New Koi Pond Change in plans

[ZenZilla]

Ok well my original plans were to dig out my current pond and make it more Koi friendly. What I mean by that is reduce vegetation, 4' deep, bottom drain, yada yada yada... Now we have decided to make that pond a water garden and just add goldfish and water flowers because we love the dragonflies it attracts Ok so on to the new plan .... 10' x 8' x 6' deep.. 3' under ground and 3' above using cinder block and epdm liner. I plan to box the cinder block in with cedar and a cedar bench around the ledge also. Supplies are already here Laguna max-flow pump, pondmaster 40 watt UV sterilizer, little giant SK5 skimmer/biofilter and still debating on returning the little giant bottom drain kit for a koi toilet. Yes these plans are all subject to change at any given moment based on new ideas or input relating to better design or ideas. I decided to do this one so it would be more dedicated to our koi

 

[ZenZilla]

Rough layout

 

[ZenZilla]

Location for dig.....

 

[Dave 54]

As a fellow koi keeper I'm looking forwards seeing your pond come to fruition
I'd use a bottom drain, three barrel filters attched after a slide valve, then use an inline pump to do the pumping placed after your last barrel , then after that your UV-C , prior to the water going back into the pond ,
This way you know that your pond is going to stay clean and ahead of the huge amount of waste koi pruduce in detritus
Dave

 

[ZenZilla]

As a fellow koi keeper I'm looking forwards seeing your pond come to fruition
I'd use a bottom drain, three barrel filters attched after a slide valve, then use an inline pump to do the pumping placed after your last barrel , then after that your UV-C , prior to the water going back into the pond ,
This way you know that your pond is going to stay clean and ahead of the huge amount of waste koi pruduce in detritus
Dave

Any recommendations of a good 3 barrel setup or good diagrams/pics? I have 2 55 gallon blue barrels in my garage now. Thanks

 

[Dave 54]

Cant go as far a a diagram but our own system has a 4"bottom drain then a 4" slide valve the water then goes into the bottom of a 32"vortex style settlement chamber and out of a pipe with a bend cut flush with the top of its pipe, this then goes down into our next filter a 32"vortex style filter with a portculis arrangement of Japp matting to allow water flow a large bag of zeolite and fie brushes , the water gous out og the top of this filter down to the bottom of the next filter another 32"vortex sstyle filter with the same jap matting arrangement but with a large sack of crushed oystershell and quilt batting , this goes along into a large barrel filter which is full of k1 and bio balls +bio chips and has a pipe verticle and drilled with hunderedsof holes and is capped at the top this then goes into a right angle out the bottom of the barrel and connects to our inline pump then out from there through another angled bend into our UV-C then out into the pond not all have 2" slide valves fitted at the bottom for purging except the bio filter
The sytem is gravity fed and two purges of the vortex cleans out the bottom drain nd takes out approx 40% of water which we then replace .
All filters are cleaned three times a year purged from the bottom and we can isolate each filter from the rest to do this , they are cleaned by pressue washing the portcullis style jap matting which is stitched together with heavy duty nylon thread , they are pressure washed then replaced into the filter after the filter has been cleaned and purged .
There is very little work involved which is good for me and my disability leg wise .
Hope this helps I can if you wish post some photos of the filtration unit and Jap matting to help you visualise everything ?

Note the barrel filter we use is a replacement for a 4th 32" vortex style filter that sprang a leak each filter has three airstones running apart from the barrel filter whichhas six the air is supplied by an airtec 40e air pump , we run another via a hose pipe to the bubbler in the pond , each line has a stop valve to prevent water tracking down into the airpump apart from the one supplying the bubbler

Dave

 

[ZenZilla]

Cant go as far a a diagram but our own system has a 4"bottom drain then a 4" slide valve the water then goes into the bottom of a 32"vortex style settlement chamber and out of a pipe with a bend cut flush with the top of its pipe, this then goes down into our next filter a 32"vortex style filter with a portculis arrangement of Japp matting to allow water flow a large bag of zeolite and fie brushes , the water gous out og the top of this filter down to the bottom of the next filter another 32"vortex sstyle filter with the same jap matting arrangement but with a large sack of crushed oystershell and quilt batting , this goes along into a large barrel filter which is full of k1 and bio balls +bio chips and has a pipe verticle and drilled with hunderedsof holes and is capped at the top this then goes into a right angle out the bottom of the barrel and connects to our inline pump then out from there through another angled bend into our UV-C then out into the pond not all have 2" slide valves fitted at the bottom for purging except the bio filter
The sytem is gravity fed and two purges of the vortex cleans out the bottom drain nd takes out approx 40% of water which we then replace .
All filters are cleaned three times a year purged from the bottom and we can isolate each filter from the rest to do this , they are cleaned by pressue washing the portcullis style jap matting which is stitched together with heavy duty nylon thread , they are pressure washed then replaced into the filter after the filter has been cleaned and purged .
There is very little work involved which is good for me and my disability leg wise .
Hope this helps I can if you wish post some photos of the filtration unit and Jap matting to help you visualise everything ?

Note the barrel filter we use is a replacement for a 4th 32" vortex style filter that sprang a leak each filter has three airstones running apart from the barrel filter whichhas six the air is supplied by an airtec 40e air pump , we run another via a hose pipe to the bubbler in the pond , each line has a stop valve to prevent water tracking down into the airpump apart from the one supplying the bubbler

Dave

Dave thanks so much for the input yes any pics you can share would be GREAT so do you recommend isolating them as in this pic?

 

[ZenZilla]

I also ran across this info doing some research

 

[Dave 54]

laying bottom drain ready for attachment of pond

Base for filters

Filters in position

Pond in possition

Pond and filters joined for first time not down pipe for bybbler and slide valve

Connections fitted ( note Jap matting Portcullis arrangement )

Bio filter pre barrel filter after leak

Pond fully connected not with pump as of yet but you can work that out you can also see the 2" slide valves at the bottom of each filter , these we joined to gether with 2" pipe through four way connector then ran a 2" pipe straight to drain
This is all very similar to what your doing but on a larger scale filtration wise , the vortex or pre filter is a most important filter as it collects all the larger waste produced by the koi and not much gets past it to your other filters apart from finer particles .
With the 2" valve each filter can be drained on its own and the filter medium removed for cleaning whilst the filter itself is being cleaned then if you find a way to isolate each filter from the other with no loss of water then after washing the bungs are taken out and the water is free to flow again once the pond has been topped up


Dave

 

[ZenZilla]

That's awesome Dave Thanks so much I purchased all of the schedule 40 PVC today. I figured with the rainy weather today it would be a great day to start the drum filters in the garage. Digging in the mud does not sound fun today when it's 38 degrees out so I will pass haha so maybe start digging tomorrow

 

[Dave 54]

That's awesome Dave Thanks so much I purchased all of the schedule 40 PVC today. I figured with the rainy weather today it would be a great day to start the drum filters in the garage. Digging in the mud does not sound fun today when it's 38 degrees out so I will pass haha so maybe start digging tomorrow

Did you work out how the Jap matting portcullis is made ? I hope it showed enough for that if you wish me too I can add other Photos as work progressed
Weather somewhat better here in the UK overcaste but with sunny periods spent the afternoon doing routine vortex clean and 40% waterchange then made a lid for the vortex ( they dont supply 32" lids ).
Thats all the filters covered over against the summer evapouration that is to come .
All I need do is then remove a small panel on the roofing of the filter housing and we have cooling air.going in the fiter housing as just under the policarbonate roofing I recorded an in air temperature of 50c last year and this is a newly designed roofing which should hopefully keep that down a bit this year .......

Dave

 

[callingcolleen1]

I have two big 100 gallon rubbermaid cattle troughs and I am thinking about adding them to my pond system, and sticking a big yellow flag in it, that way I would have more water and another place for plant filters.
I like your deck with the white flowing curtains. Your plans look good and cannot wait to see how your pond looks when you are done!

 

[ZenZilla]

Did you work out how the Jap matting portcullis is made ? I hope it showed enough for that if you wish me too I can add other Photos as work progressed
Weather somewhat better here in the UK overcaste but with sunny periods spent the afternoon doing routine vortex clean and 40% waterchange then made a lid for the vortex ( they dont supply 32" lids ).
Thats all the filters covered over against the summer evapouration that is to come .
All I need do is then remove a small panel on the roofing of the filter housing and we have cooling air.going in the fiter housing as just under the policarbonate roofing I recorded an in air temperature of 50c last year and this is a newly designed roofing which should hopefully keep that down a bit this year .......

Dave

Made a few adjustments to my plan possibly only 2 barrels for now untill my funds allow one of the barrels is complete. Was curious how the holes are made in the matting also are there multiple layers ?

 

[ZenZilla]

I have two big 100 gallon rubbermaid cattle troughs and I am thinking about adding them to my pond system, and sticking a big yellow flag in it, that way I would have more water and another place for plant filters.
I like your deck with the white flowing curtains. Your plans look good and cannot wait to see how your pond looks when you are done!

Thanks so much CC1 I will post lots of pics...I just have to keep in mind that I need to hide my barrels and thinking about clumping bamboo or planting it in metal troughs and bury them to prevent runners and spreading.

 

[sissy]

you will need to think a way to hide all that stuff as it can be an eyesore and you need to think about leaking .I sure would not like to look at all that stuff it kills the enjoyment of your pond .Plus if you have neighbors close they may complain if they have to look at it .You have to think about pipes freezing also