HELP: Koi pond filtration ideas

Lots of us have gone for veggie filters. Have you the room to put one
or more in? Ours on the berm have bottom drains. Easy flush...open a
2" port. You could put a submersible on the bottom of your pond and
push the water up a pipe to a berm and falls. You could pretty much
hide the pipe by letting algae grow on it. We have no mechanical
filtration beyond the roots of many plants. If you could lay a veggie
filter alongside your pond, it would look like a grass bed...20" up as well.

People have gone to burried barrels...lots of hassle cleaning.

First off, I agree the veggie filter is a good way to go, but hey, if you
don't have a barrel system, no put downs please. ;o)

I clean my pre-filter only 3-4 times/season and it only takes 45 minutes,
the bio-chambers I clean once/year (and one of them runs all year around).
When I took it apart just a few days ago, it really didn't appear to need
cleaning, but we did it anyway. *My Filter* www.jjspond.us

Currently the lids for my system should come next week, I'm excited.

Now if money (and space) were no object I'd tell the OP to look into a
Vortex filters, imo. ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

Hi Jan,

I don't mean to put down your barrels. As I remember it, they were out
of the ground. DC was talking about in-ground or easily hidden filters.

As I see it, buried barrels at ground level would be a lot of hassle to
clean! That was my reference.

Jim

~ jan JJsPond.us wrote:
Lots of us have gone for veggie filters. Have you the room to put one
or more in? Ours on the berm have bottom drains. Easy flush...open a
2" port. You could put a submersible on the bottom of your pond and
push the water up a pipe to a berm and falls. You could pretty much
hide the pipe by letting algae grow on it. We have no mechanical
filtration beyond the roots of many plants. If you could lay a veggie
filter alongside your pond, it would look like a grass bed...20" up as well.

People have gone to burried barrels...lots of hassle cleaning.


First off, I agree the veggie filter is a good way to go, but hey, if you
don't have a barrel system, no put downs please. ;o)

I clean my pre-filter only 3-4 times/season and it only takes 45 minutes,
the bio-chambers I clean once/year (and one of them runs all year around).
When I took it apart just a few days ago, it really didn't appear to need
cleaning, but we did it anyway. *My Filter* www.jjspond.us

Currently the lids for my system should come next week, I'm excited.

Now if money (and space) were no object I'd tell the OP to look into a
Vortex filters, imo. ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

On Sat, 30 Jul 2005 20:18:52 -0500, Phyllis and Jim Hurley
wrote:

Hi Jan,

I don't mean to put down your barrels. As I remember it, they were out
of the ground. DC was talking about in-ground or easily hidden filters.

Nope, they're buried, only 2" of rim is above ground, takes up 4X4 space,
but OP wouldn't need 4 barrels. I'm putting 2 on my 1,000 gallon lily pond
(when I can get the guys to move in that directions).

As I see it, buried barrels at ground level would be a lot of hassle to
clean! That was my reference.

Hmmmm, haven't read my website regarding this?

No hassle, I pull the screen door stuff out with a garden claw on a long
handle. Toss it on the lawn and spray it down. Drain the water out of the
barrel with an extra pump and suck the muck out of the bottom of the barrel
with a shop vac. The only thing easier would be to have a vortex, where I
could open the bottom drain that would drain the muck out. We poor folk do
what we can. ;o) ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

I stand corrected. Your barrels are under the ground. The screen makes
good sense. You seem to have streamlined the de-mucking process well,
too.

I guess I still prefer the open-the-drain method of cleaning out the
muck. We just open the drain by turning a handle and watch the junk
exit. In the WH ponds, I have to pull out the dead WH after the water
has left. Once in a while, I have to pull it away from the drain as the
pond empties. I generally flush them with a hose to get the last stuff
out. Phyllis laughs when I do...so little left and soon to be replaced
by new muck.

Jim

~ jan JJsPond.us wrote:
On Sat, 30 Jul 2005 20:18:52 -0500, Phyllis and Jim Hurley
wrote:


Hi Jan,

I don't mean to put down your barrels. As I remember it, they were out
of the ground. DC was talking about in-ground or easily hidden filters.


Nope, they're buried, only 2" of rim is above ground, takes up 4X4 space,
but OP wouldn't need 4 barrels. I'm putting 2 on my 1,000 gallon lily pond
(when I can get the guys to move in that directions).


As I see it, buried barrels at ground level would be a lot of hassle to
clean! That was my reference.


Hmmmm, haven't read my website regarding this?

No hassle, I pull the screen door stuff out with a garden claw on a long
handle. Toss it on the lawn and spray it down. Drain the water out of the
barrel with an extra pump and suck the muck out of the bottom of the barrel
with a shop vac. The only thing easier would be to have a vortex, where I
could open the bottom drain that would drain the muck out. We poor folk do
what we can. ;o) ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

I guess I still prefer the open-the-drain method of cleaning out the
muck.

Absolutely! If one can plumb it, that is a far, far better way to go.

My sister, who just put in a series of ponds (11,000 gallons her estimate)
thought she was going to use my filter configuration. I said no way, when
you've got the dough to go absolute low maintenance, spend it. None of us
is getting any younger. I took her out to a similar pond set up like she
wanted to do and the ponder demonstrated cleaning the vortex pre-filter.
Yuppers, they were sold.

I'm heading down there (UT from WA) week from Monday, and I am "EXCITED" to
say the least. ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~