Hello all, looking for some tech support for my challenger filter by fluid art tech.

[Samuel]

Hey everyone. I cant believe i haven't done this before. I moved into a house about 8 years ago that had a pond. Being a new pond owner it proved challenging. It took a while but i pretty much got it under control after a while. This last year has been more challenging however. I feel my filter is not operating at its normal capability. Matter a fact i know it isn't. I have been away on travel and just returned after 5 months or so. i performed a backwash two weeks ago and it seemed like during the blower portion the beads were not sloshing around like normal. However after the backwash was complete the waterfall was flowing like normal. Yesterday i went to do another back wash and again the beads didn't sound normal during the blower portion. I open up the top and stuck my hand down in and everything was more of a solid. i spent a good amount of time breaking it all apart. I know it just ran way too long without a backwash. When i completed the backwash the water doesn't run like it should. Only about half the water that should be flowing is. Being the end of the day i let it run and today i tried again. I noticed today that after the backwash was complete and now that im back in filter, with water flowing, there is still water coming from the backwash outlet. I'm thinking maybe something as simple as a gasket. I opened up the control valve but really don't know what Im looking for. everything seems to be OK. any ideas?

 

[taherrmann4]

Welcome to the forum. Can you give us more details about the filter, type of filter or even some pics would help.

 

[Samuel]

Ok so i have a challenger bead filter by fluid art tech. with a dynamo 1.5 hp pool pump. here is some photos i hope you can see them.


https://www.gardenpondforum.com/gallery/image/1684-challenger-bead-filter/



https://www.gardenpondforum.com/gallery/image/1683-challenger-bead-filter/

 

[sissy]

welcome and you would save a lot of money if you got rid of that pool system and went with a pond pump and maybe built your own filter or bought one .The energy that thing uses you would make up in savings when buying something more energy wise .There are lots of systems you can by that would be just as easy to use but would really lower you energy cost .

 

[j.w]

Samuel
I'm betting that a pool pump is not meant to handle heavy solids like our dear fishies like to put out.
I'm w/ sissy on you getting a different pump/filter system and I haven't a clue on how to fix the one you've got.
Somebody might be able to help you figure it out here tho if you'd really like to keep it going.

 

[fishin4cars]

At the top where the control valve is you'll six to eight bolts, unbolt and you'll see a gasket that should have about six legs that go out from the center to a larger circle, look and see if it's fully seated in the groove. If not the gasket may need to be replaced. It's called a spider gasket. This is a common problem when a filter has been run in one mode for a long period of time. The gasket must sit 100% flush or it will start seeping water bypass and will only get worse from then on. While you have the top open be sure and feel all around the bottom where the veins are and make sure there isn't any clogging going on and that all veins are fully attached, If even one feels loose pull the center system and check them all. Keep the beads moist and get them back in as soon as possible to keep from losing all your bacteria. Once everything is back up and running to your satisfaction you may want to run a bacteria supplement and give the bacteria a boost. really it should be a fairly easy fix but be prepared, that gasket can run between $20 and $45 bucks!

 

[fishin4cars]

BTW, that's a very good polishing filter but it's not a very good solids filter, you really should have some prefiltering before this to help remove solids. As for the pump, Pool pumps aren't usually as energy effeciant, BUt they will work just fine, they will in most case last a long time, so replacing it may or may not benefit. they can cost a few hundred dollars and you're probably only using a few cents a day extra in eletricity. Make take quite a while to see any cost benefit by replacing at this point.

Oh and Welcome aboard!

 

[Samuel]

Thanks for the replies. The pump says pool pump on the side but on the fluid art tech web site these are the pumps they sell. It's never really had a problem that I can think of. There is a pre filter before the pump with a basket. If that's what you meen by solid filter. I can't tell why the water flow has slowed. I'm draining the pond down so I can see the inlet pipe. It's a 2" laying about 10" off the bottom. As the pipe comes out of the water there is a ( not sure what u call it ) keeps water from flowing backwards. I'm going to check and see if there is a blockage. If there isnt, I think the control valve isn't sitting right. I was thinking that washer at the bottom is bad. At the same time the handle on the valve it self seems to not spring back like it should. The plate that the spring picks up doesn't seem to. E pushed down enough against the spider gasket to control the water flow correctly.
I'm going to play with it some more tomorrow.

 

[fishin4cars]

May have to replace the whole top section, again, common for the same reason even on swimming pools. Good idea to check the check valve and intake. also may not be a bad idea to remove the leaf basket in front of the pomp and make sure nothing is trapped in the impeller, Pine straw can cause havock for one, maple seeds also aren't very kind to the prefilter as well. That is a leaf catcher basket, a solid removal would be like a vortex with brushes, matala pad, or sieve filter before it went to the bead filter. whe it was installed it was probably state of the art but now 8 years later more advances have been made on that type sytem to improve it even better than it was.

 

[Becky]

Welcome aboard! :wave:

 

[Samuel]

Talked to a tech guy today from fluid art. Very helpful. Told me over the phone how to check the multi port valve. I pulled it all apart and re conditioned to pieces. The valve no longer leaks from the backwash port. The flow is still slow though. He recommends that I vacuum out the beads check the internals for solids and the refil. I'm going to try this then check it. Thanks for the help. I'll post on how it's running after.

 

[Samuel]

Thanks everyone for the help and advice. Today i could have charged a 20.00 admission fee to watch my circus show this morning. How do you empty a bead filter with no wet dry vac. Well you dont wrapp a trash bag around the filter and then float the beads out by over filling it with water... Lol actually it worked out two trash bags full. I emptied and cleaned my filter, rinsed but not washed my beads and re filled. Multi port valve is working good. Filter is filtering better than ever. And good thing i broke my 2'' pvc feed line between check valve and supply line. That was my problem. Gunk got sucked up in there. Replaced the valve and have it piped temporarily until i can figure out another prefilter as suggested. The local plant store has a beutiful pond in it. The guy there let me check out there set up. He suggested an additional skimmer basket. Just like the one before the pump but before the check valve. So it would go, Sipply line into 1st skimmer basket-> from 1st thru check valve-> thru check valve into pump skimmer and so forth. What do you think?
oh here are a few photos of pump and waterfall running A O K.


https://www.gardenpondforum.com/gallery/image/1689-waterfall5/



https://www.gardenpondforum.com/gallery/image/1688-waterfall4/

 

[j.w]

Glad you figured it out and all looks fine and dandy now! That pre-filter and skimmer will help a lot. If you don't have a lot of wind blowing leaves and such into your pond tho you prolly don't really need the skimmer.

 

[addy1]

Great job! it looks wonderful. Glad you found the problem