New House came with Koi Pond, pump troubles. HELP!!

[TPD2245]

My wife and I just bought a new house that came with a koi pond. It was doing well until a few days ago. We had a few things happen all at once. The water got murky, the fish knocked over a potted plant, and the pump for the skimmer box & waterfall is acting up. We got the plant vertical and talked to someone who told us they believe the murkiness is due to the previous home owner leaving with the UV light, which cause excess algae. So those to problems are pretty much resolved.

My BIG problem is when the water went murky, I also noticed the pump in the skimmer box was almost sucking air. I reached around the pump's intake and found it covered with muck, leaves, and pine cones. After cleaning it out, my waterfall, about 1 to 2 feet high, got a lot faster and louder! The problem I have is, it seems like the water is flowing WAAAAY too fast into the skimmer box. The level of water in the skimmer box is always a lot lower than in the pond itself, no matter how much water I add. So the skimmer flapper constantly lays down to allow water to flow into the skimmer. My pump is a Beckett 3500. It looks like the thing can move 3500 gallons of water per hour. But the person who looked at my pond said it looks to be about 1000 gallons. I was thinking about installing either a ball valve or a gate valve right after the pump before the water makes it into the pvc pipe leading it to the water fall. Is that a good idea or a bad idea? My filter is not adjustable, so this seems like the only way to slow the flow of my water.

Sorry for being so long winded! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[addy1]

That would help, not sure if restricting the flow, would in the long run, damage the pump.

Do you have a filter with this pond? Without one you will be fighting murky water constantly.

 

[TPD2245]

There were these pine brush looking things in the skimmer that the water passed through before going into the pump. From there, the water went through the pump, through pvc pipe to the waterfall. Before being pushed into the waterfall basin, there was some filter material that was caked in algae. We've removed that stuff and the pine brush looking things, and put some filter material in the skimmer box. It looks almost like a cheap air filter you'd buy for your furnace.

I don't think restricting the flow would damage the pump. Some other sites I went to recommended it, but I wanted to actually talk to some people about it first. I don't think it would damage the pump because, and I am no expert, just thinking outloud here, at 1ft it puts out 3500 gallons per hour, but if you make the water fall higher, the amount of water moved drops in half. I'm guessing the additional pressure from moving the water higher slows the flow of water down. So wouldn't I just be replicating a 8 ft water fall by adding some flow restriction?

 

[hewhoisatpeace]

Yes, as long as your valve is restricting water flowing from the pump, not the intake, you're ok.

Now the bad news. You've got no biological filtration going on here, so algae will be a recurring problem. If you have fish, they're gonna be hating life without the filtration of a bio filter. Check out the DIY section of the site, there are numerous cheap and easily constructed bio filters you can build with those guides. Good luck, and try to post some photographs, they help us to see what you're talking about.

 

[TPD2245]

Yes, as long as your valve is restricting water flowing from the pump, not the intake, you're ok.

Now the bad news. You've got no biological filtration going on here, so algae will be a recurring problem. If you have fish, they're gonna be hating life without the filtration of a bio filter. Check out the DIY section of the site, there are numerous cheap and easily constructed bio filters you can build with those guides. Good luck, and try to post some photographs, they help us to see what you're talking about.

My wife did put something in the waterfall that is supposed to support bio filtration. Sorry, I'm not up on all of the terminology yet so I don't know what exactly it is. She just told me she put something in that basin that does that. I'll try to post some photographs this weekend. Thanks again, everyone, for the quick responses.

 

[hewhoisatpeace]

Thing is, you can't just put something in to "support" biofiltration. Just check out the DIY section of the site, it will tell you exactly what I'm talking about.

 

[TPD2245]

I talked to her and she said it is something called "bio glass" or something like that. I'll check out the DIY section too. Thanks again. We also have a UV light on the way.

 

[bsr8129]

any filter media will have some sort of biofiltration to it, as long as the bacteria can grow on it.