hi
due to technical problems i might need to have my bottom drain fed by pump to my filters as i might ned to have them about a foot higher than pond is this possible or a good idea please?
cheers
giorgio
bottom drain fed by pump
Moderators: B.Scott, vippymini, Gazza, Manky Sanke
Re: bottom drain fed by pump
Hi Giorgio
When you say a foot higher, do you mean the water level in the filters will have to be a foot higher than in the pond?
From my limited experience, it is possible but if you are using a conventional multichamber filter it is undesirable because instead of being able to rely on gravity to separate larger solid waste (fish poo, debris, etc) in your vortex or settlement chamber, it will all get mashed up by the pump. This makes it more difficult to remove without using some sort of sieve or other device that can remove fine waste, thus making the mechanical filtration much less efficient, resulting in more contamination of the biological filtration stages. Even if it is more immediate grief to make sure the filter is gravity fed, it will provide you with a much better solution and far less maintenance in the long run.
On the other hand if you are using bead filter or a sieve, then it doesn't make any difference because these are pump fed anyway and again the only problem would be if you were using a vortex or settlement chamber in front, because the maceration of waste by the pump will render them inefficient.
In either case you will need to make sure that you use a solids handling pump.
Cheers
Jon
When you say a foot higher, do you mean the water level in the filters will have to be a foot higher than in the pond?
From my limited experience, it is possible but if you are using a conventional multichamber filter it is undesirable because instead of being able to rely on gravity to separate larger solid waste (fish poo, debris, etc) in your vortex or settlement chamber, it will all get mashed up by the pump. This makes it more difficult to remove without using some sort of sieve or other device that can remove fine waste, thus making the mechanical filtration much less efficient, resulting in more contamination of the biological filtration stages. Even if it is more immediate grief to make sure the filter is gravity fed, it will provide you with a much better solution and far less maintenance in the long run.
On the other hand if you are using bead filter or a sieve, then it doesn't make any difference because these are pump fed anyway and again the only problem would be if you were using a vortex or settlement chamber in front, because the maceration of waste by the pump will render them inefficient.
In either case you will need to make sure that you use a solids handling pump.
Cheers
Jon
Re: bottom drain fed by pump
stating the obvious-- can you not dig a hole to drop the filter into??another option would be to gravity feed into a vortex then pump up into the higher filter level. this will mean you allow the vortex to remove the larger solids before the pump mashes them, but will mean that your filter outlet will have to be higher than the pond level to allow a gravity return. depending on your filter will not be pretty
gravity inlet = pumped outlet
pumped inlet = gravity outlet
another option would be to build a block filter then it can be anysize /height you need it to be.
good luck