FrankChong
Koi Lover
Mar 1, 2001, 3:34 AM
Post #9 of 22
(29129 views)
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Photograghs have been posted to webmaster. Lets wait for him to post at this site.
Photo A, give you an idea of space utilisation. Traditional filters need not be inground. It could be in the air, just like what I have done for my aeration channel. The photo shows the return channel built on top of my perimeter fencing. It does not occupy any land, in addition it enhances the aesthetic view of my fence. (I thought so)
This water channel was built with the intention of making a vegetation filter. I discarded the idea when the water hycynth died making the water stinks. The water channel was infested with snails which I could not get rid of until today. I am toying with hydroponic plants now or just add filter material.
In my initial design, I wanted to have facilities to expand my filtration capacity when the need arises. This is one idea to incorporate a water feature and to convert it into filter when needed. The water channel runs from rear fencing around the perimeter until the water return.
Photo B
Shows the DIY sand filter. Some hobbyist would have bad experience with sand filters already. It always clogged and is very hard to clean. This is true if one uses a standard swimming pool type sand filter for the job. A standard swimming pool sand filter is filled with fine sand particles capable of filtering particles down to 5 microns size. It is excellent in keeping swimming pool clean.
However, if one uses it in a koi pond. The sticky and slimy waste would clog up the filter in a couple of hours.
The DIY sand filter uses small marble chips, the type they us in making Terazo flooring tiles. Particle size is about 3 to 5 mm, this would prevent filter clog. If you need to buffer the water, use calcium carbonate chips. Possibilities are endless.
The five 1.5 inches ball valves are arranged to enable one to do backwashing, rinsing and normal filter operation. This filter though is compact in size but require daily backwashing. If you have a pond size of 1000 gallon, a sand filter drum size of 42 gallon should be sufficiently oversized. The advantage of using sand filter is that, there is no back breaking job of cleaning filter material. Just turn the ball valves, it would be backwashed discarding old and new waste in one go. The disadvantage is that you have to do it daily.
If you can spare the money, there is an auto backwash type available in the market now. This guy borrowed my idea after I complained to him that I need to spend Rm 12,000.00 to buy actuator valves to make an autobackwash system on the DIY sand filter.
This guy adapted his sand filter with a autobackwash mechanism and I believe is going for a couple of thousand ringgit.
Try the DIY idea, start with small budget, if it works then only think of auto version.
Note: The buble bead filter works on the similar pricinciple. The difference is, the plastic beads being light, floats. Pond water is pumped into bottom of filter container, water is filtered passing through the beads and discharged at the top of filter. The advantage of this system is, the waste could be drained and discharged easily. Plastic beads are light making it very easy to backwash.
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