Yayyyy! Everything has arrived now (apart from the airpump forcing me to buy one from a local shop - another £10 gone lol!
So, the filter system:
3000 LPH pump
10000 litre pressurised filter
It is obvious that whether I run the pump inline or submerged (the pump is amphibious), there would need to be a cover over the end to prevent any of the fry being sucked up. I decided to simply pop the end of a pair of tights over the inlet pipe, which worked ok until it became clogged and I realised that it had clogged with particles within minutes.
So I went exploring my local hardware store for the solution, which I found in the garden planting section. What I decided to use was a hanging basket metal frame, which was shaped into a cone. I discarded the hanging chain and slid the tip of the cone down the leg of a pair of women's tights (it took some explaining to the girl on the checkout when I bought them!), and pulled the tights right over the entire cone. I tied a knot in the second leg and cut it away neatly.
I encountered another problem, as I put too much hose into the cone and it simply just sucked itself again the wall that was formed by the tights. This brought me back to square one, so I simply retracted the hose to leave just an inch within the tube, before securing the hole (the waist band of the tights) with a cable tie around the hose.
So here we have it, a £3 inlet cover that stops the fish being sucked up! It doesn't collect the debris but should clean the ammonia and nitrites from the water I hope!
And here is a picture of the pump and filter (the pump picture shows how I originally had just the hose covered with a bit of the tights)
So after waiting not too much longer, another knock at the door brought the moment I'd been waited for, the fry!
and it was quite an amusing encounter I have to say. I asked the deliver driver if he could wait whilst I check the fish are ok before I sign, incase any had died. He said, in a grumpy voice, "well what are you going to do about it if they have died?". Now obviously he was thinking there was no real need to check their welfare, but I am annoying flippant at times and without even a chance to consider stopping my mouth, I said, in a childish and sarcastic tone "well I think I'd break down and cry" lol! Anyway, the koi fry:
They are lost in the 1000 litre paddling pool! Less than 10mm long each and easily overlooked in the "pond", unless you know they're there and even then you have to look closely!
The biggest issue I had found now is that filtering the entire volume every 20 minutes was creating a massive whirlpool effect and really throwing the fry around, which I didn't think was healthy. I've overcome this by putting a 14 litre garden bucket under the outlet pipe, and since this sits an inch above the waterline, the water simply overflows gently into the pool. The massive added bonus is that it is now acting like a vortex in the bucket and really mixing a lot of oxygen into the water before it flows into the pool.
I will post pictures of this along with my brine shrimp hatchery at a later date
I hope this helps to clarify how I'm working this! And fingers crossed now
