On Sat, 7 Aug 2010 09:20:53 +0000, roboticnat wrote:

i need to empty all the water out of it as it has been left turned off
for a long time and its very dirty and smelly
does anyone know how to do that?

The pipework routing isn't clear from the pictures but you need to
trace it. There will be a line coming from the pond via a pump. I would
expect this to go to the vortex tank first. The vortex tank should have
a drain near the bottom with some sort of valve on it.

The water comes into the vortex tank via an off centre pipe in the
side. It fills the tank and overflows out of the pipe sticking up in
the centre. That should then go to the big tanks with the filter media
in them. Once the water passes through them it should exit via a pipe
to return it to the pond.

I would also expect pipework and a valve towards the bottom of these to
drain them. It's possible that they simply drain into the hole they are
in and that there is/was a pump to empty that to a drain somewhere.

All of the little lines going into the multi bay box are probably for
air.

Bear in mind that it may not be complete. You can pull the filter
material out and wash then under the hosepipe but once it's running
bacteria populate these and the must then be washed in pond water. The
chlorine/chloramine in tap water will kill the bacteria.


--
Regards - Rodney Pont
The from address exists but is mostly dumped,
please send any emails to the address below
e-mail rpont (at) gmail (dot) com