suspended particles ??

carlejo · Post by **carlejo** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:21 pm

Hi all, my pond has been running now and it will be 3 weeks this monday....water was like pea soup as over winter it had no filtration, UV etc, lots of leaves had blown into pond over winter but thankfully it is now virtually crystal clear.

I have 4 koi of approx 22" and one smaller koi approx 8".... the koi have settled in fine(touch wood) and are feeding well.... for obvious reasons, I'm not going too mad with the feeding(nitrogen cycle, etc) but there is one slight thing bugging me is the amount of fines in the water.

Now I may be being over fussy but to me I want pond totally clear with no 'bits' in the water at all... the bits really are tiny and I wondered will these eventually settle out ?... is it a cse of waiting or trying something now ?

pond is approx 3800g, with 36" vortex(completely empty) as main settelment and then 24" vortex which has just been commisioned today as a K1 fines stopper.Then the bio stage is a nitritech 911 system(3 vortices) the first 2 vortices converted to take aerated K1, and then last chamber is large j/matt cartridge.The skimmer has no filter on it at all, it just pulls through skimmer basket(some filter wool in basket) and then to pump and back to pond....both pumps(skimmer and main filters) are sequence 2450 gph, throttled back slightly.

Thanks in advance
Carl

fisherman · Post by **fisherman** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:33 pm

Hi Carl
have a read of this thread about sand filters
http://www.koiquest.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.p ... ght=#46566

carlejo · Post by **carlejo** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:46 pm

I have toyed with the idea of a sand filter but it the running of it that bothers me a bit... they need powerful pumps.. will read article now.. cheers

carlejo · Post by **carlejo** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:53 pm

"You do not need a powerful pump to operate a sand filter. If the bed of sand is only as thick as is necessary to cover the laterals, a low power pond pump will be powerful enough to pump water through it. More importantly it will also be powerful enough to stir up the sand and properly fluidise it during cleaning"

would a sequence 2450 gph be ok on a sand filter with a little amount of sand covering the laterals ?

cheers
Carl

fisherman · Post by **fisherman** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 12:01 am

Hi Carl
If you go to the essex section web site Syd (manky sanke) and ask him a question he will answer you it may take time as he will be helping to put up the essex show
link http://www.essexsection.co.uk/Manky_Stuff/manky_stuff.html

and syd will be testing the water at the show for quailty and letting the water team know if the vats need a water change

essex show details www.essexsection.co.uk

carlejo · Post by **carlejo** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 1:11 am

found these on ebay..

this one is about 30 mile from me
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Sand-filter_W0QQitemZ ... dZViewItem

and this one is about 80 mile from me
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EMAUX-V-SERIES-SWIMMI ... dZViewItem

what do you think guys ?

Bob Hart · Post by **Bob Hart** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 6:45 am

Carl,

Hasnt the static K1 removed a lot of the fines now?????

You're on a quest which I can see is going to cost you a few bob! You can of course get a cartridge filter which you could put on your skimmer line. They will take out all the fines you want, but you'll have to clean it very regularly.

There wont be many people to advise you on using a sand filter, I only know of 1 person who uses one. That's Amir (Red Koi), worth droppinghim a PM see how he uses his. At one time he was using a 1 HP pump on it, electric meter was spinning! He may have changed this now though, so worth asking.

Personally I dont worry about a few 'bits', every time I feed the Koi I'm adding bits to the water and the Koi do have to poo!!!!!

carlejo · Post by **carlejo** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 8:18 am

Bob... I'm being really picky here as the bits are really tiny, it's just that when the sun shines into the pond(fat chance of that at the moment) you can see the particles.

I read the above link that fisherman has provided from mankysanke and it seems that a powerful pump is not really needed.If this is the case then I may go down the sand filter route if I can one cheap enough.

The static K1 was only commisioned yesterday as the pond was clearing the green water, the green water/algae was always blocking the K1 within minutes and starving the pump..... now the pond is clear I've decided to give static K1 a go and see what it catches.

I was also thinking of giving this a try

[img]http://www.koipix.com/gallery/albums/userpi ... 9/ab_2.jpg[/img]

for the price of what it is, this is what I intend to try.

on the exits from the 36" and 24" vortices, I was going to have a horizontal piece of 4" pipe with lots of slots cut into them lengthways and then 'wrap' one of these around the pipe.... like coiling it all around the pipe(if you know what I mean).... I would have thought this would stop the smallest of particles.

I know it will be maintenance, but what isn't thses days.... the 4" pipe would not be glued into position as they would need to be removed and then clean down with a hose, cheaper than a SF........what do you think ?
cheers
Carl

Bob Hart · Post by **Bob Hart** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 8:30 am

As you said, lots of maintenance!!!!!!

Give the Static K1 a go first, see how good that is.

The sand filter with low wattage pump may well work as well.

Your pond is still relativly new though, it will mature the longer it's been running. I dont think you'll ever get sparkling gin clean, no particle water though. Mine looks good at it's best, but if I put my face close the the water, I can spy some bits in there.

carlejo · Post by **carlejo** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 8:39 am

cheers Bob.. what do you think of the idea of mine though ?.... it would work, wouldn't it ?.... I've bought the filter brush(102"x 4"), just waiting for it to turn up!!
cheers
Carl

Bob Hart · Post by **Bob Hart** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 8:42 am

Brushes catch lots of crap, cleaning them is a nightmare though. Ideally have two so you can change easier and clean up at your leisure

I got rid of all my brushes a couple of years back, fed up with getting wet cleaning them! Static K1 is better and easier to clean, in my opinion.

carlejo · Post by **carlejo** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 9:23 am

that was the plan Bob... to have a few of these long brushes and 4" pipe and take if off and just replace with a clean one.... dirty one could then go in washing machine on a spin cycle....don't tell the Mrs

Gazza · Post by **Gazza** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 10:39 am

Hi Carl,

Could you not convert the empty vortex to static K1 like a type of Easy

If you did do this you would have no extra running costs as it all works on the same system all you will have to do is segregate the K1 and install an air line with a isolator from one of you other air lines to agitate the K1 when cleaning.

kimr · Post by **kimr** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:48 am

Hi Carl

I have to agree with Bob and Gazza, making a homemde easy in the first vortex will really help with the fine's. When my pond was built last year the water was pant's. I had a large vortex which then pumped upto a Bakki shower filled with alfragog. The water was awful, I made the easy and with in a week you could see to the bottom and the water was much much better. Like Bob said you'll never stop the fine's totally because of the food and the poo, and if you fit a cartridge filter onto the skimmer line it will help alot and although you will have to clean it on aregular basis it wont be as much as the brushes (and it will save the washing machine).

Good luck with whatever you choose

carlejo · Post by **carlejo** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 1:51 am

Hi Gazza/Kimr... water goes directly from BD to a 36" diam vortex.... then to 24" diam vortex... and then to 3 x bio vortices.... are you saying build a home made easy in the first vortex or the second ?..... the only downside is that it would have to be precisely made(for the large vortex) as it's a big vortex to dump that amount of water......... I do dump both vortices on a daily basis and these take about an hour to top .... if I could make an easy in the larger vortex it would have to be self contained with probably 2" pipework to waste so that it can be drained down independently of draining down all of the vortex........ the only problem is finding something suitable to make it work.....
cheers
Carl