19 replies to this topic

[Austrian Fish]

Hi,

I've been building and planning my waterfall and biofilter for a while now, and now and again i would post questions on here, and received a lot of help and quite a few new ideas.

I'd like to share with everyone the results so far.

First, a bit of background. I built my pond - 5000 litres - 2 years ago, and started off with 3 fish. Right from the outset i had problems with green water and algae, and i'd been looking for a way to cure it ever since. Last year the fish bred, and i now have 170 which has not helped the algae problem at all!

Then a friend told me about biofilters and i started researching them, which eventually led me to this forum.

My problem was that i had very little free ground around the pond that i could build on, so i decided to add a waterfall with the biofilter being the reservouir and the feed for it.

This led to this design, and the build went like this....

pic pp2 - the start of the biofilter. This shows the barrel with the media spacer and the feed to the swirler. The spacer is simply the lid of the barrel with lots of holes drilled in it and legs to form a spacing from the bottom of the barrel. Underneath this is the drain outlet for cleaning, and higher up is the outlet to the waterfall.

pic pp4 - This is the corner where the waterfall is going. Two wooden walls need to be built, and the biofilter is standing on two bricks. The two large black pipes are carrying the outlet pipe from the biofilter and the supply and drain pipes from the filter.

pic pp5 - Filling the biofilter with medium. The pipe has a venturi fitted now, although it is not owrking as well as i'd like. I'm going to have to rethink this bit.

pic pp9 - A lot of weekends later! The second smaller pond is built and the liner fitted. Left and right of the pond is a small planting area. To the right of the waterfall is the enclosure for the pump . I've added a second outlet for the biofilter.

pic pp11 - The last pic. The lids for the biofilter, and pump housing are in place. The pond liner is trimmed and all the capping wood is in place, and i've added two plants. The smaller splash pond is leveled so that a medium size plant container can sit either side of the deeper splash area.

There is still a lot of landscaping and electrics left to do not least of which is finishing off the outlets from the two waterfalls. The two sections you can see at the moment are temporary. The first waterfall will be wood, but shaped so that the flow is better, and the second waterfall into the main pond is going to be a piece of metal so that i get a nice level flow into the main pond.

This project has been a lot of fun. I welcome any comments or suggestions, and i hope it inspires as well...

Cheers,

Andy.

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[DrCase]

That realy looks good !!!!
I belive the pics will help a lot of us hide stuff ..

[DrDave]

Great job, nice photos! I didn't see a dump valve, how will you clean it?

[Austrian Fish]

Thanks guys....

There's no dump valve as such at the moment. There's a drain in the bottom of the biofilter which goes to one of the two black pipes sticking up in the air to the left of the fence.

The plan is to put these pipes into a container hidden between the trees with a valve on the end of it, and this will then be the dump valve. Unfortunately i'm having trouble sourcing PVC Ball Valves like this one :



I can't find this in Austria, and the place i tried to order from in the US just mailed me, after two weeks of silence, and said they only ship within the US.

If anyone knows a good source for these i'd be interested.

So to drain the biofilter at the moment i just lay the pipe on the floor and let gravity do it's work

Cheers,

Andy.

[Austrian Fish]

Update : I found a source in Europe that can supply ball valves and other PVC fittings for ponds....

http://www.teich-fil...ch-filter-shop/

It's in German, so probably won't be of use to most people here, but you never know. I found the fitting i need here :

http://www.teich-fil...uchtuellen.html

[DrCase]

That sounds closer for you..
I was going to say in the winter here i use a simple rubber cap , to keep it from freezing on a cold night,,it works and only about 3$
but you do get your hands wet

[Austrian Fish]

Hi Guys,

A quick update....

The bits left to finish are :

1. Wooden outflow for top waterfall.
2. Metal outflow for bottom waterfall.
3. Pot/enclosure to hide the drain pipes.

I also rewired all the electrics to the pond, added new switches and cables, and made a new switch box enclosure.

I'm still waiting for the float switch to turn up. I'm quite concerned that if something goes wrong with the plumbing that i'll pump the pond dry. For those that don't know, the float switch prevents that by turning the pump off if the water level drops too low.

The biofilter has only been running a week, but it has already made a vast difference to the water quality. The water is almost crystal clear.... i can almost see the bottom at the deepest part, 4 feet down. The biofilter only runs during the day.... the waterfall is quite loud at the moment because the outflow haven't been finished, so i turn it off at night so i don't annoy the neighbours!

I'll post some more pics soon.

Cheers,

Andy.

[koiguy1969]

if your turning your biofilter off at night you better put an air stone at the bottom of the filter with an air pump to keep some oxygen in it or the bacteria dies and every day its starting over..with less bacteria................ my neighbors love the sound of the falls.

[DrCase]

My neighbor never came over and complained yet ...mine is kind of loud
Glad You are getting to the bottom of the list....But you do know that it starts over again ..

[Austrian Fish]

The bacteria can die that quickly?

ok, i'd better do something to stop that.....

I know it starts all over again I'm already planning the next project.....

[DrDave]

Anerobic bacteria can die in a s little as 4-5 hours without water running past them.

[Austrian Fish]

Hi,

It's been a while since the last post - work and holidays have delayed the project, but i've made another step in the waterfall construction - one of the outflows is complete.

I used the suggestion on a web site that someone pointed me to here to make the glass flow waterfall - see pic.

In the pic you can also see the medium in the biofilter, and the venturii - the small pipe sticking out of the top of the biofilter.

The next step is to make a similar outlet for the top part.....

cheers,

Andy

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[stroppy]

that looks very good

[koiguy1969]

good job...alittle more media wouldnt hurt

[DrDave]

I love the "Lincoln Log" construction. You are a Craftsman!