Gravity Fed Bottom Drain

[Wooptido]

Dear forum members

I'm planning on building my first Koi pond, and I've done a lot of research about this already.

After all this research, I came to the conclusion that the following setup would be ideal for my pond:

- Gravity Fed Bottom Drain
- Let the water pass through a mechanical ánd a biological filter (UV light is also a plus)
- Pump the water back into the pond
- Place the skimmer on the other side of the pump entrance, so that the water is pushed towards it
- There shouldn't be any rocks or sand on the bottom of the pond, since it will reduce the effectiveness of the bottom drain

Before I want to start, I want to make sure that what I'm going to do is the right thing. My basic question is this:
- Is it possible to have a bottom drain directly connected to a filter, without passing through a settlement tank? Is it enough to place the filter at the same water level as the pond, in order for gravity to do it's job?

So all I have to do is this:
- Dig the pond
- Dig a place next to the pond, where the filter will be located
- Place the bottom drain in the pond
- Pipe the bottom drain towards the filter
- Place a pump between the filter and the pond
- Fill the pond with water
- Start the pump (sucks water from filter towards pond)
=> Gravity will do it's job?

Thanks in advance,
Wooptido

 

[mgmine]

Gravity will not keep up with your pump. I would skip the bottom drain and put a pump directly into the3 skimmer. From there it can be pumped to your filter and let gravity take it back to the pond via a water falls. having the pump suck water from the filter wouldn't work.