new filter

[Navigator]

Greetings from the west coast of Canada.
I have recently redigned our old filter, tired of retrieving the Laguna Powerflowmax from our small 200 gallon pool for cleaning, I have used the same materials as media. The water enters and flows through the media then down and under and back up to the outlet. The flow rate is about 200 gph. Now its time for you folks to be honest and critique, please. We have lots of plants and at last count 3 - 4" Koi, there may be a couple more that have not come out of hibernation yet, water temp is only 47 degrees. The sponges really collected the crud when the old filter was in the pond.

 

[koikeepr]

Nicely done, Navigator! I'm trying to build something quite similar.

If I were you, I'd get some more media in the front and last bays that apear empty. Might I suggest some strapping, which you can buy on ebay. Just find 1/2" strapping tape and buy the dark gray one. Make sure to ask the vendor if it's slightly textured. You don't want the smooth one, so bacteria has something to get it's teeth on.

The up and down you mention is important. That's how you want to build it. Nice!

Where did you get the materials for the box?

 

[PS3]

i though u did not hve to clean the max-flo pumps lol
you did a nice job on this filter

 

[Navigator]

KoiKeeper - Thanks for the input I quess from what I have seen on the site is that one can not have enough bio trapping material in a filter. ????
Is this the same strapping material they use in bundling parcels and lumber together?The material I used to build this filter was left over 1/8 in. plexie glass glued together with methylene chloride (which actually melts both pieces into one) when I get a few extra minutes I will post the drawing for this filter.

 

[koikeepr]

yes, the strapping is exactly what you are describing--and it's cheap! This is basically it. Just make sure to ask the vendor if it's textured or smooth. You don't want the smooth one.

You can stick it in a net bag like you did with your pipe pieces and then jam it into the open bays. It's super easy to clean, as you just take it out and give the bag a good shake and a whack on the ground and all the crud just falls right off. The stuff also lasts for ever.

You could double up your mats into one bay by having the egg crate part face eachother so that they nest together. Then put the strapping in the middle bay. You could then get a nice fine mat for the last last small bay, just to act as a last stage fines area to catch itty-bitty things that got through the first sections.

Have you thought about a potential overflow issue with your contraption here? In otherwords, what would happen if you got a lot of gunk in it and the water rose up and over? What have you considered to remedy that.

Also, I want to make sure I understand your piping well. Is the water coming in that top smaller pipe an are you expecting the water to come back out that bigger pipe next to it? I don't see a pipe at the rear of the box. If so, you can't expect the clean water to make a U-turn like that as your cleaned water would be passing right back through the dirty media used to clean it.

If you could put another hole in the back, you would then have water passing through your filter form one end to the other. Dirty in front, clean at back.

You've got something cooking here tho. You've gotta give that contraption a name! LOL!

 

[Navigator]

Ok: I thought the pictures may cause some confusion, attached is my origanal drawing for this filter (not to scale) Dirty water enters through 3/4" pipe and directed down into chamber #1 and works its way through to chamber #4 which runs under the enclosed filter section and up to the outlet, the entire filter section is 3/4" off bottom of container. This is where your point about overflow / blockage is dealt with, if for some reason the chambers get plugged, then water will flow accross the top of the first 3 chambers (because tops of chambers are 3/4" below top of filter box spill down into #4 and pass under and up to outlet, which is 1 1/2" (could have been 1 1/4" ) but always go bigger when just in case. Did you say to move sponges to last bay ? If strapping type material will catch the big stuff then I could use the sponges to catch the little bits Hey!! that sound like less cleaning of nasty sponges to me. Sorry I tried to flip image but no luck!
Awaiting a few good days then into the pond for spring cleaning and new filter installation.

 

[koikeepr]

No, your sponges will catch the big stuff. The strapping will be bio and that will catch some stuff and your pipe pieces (or whatever that is), will catch nothing but act as bio.

Your sponges will always catch the nasty, and will require continual cleaning. What's you are missing here is a sediment chamber. In other words, a place for the very thick stuff to settle out first, and then hit your sponges. You could build another container just to do that. It would be before this filter. Water should come in from the bottom, as the thick stuff will go down since it is heavier than water, then the clean water will rise into the filter.

If you look at my filter idea (which I use pretty much as a settlement chamber), you will get the right idea. Look at the DIY section for my barrel filter to give you an idea.

This will eliminate the sludge BEFORE it hits your sponges, thus creating less cleaning work for you. You could probably create this out of a 5g container even. Would be a miniatured version.