koiguys 70 gal skippy style filter

[pondlover]

Koiguy what did you use to attach your waterfall weir to your liner? Did you place your liner in between the tank & weir and then silicone with screws?

 

[koiguy1969]

my liner isnt fastened on to the tank...there is.no need! but you can seat,or sandwich it between the tank and weir. but myself, if i had to, i would just cut another strip of the HDPE plastic and fasten it as i would with the weir, an inch or so under the weir.

 

[pecan]

Great thread Koiguy! Thanks!

I started building 100 and 70 gallon last night. I finished the inlet T at the bottom pushing the water two different ways and cut the grates for both. I am glad I only went that far since reading this I may want to change things a bit. I like the idea of not using the toilet flange, but not sure if I want to use a weir (sp?). I am going to have to look around the local HD and see if any good ideas jump out at me. Also the T at the top of the inlet is a great IDEA! I think I will return my two elbows and grab a couple T's instead. I did not purchase a nipple reducer but instead bought those black things with the screws on each side. Sorry I don't know what any of this stuff is called. The elbows I purchased for the top have a male and female end. I was going to tighen the black thing onto the male end and onto my hose. This way I just unscrew a couple screws to unhook the assembly. Not sure if that is a good idea or not, but it's over the tank so I figured if it leaked no big deal right?

I have the same sort of dirt going on behind my falls as you do. I pilled it up there as we dugg the hole for the pond. I think I'll dig holes out for my filters. It will take some tricky planning to fit both the 100 and 70 gallon back there.

 

[sissy]

You can use concrete block to hold back the dirt and it will give you filters a nice safe place to sit inside part of the falls .I just stacked my concrete block and pounded rebar down inside and packed them full of dirt .Retaing wall block works great also .Lets you tuck the tanks into the dirt .

 

[koiguy1969]

DOING MY DIG IN THE FALL...I PILED MY DIRT FROM THE DIG....CHOPPING UP THE CHUNKS AS I WENT. AS I PILED THE DIRT, I SPRINKLED IT WITH THE HOSE,AND USED A HAND TAMPER TO PACK IT DOWN. KEPT IT DAMP, AND KEPT IT COVERED FOR THE WINTER. BY SPRING IT WAS AS SOLID AS ANT PLACE IN THE YARD....I JUST DUG MY HOLE TO FIT THE STOCKTANK AND LEVELED THE BOTTOM OF THE HOLE WITH SAND.

 

[sissy]

If you have good solid soil that works great .I have mostly clat soil and it works to pack it solid but i have sandy mixed soil in some spots where I dug my pond and that does not pack as good .I never saw so many mixed kind of soils like I have here .In NJ I just had nice rich soil because the house was built on what used to be a blueberry farm .Neighbors across the street used to own and farm all the property there .Here the soil is either full of rocks or sandy or hard packed clay .I thought when I moved down here it would be great for gardening ,well wrong on that one .I have had to ammend the soil just to get grass to grow as this was all scrub pine at one time .I guess you will have to see if you can pack your soil for the filters good enough to keep it from caving in .I had to use concrete block to build up the waterfall also ,not enough clay soil left in that area to keep it stable enough .I guess you would know your soil better and can find out if it will hold its shape through a heavy rain .

 

[pondlover]

Koiguy do you know what would cause the water to briefly almost surge from the anti-syphon pipe? Mine did that briefly the other day for what seemed like no apparent reason.

 

[koiguy1969]

PL....sorry this question took so long to get an answer, just now saw it....but mine will do that when i first turn on the pump for 5 -10 seconds...it goes down. it may take a second for the water to get flowing out the swirl pipes at a steady rate when the tanks full and it has to fight the water pressure at the bottom of the tank. if it doesnt stop in 10 seconds or so you can put your hand over the open end of the anti-syphon tee for a few seconds. this increases the pressure behind the water flowing in, and helps it get going. if you decide your gonna add bottled beneficial bacteria, that opening is a good place to do it. so it can go down and flow up thru your media giving it a generous amount to coat and colonize. heres what i believe to be an easy solution to that problem...i think i may try this on mine.

as the water enters the antisyphon tee and down pipe some of the water in the pipe some may be forced to take the path of least resistance (up) now with this simple idea i have i think that problem would be tackled. all you'll need is a few inches of the pipe that will fit your tee connector and a end cap for that pipe. they make flat and rounded, or concave caps, you want the rounded. and a piece of the extra light grid or something similar cut to fit inside the female end of the TEE. put that piece in and slide the little piece of pipe down on top of it.( its only purpose is to keep the ball up in the area you want it in.) you could even use a piece of netting over the bottom end of the piece of pipe. anyways drill a hole in the center of the cap and debur it. so the ball can seat up against it tighter. you want to use a ball thats a little smaller than the pipes inside diameter, and can move freely in the assembly. when the water rises up into the assembly it pushes the ball up to plug the hole. the rounded cap will naturally make the ball rise to the center of it. so drill your hole in the center. i'm quessing a 3/4" hole would work well, but i have yet to make one. you may want to play around with the hole starting small and getting larger till you find the one that your ball seats best to...as long as the water isnt up pushing the ball against the hole the air break is open and the antisyphon affect is active.
***i hope my explaination, and diagram of this is adequate for instructional build purposes.

 

[koiguy1969]

i just want to correct my diagram labeling of the ball...any ball that is bouyant would work . it wouldnt have to be hollow plastic. in fact, i would think a softer rubbery ball that floats would seat uo to the hole better.

 

[pondlover]

Thanks Koiguy. I think that is something we may try. I was thinking that the ball I could use would be a pingpong ball. I did buy some beneficial bacteria and I like the idea to pour it in the anti-syphon pipe.

 

[taherrmann4]

Go buy one of those cheap playballs for $1 and let the air out enough to make it fit.

 

[koiguy1969]

just a tip... put your bottom swirl bars so the elbows touch the wall or are real close. not aimed at the wall. this will give a smooth flow along the wall for a good swirl. it looks like y2kdejesus has his where the water will shoot out and hit the wall almost straight on. this wont give a swirl. (post #26) i ended up using 45* elbows and they hit the walls just before the rounded ends.instead of 90* elboes halfway thru the rounded ends. this is ideal for a smooth transition, and wall following flow, creating a nice swirl to the water. (see pics)...the smoother the water flows onto the walls the smoother and more effective the swirl or vortex action. (thats one reason why square or rectangular "cornered" tubs dont work near as well.)

 

[mew5280]

I thought I would share my Skippy filter upgrade. Last year my homemade filter completely cleared the pond after 7 years of green murky water. However, I used a large rubbermaid container, not a stock tank. The photo below shows the result a year later. Next photo shows the upgrade to the 70 gal stock tank. MUCH better. I was able to use the same pipe configuration, had to use new egg crate light stuff and lastly, I'm trying hydroponics on part of the filter with herbs and lettuce. So far the lettuce is doing really well. I now have to covered with some mesh to keep the birds from nibbling it.

The old filter:

New filter using 70 gal stock tank:

Lettuce and herbs (lower part of the photo, the majority of plantings in there are water parsley which maybe you can eat but it's there for filtration)

And some fish:

 

[pondlover]

Koiguy,
Is this what my filter is supposed to look like? Do I need to rinse the media or leave it? Does it look like I have enough media in there?



My pond is pea soup right now. It's to early for our nursery to have any water hyacinth or water lettuce. My lilies seem to be putting a new pad on the water surface every day. :razz:

 

[koiguy1969]

i have mine filled with media and a grid on top to keep it in... i did use media bags, but just for a short time. they allow channeling of water between bags and dont allow as much media in ther filter. i cant tell you if youve got enough media. if your tests are good its likely you do. but myself, i'd rather put it in as much as possible for good measure...more surface area for bacterial colonization. and trapping particulates....sure the media bags make easy work of removing the media, but i dont mind. the 2 times a year i move it between filters is the only time i ever mess with it, and i've never rinsed mine...if you decide to rinse .. you should never rinse your media with anything but pond water. if that. altho you can wash it out if your gonna remove and store it for the winter