Intex Easy Set Pool

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I have the pool set up and its filled with water, I am impressed with the amount of flow I get out of the cheapo filter it comes with. I bought a 39 gallon trash can and have started filling it with plastic wiffleballs, poly fill, and anything else plastic I cna find to throw in there. With the wiffle balls I decided that what I am sacrificing in surface area, I can make up for in flow through the wetdry thus getting a higher rollover.

I threw three goldfish in there today to start the cycle and added some bottled BB to the pool as well. I am using strictly well water so I am hoping that I dont have to deal with Dechlor, but have not figured out how to test for chlorine yet/found the kit. The water temperature is staying between 68-70 degrees, but the pool in not in direct sunlight and we havent had a stint of really warm days yet, however the next ten days are supposed to be in the 80s. I have also added five heaters (800-1000w total), I am scared that the heaters may melt the liner so I attached them to a plastic rectangular box with suction cups. Anyone have any ideas on the heaters messing up the liner? I imagine that I will start moving fish into the pond this time next week or sometime in early May. Also, its my birthday right now.
 
get fishing line from bait stores, all the old stuff they pull off of peoples reels when they buy new line. poly snow blankets (wrong season i know but maybe you could find some) they are like fake snow you can roll out onto your bushes to make it look like you have snow. its my secret Bio Media SHHH dont tell anyone.

also throw more goldfish in there to try to equalize the bioload to what you will be putting in there. 1 12" rtc is equal to like 50 feeder goldfish bioload wise.


get a small pond pump or a big power head, plumb the out line to a piece of pvc, add a t then add as many t's or y's as you need to have one out pipe for each heater. then slide the heaters into the pvc pipes, this will flow alot of water across the elements to dispurse the heat throughout the pond so there arent differences in the temp in differant parts of the pond. also helps keep the heaters off of the liner so you dont ever have to worry about them burning through it. plus with all that water rushing over them it will help keep there temperature down by transfering it all to the water and lengthining there life by not having them get so hot.


damn did i just write a book? you dont have to take my advise i just felt like spewing it onto a page for a few minutes ;)
 
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Love the pvc idea, that will also keep my fish away from them. I may be able to find something like the "snow" blankets at local craft stores, I will have to check them out. Any suggestions on how to make the reductions so that the pvc fits on the pump out put? I will be adding mature filters before the pond is up and running full boar. Whats a minimum constant temperature I should shoot for before adding my CA/SA cichlids?
 
i keep mine at 76 generally. they should sell reducing fittings right with the pvc pipe, probably in bins with elbows and caps and such. with the snow blanket make sure it doesnt have sparkles, you want the plain kind (its cheaper too.)
 
The water is now at 72 degrees, and climbing slowly but surely. I have just finished making the pvc "tree" for the heaters. I think I am going to rig it so that the pump is sucking water through the pipes instead of pushing water out of the pipes. It is going to be easier for me to make happen. I have also filled my 39 gallon trash can with media, which I hope to get pictures of later. I finally found plastic table to put in the pool and sit the filter on so that it will empty straight into the pool via gravity. I chose to do the filter this way because I feel that it is the safest way to ensure that there are no overflows, also it ensures that I do not end up pumping all the water out of the pool if a return pump were to fail.
 
Here are some pics of my progress thus far. Filter is up and running. Instead of using a drip tray I drilled holes in the tubing and wrapped it circularly around the inside of the trash can, its kinda like a ghetto spray bar. I do have one queston though, how should I run the cords of the heaters out of the "heater tree"? I was thinking about drilling a hole in the backside of each "branch" but I dont know if I like that idea that much though. Lemme know what you think. Please feel free to make suggestions.

earlypond.jpg

filter table.jpg

heater tree.jpg

pondmedia.jpg

pondtable.jpg

pondfilter2.jpg

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pondfilter.jpg
 
i would do whatever it takes to plumb the heater tree to the out side of the pump rather than the in. it will help to disperse the heat throughout the pond rather than drawing in water from across and then putting it all in one spot. it would still work and im sure you wouldnt have a problem it would just be my preference, that and i wouldnt want to be drawing the hot water into my pump, the more you keep the temp of your pump down the longer it will last. heat causes friction, even underwater.
 
what do you have for a prefilter? anything before the pump? if not i would recommend laying a sheat of filter media across on top of everything under the spray bar, something that you can easily remove to spray out the hard solids, and all the build up. as far as bio filter you look to be on easy street. just have to make sure the mech filtration is up to par. in a pond you will need ALOT of mech filtration.
 
I have laid the random carbon filter sleeves I have from forever ago across what I had left of the flourescent light cover thing. I will be adding the snow blanket or fliter roll stuff over the top once I locate some. I just needed to go ahead and get the bio side of things started. For mechanical filtration I will be moving my fx5 which is geared for all mechanical currently on a 125 out to the pond once the fish are ready to be moved out there.

The water temperature is at 74 degrees right now. I am going to check it in the am when I wake up to see what the low for the night was and if its still 74 the fish will be going out there very soon. I also added 50 comet feeders to kickstart the cycle.
 
are you getting good circulation? it seem like the water output is right next to the input.
 
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