Bottom Drain

[drjay9051]

Forgive my ignorance. I simply cannot understand this whole bottom drain concept. I looked at this link
http://www.nipponnishikigoi.com/node/288
but still lost.

I understand water flows from the bottom drain to the settling chamber and I suppose you open a valve periodically to drain the detritus from the settling chamber. Where in the system is the pump? Am I better offusing an external pump vs submersible?

I want to incorporate both a skimmer and waterfall as well as bottom drain. Can all three run off 1 pump? Pond will be about 2,500 gallon.

I cannot find multi chamber setups for sale like the ones illustrated in the above link.

Originally I was going to have water feed into a skimmer and from there travel to a waterfall for additional bio and mech filtration. I have been told bottom drain is important but I don't see how I can run all three (skimmer,drain,falls) off one pump.

Can anybody help me with this.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Forgive my ignorance. I simply cannot understand this whole bottom drain concept. I looked at this link
http://www.nipponnis...oi.com/node/288
but still lost.

I understand water flows from the bottom drain to the settling chamber and I suppose you open a valve periodically to drain the detritus from the settling chamber.
Where in the system is the pump? You can see the pump in each of those systems, it is after or in between the filter chambers.

Am I better offusing an external pump vs submersible? Usually people use external pumps in those systems simply because they are easier to service and most external pumps use less power to pump the same amount of water as submersible pumps.

I want to incorporate both a skimmer and waterfall as well as bottom drain. Can all three run off 1 pump? Pond will be about 2,500 gallon. A waterfall is easy to incorporate and any system, but running a skimmer and bottom drain together on one pump is tougher because it's hard to get the flow right for each. Better to use two pumps.

I cannot find multi chamber setups for sale like the ones illustrated in the above link.
Most people build DIY chambers from plastic drums.

Originally I was going to have water feed into a skimmer and from there travel to a waterfall for additional bio and mech filtration. I have been told bottom drain is important but I don't see how I can run all three (skimmer,drain,falls) off one pump. It can be done, but as I said, it's hard to get the flow just right, water always wants to take the easiest path and that usually is the bottom drain.

Can anybody help me with this. I just did a little, what else do you want to know?

 

[Craig58]

In the last diagram in your link, (which I assume is the one you were referring to), the inlet to the first chamber is lower in height then the pond height. Thus the pond drain works via gravity. I.e. A gravity fed system. The pump then pumps out of the last chamber, and then through a UV and back to the pond.

You can also have the pump between the bottom drain and the first chamber. The pump can suck or pull the water from the pond and than dumps it into the first chamber. Than usually gravity is used to return the water back to the pond.

The bottom drain works the same in either case but with the pump pulling water it will usually have a higher suction capability and pull more detritus from the pond.

In the example diagram you referred to this is usually considered a non pressurized system. The chambers are not pressurized and water pretty much flows through the system because the pump draws down the water level from the last chamber and the water flows in form the second chamber to replace it.

When the pump sucks the water from the bottom drain, it is usually a pressurized system using a closed tank of media in which the water is pushed through and than back to the pond. You can use a non-pressurized system and have the pump pull the water out and into the first chamber but you have to make sure that the gravity fed back to pond is capable of handling the water flow or you might find your open filtration tanks over flowing.

Each type of design has their good/bad features. A lot depends on where you want to place your filtration systems, the geography you have to work with, and the kind of capacity you need for your pond.

I hope this helps.

Craig