55 Gal Fines Filter

[DrCase]

I made this today to remove the small dust like particles in my water..
It is real simple to build,, And it can not run over .. If you forgot about it for a while.. the outlet is 15" from the bottom,, This leaves a nice area for the water to settle out ..The drain on the side will let me flush it when needed..
3$ worth of stuffing in the basket realy pully out the fines ..

This wii make Gin Quality Water

 

[DrDave]

Nice work Doc!
I made a quick and dirty filter using a milk crate, sun screen material and batting. First I sewed a sunscreen liner that just fits inside the milk crate, then I added the removable batting.
Not as nice as yours, but I had to do something fast after the spawn left such a mess.

 

[DrCase]

The spawn is what got me thinking of building it ....
I am running a 1000 gph thru it...my water today is realy clear.
Yours looks like it will get the job done.

 

[DrDave]

I can almost read the date off a dime at 30" depth after a few days of this running.

 

[DrCase]

Thats what i see today,,I am going to keep this as part of the system..

 

[koiguy1969]

are you using this as the last stop in your filtration?

 

[DrCase]

No i am just running water right out of the pond bottom thru it,,with the sun shine today the water is Gin clear

 

[koiguy1969]

seperate system then? or the first stage?

 

[c2c7390]

thats a good idea.
i might do that now. hmm.....
the only problem is that i cant find filter floss at my LFS do you think a pool supply store would have it maybe Home Depot or Lowes?

 

[koiguy1969]

any crafts store,kmart, meijers, walmart, etc... will have pillow fiber fill and/or quilt batting, that what he used

 

[DrCase]

I am running 3 55gal drums with skippy pads ,,,this filter is all by it self i pump it in and send it back to the pond..the stuffing is less than 3$ bag

 

[DrCase]

I brought this up again because my water can not be any better, and has been since this addition...I am running 1000 gal per hr thru it with the pump sitting on the bottom of the pond ... change the 3 $ stuffing about every 3 weeks,,turn the basket a little each day when i check it...
This will work great on a smaller scale also, and it will take out any floating matter in the water,,,

 

[D&RW]

I'm thinking I might need to set up a separate system for this. I have a small 1400 gph pump I could pump the water out, into the barrel and let it flow back into the pond. Otherwise, I have no idea how I could plumb something like this in my system the way I have it. thing is, I really need fines filtration. My EasyPro Filter Falls doesn't catch the small stuff.

Seems like there'd be a way to make it work though. I mean it's basically a big rectangular barrel, open at the top, water coming in from the bottom. Right now I have Spring bio ribbon in the bottom followed by 6 layers of varying density matting. I've tried putting quilt batting on the top and it catches a lot, but clogs up pretty easily and when I try to change it it releases nearly as much of the fines as it collected!

 

[DrDave]

I would not put the matting in with your bio filter. Cleaning or changing the matting will disturb the anoerobic bacteria in the bio media. How do you like the Spring bio ribbon? Is this the same as the shipping strap that the pros are using these days?

 

[D&RW]

Well shucks. I did just that.


Today I tried something new. I took some high density foam in a 1/2 in thickness, washed it very thoroughly and then put it in the bio filter. In so doing I hope I didn't seriously disturb the beneficials.

However, the filter really needed cleaning. It was a mess. Smelled kind of bad and full of junk. So I drained it and pulled all the matts out. washed them down and replaced them with the new foam sandwiched in between two layers with the Spring ribbon on top again.

All this to try and deal with the darn fines. Here's what I'm thinking of doing. Spend the money and buy a Aqua UV Ultima II Bead filter and put it in line. Pump--Ultima II--UV light--waterfall filter. This ought to do it. I'm tired of fighting the battle and I don't think the Easy Pro Medium Filter Falls is good enough.