Fish Pond Remodel

[sgrawunder]

Hi All, Hope your summer has gone well!
I've had my 4000 gal koi pond going on 5 years, and now it's time to do some revamping and refitting. I've learned so much in the last few years (especially from this forum!) but it seems I always have more questions than answers LOL!
While my pond has been satisfactory I feel it could be better, and I think my current setup is not ideal in filtering the water and maintaining an immaculate pond. Current setup has a 4500 gph pump to 4500 capacity pressure filter to IonGen algae unit to 100 gal Skippy filter to waterfall and fountain. I never have problems with algae but my water doesn't seem to be as clear as it should be and I always have a lot of sediment in the filters, even when I backflush the pressure filter once a week, and flush out the Skippy once a month. My water tests are always right on the mark. I have about 20 12" fish: koi, goldfish and plecos. I have a good selection of plants: water lillies, thalia, saggitaria, iris, and water daisy. In the Skippy I have a rack with Mexican petunias. I can drain the entire pond with the pump in 45 minutes so I think the pump is adequate for water exchange.
Here's my questions:
Can I put my pressure filter inline ahead of the pump? It seems to me that the filter would be more efficient with water being pulled through rather than pushed through.
How can I add an inline vacuum setup using the pump?
What is the best filter media? My old pressure filter had filter mats, the new pressure filter uses beads and has not done as good a job as a mechanical filter as the old one.
What is the best media for the Skippy?
I am going to totally rebuild my manifold system so I am open to any suggestions and advice!
Thanks all, Sandra

 

[Waterbug]

Can I put my pressure filter inline ahead of the pump? It seems to me that the filter would be more efficient with water being pulled through rather than pushed through.

You of course can, the question is do you want to? Pumps work better when pushing rather than pulling. A restriction in pulling can cause cavitation and/or a vortex pulling air into the pump.

How can I add an inline vacuum setup using the pump?

DIY vacuum.

What is the best filter media? My old pressure filter had filter mats, the new pressure filter uses beads and has not done as good a job as a mechanical filter as the old one.

Mats, foam, etc., can be great for trapping muck...as long as you don't mind cleaning them. The finer the media the finer the trapped particles and the more often it has to be cleaned. Advances in mechanical filters have always tried to balance this. A drinking water filter will give you water clearer than tap water...but clog in less than a minute. Effective filter, but not practical. A furnace filter type mat may only need to be cleaned once a year, but will only trap very large stuff.

What is the best media for the Skippy?

For mechanical or bio? For mechanical it's the same deal as above. If you want to get serious about filtering you might consider a more serious system. Skippy is at the bottom of the list as far as performance. Perfectly fine if so-so performance is all that is needed. As a pond ages lot's of previously unseen problems can accumulate and start to become problems. Fish are bigger, suspended organic matter builds, DOC levels build, etc.

I am going to totally rebuild my manifold system so I am open to any suggestions and advice!

Sounds like you're interested in clearer water, less maintenance as opposed to better bio? To make a big different would require bottom dains, TPRs, some kind of pre filter (sieve , settlement tank, drum, bead, etc.) and then something to remove small particles (sand & gravel, fabric, bead, etc.) and then normally a UV. Ion isn't very good for killing green water algae imo.

In order for the BD system to work well the shape of the pond would have to be reasonable and you'd have to move the plants out of the pond and into adjacent pond beds.

Altogether that would be transforming your Water Garden into a Koi Pond. Part of your clarity issue could be the pump size. Many Water Gardens use a very small pump compared to the pond size and that can allow more particles to settle out. But with a lot of Koi the higher flow pump may be needed to keep the fish alive. A Water Garden generally has a much smaller fish load.

So to me what you have now is a Koi Pond fish load in a Water Garden. Assuming you've had the Koi for the entire 5 years their small size kind of says it all. It's difficult to keep a very high fish load in a Water Garden. Koi Ponds are designed to handle those loads.

The only other way I know of for keeping a Koi Pond fish load in a Water Garden is to use a trickle water change, also called a flow thru system. Basically you have new water coming into the pond 24/7 and water leaving the pond along with suspended particles and other stuff. The speed can vary from say 10% per week to 10% per day depending on fish load.

 

[Craig58]

I'll guess your pressure filter is only a 2" intake? If you can place the pressure filter below the pond level you could gravity feed it and then have the pump after it but it's not a good idea since you still need a prefilter to keep the big stuff out of the pressure filter. The pumps strainer keeps big stuff from going through the pump and into the pressure filter.

Sounds like you have a pretty good filtration system all ready with the exception of the bead filter. Beads do tend to compact. You could add a blower to the bead filter to help break them up when backwashing. Since the pump does chop up debris a lot before putting it into the filter, you can get a lot of fine stuff that as the beads compact they develop channels in them that allows the finer stuff to keep going through and back to your pond. Now it's so fine you might not be catching it in the skippy.

I think I would suggest a gravity fed pre-filter of some type or a settling chamber or settling pond where the heavy stuff can get pulled out before hitting the pump. A lot depends on what space you have and how much remodelling you want to undertake!

Craig