New project, will take a long time

[chloe]

You two will get me in trouble

BTW, Chloe I was going to suggest a trip around here at the meet as I'm 4 miles away, why I didn't write the phone number down I'll never know

u can only blaame urself! lol
well i think we will prob do it again....tbh as soon as i have another 150 available il be straight up on the next plane and im sure matt wouldmnt argue.
should do it when its warm and make a BBQ out of it....looks so cool!

 

[chloe]

That could be... ummm.. dirty... Literally

lol oooohhhh dear

 

[mrunlucky07]

I'm sorry but to me a window screen is a window, can you explain?

The Screen has the holes

The tricky part is you don't want to cover the end of a pipe with screen or netting because as soon as some leaves or gunk gets on it your flow will almost stop. You need something with a larger surface area than the pipe that will keep allowing flow as crud builds up. Here is a prefilter from a 5 gallon bucket and screen off another site:

I would say don't worry about the frogs for now. They will settle down in a few weeks and once your massive amount of bio is established it will eat them up like candy.

 

[Tequila]

I like the idea, not sure how I'd fit it in though. Thanks for the tip.

I'll get some pictures up to explain better

Yeah a photo or two may help explain what the heck your talking about at least to me it would. Because you keep saying between the vortex vats and I can't picture howor why there would be access to the system between the vats. But that may just be me.

Because I'm still having trouble understanding why you wouldn't have covers for these vats. And why you actually believe that running a liner under your deck, will be enough to cover these vats. With all that you have gone through why would you believe that simply having a liner fastened to the underside of a deck would work. All your vats would have to be prefectly level. Not to mention the vats would also need to be machined exactly the same, they would need to weather exactly the same and the bottom of the deck would need to be exactly the same as the fore mentioned for the vats.

You do understand that you cannot have any pressure from the above deck on the vats at all. C'mon the first over weight breakfast saugage guzzaling Moon Monkey that lands on your deck will cause one of your vats to split, and you think you have prolems now. So then you don't have a good snug fit for your liner covering at all times, so your back to where you started from just this time you have a deck over it.

 

[greengiant]

The Screen has the holes

The tricky part is you don't want to cover the end of a pipe with screen or netting because as soon as some leaves or gunk gets on it your flow will almost stop. You need something with a larger surface area than the pipe that will keep allowing flow as crud builds up. Here is a prefilter from a 5 gallon bucket and screen off another site:

I would say don't worry about the frogs for now. They will settle down in a few weeks and once your massive amount of bio is established it will eat them up like candy.

this is what I was talking about Mrunlucky is absolutly correct in that a larger filter is a better idea than a simple one that fits inside the pipe. these will also act as a filter for all the large debris so it will be a bit of a pita. the other option is a y strainer these are made to go inline and with varying sizes of screen available. all you need to do to clean it is shut off the water( or divert it through another one) and unscrew it. clean the Stainless screen and reinstall. we used these at work alot and ussually ran 2 in parallel so you could switch back and forth. this is likely the most space saving solution for you but will require getting cleaned more often than a larger canister type setup as suggested earlier..

 

[mrunlucky07]

Because I'm still having trouble understanding why you wouldn't have covers for these vats.

They are really not necessary, especially if its covered by a deck IMO. The surface area of the pond is huge compared to the tops of the filters. I was going to cover my filters, but really found no need. Its a pond, mow the lawn or have a tree within a half mile and stuff is going in. The tiny amount that finds its way under the deck to the filters isn't a concern. Latenight cannonballs with full beers, crazy chlorinated hot tubbers on unicycles, and flying pigs are a bigger issue.

Its a big pond, stuff gets in.

Maybe publish the process of using frogs to cycle instead of feeders?

 

[Yanbbrox]

The Screen has the holes

The tricky part is you don't want to cover the end of a pipe with screen or netting because as soon as some leaves or gunk gets on it your flow will almost stop. You need something with a larger surface area than the pipe that will keep allowing flow as crud builds up. Here is a prefilter from a 5 gallon bucket and screen off another site:


I would say don't worry about the frogs for now. They will settle down in a few weeks and once your massive amount of bio is established it will eat them up like candy.

this is what I was talking about Mrunlucky is absolutly correct in that a larger filter is a better idea than a simple one that fits inside the pipe. these will also act as a filter for all the large debris so it will be a bit of a pita. the other option is a y strainer these are made to go inline and with varying sizes of screen available. all you need to do to clean it is shut off the water( or divert it through another one) and unscrew it. clean the Stainless screen and reinstall. we used these at work alot and ussually ran 2 in parallel so you could switch back and forth. this is likely the most space saving solution for you but will require getting cleaned more often than a larger canister type setup as suggested earlier..

Thanks guys, I understand better now for the concept. I still fear what Mrul07 said about a single leaf. When I had the plant pots stuffed in this exact thing happened and the pump ran dry very quickly, if I wasn't in I'd be screwed. The only workable idea I can come up with mixing the ideas posted here is a tube that runs along the intake pipe all the way along the chamber to stop it coming out under pressure, as the wall would support it. Basically something along the lines of a chicken wire type design but it would run along the chamber and the far wall would stop it coming out. Allowing water to flow even if something plugged some of it, at the same time stopping wildlife and K1 getting through.

I'm concerned about maintenance of the filter sock type suggestions, things could go down hill quickly.

I'll sketch something up

 

[greengiant]

on most y strainers you can thread into the cap a drain. I don't know how it will work with the type of debris you are dealing with but we did this alot and increased the capacity of the strainer significantly. I guess the only way to know if this would work is to try it out. the sloped design of the y strainer is such that it basically is self cleaning. as the water goes through it it pushes the debris further into the y and if a chamber is added then into the chamber. just an idea.

 

[Yanbbrox]

Yeah a photo or two may help explain what the heck your talking about at least to me it would. Because you keep saying between the vortex vats and I can't picture howor why there would be access to the system between the vats. But that may just be me.

Because I'm still having trouble understanding why you wouldn't have covers for these vats. And why you actually believe that running a liner under your deck, will be enough to cover these vats. With all that you have gone through why would you believe that simply having a liner fastened to the underside of a deck would work. All your vats would have to be prefectly level. Not to mention the vats would also need to be machined exactly the same, they would need to weather exactly the same and the bottom of the deck would need to be exactly the same as the fore mentioned for the vats.

You do understand that you cannot have any pressure from the above deck on the vats at all. C'mon the first over weight breakfast saugage guzzaling Moon Monkey that lands on your deck will cause one of your vats to split, and you think you have prolems now. So then you don't have a good snug fit for your liner covering at all times, so your back to where you started from just this time you have a deck over it.

Each chamber has an inlet at the bottom and 2 outlets at the top(only one is used) At the moment anything is free to flow between each, hence the need to seal it off without a reduced water flow.

Covering the chambers is only to prevent debris getting in and trust me there will be no weight on the system at all. A liner under the deck will only stop water entering the system and protect the electrics, you forget that the gear I'm using is designed to be used in filter sheds/buildings by pro koi keepers and is not designed to be fully waterproof so electrical safety is very important.

The deck(when built) will be supported on the out side of the filter system not inside, no weight will fall on the system at all. As it stands everything is covered by liner now and nothing has proven to be an issue, I'm finding it hard to believe that this stuff is not water proof after taking it apart and accidentally dumping about 3 gallons on the pump

They are really not necessary, especially if its covered by a deck IMO. The surface area of the pond is huge compared to the tops of the filters. I was going to cover my filters, but really found no need. Its a pond, mow the lawn or have a tree within a half mile and stuff is going in. The tiny amount that finds its way under the deck to the filters isn't a concern. Latenight cannonballs with full beers, crazy chlorinated hot tubbers on unicycles, and flying pigs are a bigger issue.

Its a big pond, stuff gets in.

Maybe publish the process of using frogs to cycle instead of feeders?

I'm by no means an ecomentalist but I'd rather try and keep nature out where possible, the setup and filtration guys would be interested in the frogs to cycle idea I'm sure

Why do a nice cosmetic cover for no reason? I couldn't agree more

 

[Yanbbrox]

I forgot to post I was that concerned because I'd not seen the fish for 2 days that they'd run through the system so I ripped out all the jap mat out of chamber 3 and they didn't float to the surface. In short I need to prime the pump again