an incredible amount of water.

I agree with your philosophy about splitting the line intakes between your settling chamber and your skimmer. If you use a "swimming pool" skimmer, make sure it can handle the amount of flow you want.

I have been using a round Black Matala in my pump fed settling chamber. I added a piece of Jap mat on top as it wasn't catching all the solids prior to feeding my bio tank. When I clean this filter, I drain the tank down a few inches, hose off the Jap mat, then shake the Matala up and down a few times to release the dirt. Set it aside, drain the tank, hose it down, close the drain valve and BAM! done. Total time 8-10 minutes every 3 days during summer!! How hard is that?!?!?!? I'm still not totally happy with it however. I will be changing the black for blue so I only have one piece of media to clean. BTW, the pump picks the water up mid-level to feed this tank and you should see the waste it catches. Of course, like most folks, due to fish growth, I am now overcrowded and underfiltered - HaHa!! I'm probably going to change the configuration and incorporate an Ultima 6000 before the vortex,change the media to blue and bio from Jap mat to 1 blue and 1 grey round to get even cleaner water into the bio. It will actually end up increasing the bio value of the tank by 45%. Just have to wait till colder weather prevails and the water temps drop to around 50F.

See you at the meeting Saturday.

Mike

[Steve Nguyen]

Hi Mike,

Wow!! I didn't know Sequence Primer and Wave Dragon are also whisperly quiet. I am going to do some comparisions on electricity usage and pump rate to see what's the differences. there are prices to consider too.

Good point about the swimming pool in-wall skimmer. I didn't think of the flow rate. it definitely something I need to think thoroughly before installing one.


regarding matala rolls in settling tank, I kind of suspecting some solids might pass through black matala. that's why I was planning to have a green matala roll on top of the black matala roll but now I can change them to blue. thank you for sharing the experience.

I do have a question on your future plan of changing from current setup to 1 blue and 1 gray rolls. would that clog up?

thanks for the comments/feedbacks!

Steve

[dcny]

Steve,

You can simply drillout the bottom of the swimming pool skimmer increase the flow rate. I've seen seen conversions up to 4" for folks who want to gravity flow their skimmer. You can either use a bulkhead for smaller conversions or a flange for larger ones.

I've also seen people use large fernco fittings to do the conversion. I believe Steve Childers did this for this indoor tank.

-Dan