Pond Project thread

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Demon_fish

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 6, 2006
809
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Peoria, Illinois
This is the project thread for the pond i want to build
i am in the planning stage and trying to figure out how to do everything so i know how much money i need.

my first question is about the filter.
i plan to do a wet/dry filter. i a have been reading up on them for a long time and they seem the way to go for someone like me who is on a bugget. First question: if the power goes out (which it usualy does around here once a year or so) i have thought about doing something like this which i think is how you are suposed. i want to connect some 30 gallon sumps to the main sump that contains the wet dry which i am thinking of using one of those plastic drawr system for. so i would put a bulkhead at the top of the each sump and connect it to a bulkhead on the bottom of the last two sumps. then at top of the last sump i would have a pipe rinning out to a drain in the middle of the room incase the sumps overflowed. does this make sence? do you think it will work?

my next quetion is about the out take for the filter. it will be a drain in the bottom of the pond. how far from the surface should the end of the pipe be? and i know this next question has been answered a million times before but when you need something you can never find it. How do you make sure that the pump doesnt have more watter coming in than is flowing out and vise versa?

thanks for your help,
you guys are the best and mfk is the greatest place to find fish info.
-max

oh yea i almost forgot. i am thinking about basing my wet/dry off this
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44314
 
Well it would help if you had a rough idea of how large you are looking to build; and also a drawing of your ideas.

As for the drain; the water in your pond wants to be at its lowest energy and will drain until it reaches equilibrium, ie the water will drain out of the pond and into your sump until the surface of the water in both the pond and the sump are at the same elevation. This is not always convenient.....

So depending on what your actual setup is you could use an overflow from the pond into the sump as long as the overflow had a greater capacity than your pump.... exactly what you would do for a wet/dry for an aquarium....

You could also use the pump to pump the water out of the aquarium and into the sump and have the sump overflow back into the pond.......

I am on my way out the door right now but I know there are threads here that have pictures that would be helpful to you, I ll try to dig them up when i get home.....

I am working on my own pond and these are some of the ideas I kicked around. I am also considering using pond canister filters, just waiting for the right deal to present itself.
 
i didnt read through my post because i was in a hurrry but i realiz i left out a lot. the pond will be 8' long, 4' wide, and 2'deep. That comes to a little over 450 gallons. what is better to use? an overflow coming out the side or a drain with a pipe sticking ou the bottom up twards the surface. i understand how to make sure that i dont have the out take taking more than the pump is putting in. i am working on the drawing tonight. my dad wants to be able to start seeds inside before spring to plant them so i might not even have to pay for the lights. and in my uncles barn i found some big two tube 8 foot florecent fixtuers. ill post more info later
 
Drawings will definitely help as I am still not sure what you are trying to express.

the problem with a gravity drain is that you are at the mercy of the static forces of the water...... get something on "paper" as soon as you can

You might find this helpful


http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=103294&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=525

I am very anxious to see what you have planned, this is a similar size to what i am doing: mine will be 8x4x3, I have the frame complete and most of the rest of the material, just need the time to put it all together
 
however when using a gravity drain and a system like the one in my previous post is that if your plumbing is sized correctly for your pump flow the water elevation in the whole sytem will be the same, and since your doing a two foot water depth that shouldnt be too inconvenient.......

the water would flow from your drain into the first container and rise to the elevation of the water in your tank, until the two are in equilibrium, overflow into the next container and over the bio media, the pump is at the bottom and returns the water to the tank.
 
wow i feel kinda bad doing this to you guys but we have a new plan. my dad knows a place we can get a clean 55 gallon plastic barrel. this will be the sump. we will build another stand for that to keep it at the same level as the pond. i will pump water up int a series of stacked 5 gallon buckets which are the wet/dry filter. i will install a bulkhead at the bottom of the barrel to return water. this also solves my problem with what to do if the power goes out because sump cant overflow if the pump isnt running. to make make sure the pond doesnt overflow i will instal a bulkhead at the top of the pond to drain water into a floor drain right next to the pond. this brings me to the next thing. we have a spot in the basement that was originaly set up to be made into a dark room. so i will have a spigot coming down to the pond and hanging over the edge a bit so i can just turn on the water and fill the pond up. to drain the pond i will have a pipe with a valve leading to the drain in the floor. ill explaim more later. will this work?
 
Let me see if i have this right....

you plan to pump water from the pond into a series of buckets that are filled with filter media and stacked inside the 55 gallon barrel. And this barrel is positioned so the bottom of it is at or above the top of the pond so that a bulkhead at the bottom will drain into your pond.

If the power goes out the sump cannot overflow because the pump has no power, and even though the sump will drain completely into the tank the tank will overflow directly into a drain.

Is that the gist of it?

If so what type of pump will you be using, if there is no filter before your pump you need to get a pump that can handle solids or prevent solids from getting into the pump inlet.

How many stacked buckets (height) do you plan on using, and what will be the elevation of the water in the sump? It might be a good idea to oversize the outlet of the sump and incorporate a valve to fine tune your flow. If you undersize the outlet the sump will overflow, and if you oversize it it will just be empty all the time. you want the flow out of the sump to be equal to what the pump is pumping in, you also want to maintain some water in the sump, (thats the whole point of having one).

theoretically it would work if you got the flow adjusted correctly; anybody have a second opinion, third, fourth.....
 
Yes you have the gist of it. i didnt mean that i would put the outlet at the bottom i meant to say somewhere in the middle. i will oversize the outlet so i cant overflow the sump. I compleatly forgot that i would need a pump that can handle solids thanks.the pump i want to use, the Supreme Mag Drive 18 Pond Pump comes with a spongw prefilter for just that reason. i plan to use two stacked buckets the first with foam and stuff for mechanical filteration and the last bucket will have shower scrubies for biological filteration which i may replace later with bioballs i dont know yet. then here is something i have wondered. what is a good way to hold up the buckets so the last bucket isnt sitting on the bottom and can drain from the bottom? i was thinking of hanging them from the lid of the sump but then it would be realy inconvinient to open the whole filter system up. below i have a drawig of he basic idea for the filter. i also have a diagram of the table we are basing the stand off of. everything will be beefed up to hold the weight of a 450 gallon pond.

btw i will be writing directions along with a series of pics on how to build this once it is done.
and also thank you for you help tuftobeat. MFK is the best:headbang2

Filter Plan008.jpg

stand.jpg
 
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