10 replies to this topic

[eurodoctor]

Hi all,
This is my first post and I would like to first say I have been reading the forum for the past few days and have found it very informative.
I am building a 4 barrel above ground filter, each barrel is approx 40 Gallons, ready to increase the size of my pond. I have at the moment a pump which delivers around 925 gallons an hour with a small outlet.
My question is if I increase the diameter of the pipework leading to the vortex to 2 inches or maybe a little more ready for a bigger pump will this push the same amount of water to the vortex or due to the increased volume of water in the pipes pump less water through.
Also what would be a good sized pump for a pond in the region of 5,000 - 6,000 gallons.
I look forward to your replies and or other suggestions.

[nc0gnet0]

it won't pump less water that is a given. Whether or not it pumps more is dependent on several other factors that you have not provided enough information to say, but most likely it will pump a little more albeit at a slower velocity, whether or not the change is significant is hard to say.

edit: After I thought about that a minute there are some cases where increasing the diameter of a pipe could actually lead to decreased waterflow, but these are usually extreme cases dealing with large increases in diameter while pumping uphill (head height0

Edited by nc0gnet0, 30 September 2009 - 04:17 PM.

[eurodoctor]

Today I daisy chained the 4 barrels together using 1 1/2 inch pipework from the vortex to the rest of the barrels and a 2 inch into it and kept the flow from the pump as it was, for a start it worked ok, The vortex moved the water round slowly but surely. Then I increased the the feed from the pump and it pumped better than I could imagine, the trouble being then that the 1 1/2 inch pipes could not handle the flow and the vortex overflowed. So plan ( is to replace the 1 1/2 inch with 2 inch pipes or add them below the 1 1/2 inch ones. Here is the planned filter, I will post some pictures of the build as soon as I can.
[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c258/Dirtdevil007/myfilterconversioncopy.jpg[/IMG]

[stroppy]

looks very impressive i have seen some homemade ones like your on line hope you can get your piping working right look forward to seeing photoes

[eurodoctor]

This part of the project never cost me a red cent, all the parts were taken from my old “bau wagen” it’s like a small railway carriage on road tires that we have on building sites in Germany. All the pipe work and valves are from the gas lighting system that I ripped out. You can get all the parts for this from a camping trailer supplier. The valves let me regulate the air flow.

[eurodoctor]

Here is a drawing of my pond area, The new filter will be hidden behind a few conifer trees as shown in the top left of the pic. And I´m sad to say it looks better than the real thing at the moment. As soon as my camera comes back from being repaired I´ll get some pics posted.

[IMG]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c258/Dirtdevil007/gardenpond.jpg[/IMG]

[eurodoctor]

These are the first pictures of the new filter layout for the pond extension I hope to start next spring, they are just linked together at the moment just to check the flow. The main work will be done over the winter months.

In the rear two barrels you can see the air-lines going into them, each one has its own regulator, I need to shorten them a little to make them level with the barrels, I have tested them out with my workshop compressor and oh boy do they pump some air in.....any bacteria in there will get dizzy.....
The second picture shows the bottom ring of one of the air-lines.

[DrCase]

Nice looking barrels

[DrDave]

I thought so as well. What are the fittings that are used to enter the barrels? They don't look like anything I have seen before.

[eurodoctor]

This was a very inexpensive way to do this job.
All the fitting are waste water pipes as shown in these pics. A 90° angle enters and leaves each barrel and a straight piece of pipe with cut ends fits between them.



The rubber seals are not made for this job but for fitting 40mm into 50mm pipework



What I have done is to saw a hole into each one just a little lager than 40mm so that when I push the bends etc into it using "Marley soap" I use this so that they slide in easy. I have not had to use any silicon sealer at all



The fittings for the pipe to the vortex filter are just a piece of old cable tubings that I have heated up and flared out to fit "just a temporary measure for now"

Edited by eurodoctor, 10 October 2009 - 10:30 AM.

[DrCase]

That's similar to are tye seal gaskets
Looks good