mechanical filter or polishing filter ideas?

[ne3000]

I built my 3rd pond at a new house https://www.gardenpondforum.com/topic/8096-my-vines-pond/page__fromsearch__1

I had some clay from a lilly turn over and cloud the water. I have a 50 micron bag in the skimmer that has not cleared up the pond. I have a tetra 1500 bio filter with only bio balls as media no mechanical. a 2nd pump feeds the skimmer to a small stream.

I really want to clear up the water as it's suspend material (not algae from what I see, I have used UV in the past but founf plants work best against algae)

I need idea's, I thought 50 micron bag would do itbut may need 5 micon bag, which i can"t find online in small quatities.

 

[Waterbug]

The largest clay particle is 1 or 2 microns depending on who you ask. Suspended clay particles are way smaller than than.

Water changing is the best way to clear suspended clay. Or wait, clay will generally settle although it can take weeks.

 

[buckry]

I use coagulator on clay, that takes care of it fast, then as long as you don't climb into the water you're good to go for a while.

 

[ne3000]

I was thinking 5 micron or less was required. Very frustrating to get it out of the pond, was hoping to avoid a complete backflush of the whole pond and refill it,

was thinking a settle chamber could work but not sure how to build one, I have seen the vortex units but they are very expensive. I have room to hide somethig at the top of the stream.

Any ideas on a settling chamber DIY?

 

[ne3000]

Do you know what brand of coagulator you have tried. I used one and found it did nothing for me. I have 50 micon filter in the skimmer to catch any clumps.

 

[Waterbug]

Lots of people like settlement chambers. I've never understood the concept. If it doesn't settle in the pond why it would in a smaller chamber.

 

[buckry]

I'll check. I have tried 2 brands, the first did nothing, got it from Home Depot. The second brand comes from Walmart and it works great, Brand is probably Aqua something. I'll check tomorrow morning.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

The largest clay particle is 1 or 2 microns depending on who you ask. Suspended clay particles are way smaller than than.

Water changing is the best way to clear suspended clay. Or wait, clay will generally settle although it can take weeks.

Simple quilt batting works good for filtering out fines, if you've ever used it, and washed the stuff out later, you can tell just how well it's working by all the crud that gets washed out.

There's more to it than just filtering through certain size screen the way a sieve works. It works on the basis that those fine particles are sticky, not only do they want to stick to each other, but they like to stick to other stuff too, like the fibres in the batting, and once they get stuck to the fibres they grab more of the free floating particles as they pass by. They have been using that principle in common furnace air filters for years. Even the El-cheapo furnace filters, that you can read a book through, catch all kinds of stuff much smaller than the gaps between the fibres. In fact they take that principle even further with some of those air filters and used “electrostatic charged filter media” which more actively attracts and holds fine dust particles.
Actually the most effective furnace air filters, for capturing the really small stuff, are those electronic air filters that have no fine screens at all, they work solely by capturing fine particles on electronically charged plates that can be spaced ¼ “ or so apart. Perhaps one day they'll be using something like that in ponds.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Lots of people like settlement chambers. I've never understood the concept. If it doesn't settle in the pond why it would in a smaller chamber.

It does settle in the pond, but settlement chambers are not particularly effective at capturing fines anyway, they are more for larger stuff.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

BTW
Here is what I came up with for filtering out the fine stuff in my pond.

http://www.gardenpon...ting-filtering/