The other 16 are 10" to 20".
Sticky Doc Bio Filter
- Thread starter DrDave
- Start date
fishin4cars
True friends just call me Larkin
So it's safe to assume that it can safely keep 300" of koi at this point? And still handling the load.
I don't go by the inch and you will never see me with a calculator counting Koi and estimating sizes. That is just toooooo anal.
Having a good bio system, good circulation, some aeration albeit a waterfall and being vigilant is the best method, hands down.
People that rely on these formulas are obviously not in tune with their ponds. Why do you suppose that racecars do not have speedometers? That is becasue the driver feels the road and his car. Ponding is no different.
Having a good bio system, good circulation, some aeration albeit a waterfall and being vigilant is the best method, hands down.
People that rely on these formulas are obviously not in tune with their ponds. Why do you suppose that racecars do not have speedometers? That is becasue the driver feels the road and his car. Ponding is no different.
fishin4cars
True friends just call me Larkin
DrDave said:
I agree with what your saying, But it does help to know what someone else is sucsessfully doing to have a rough guess as to what to expect. If you can get away with 300inches of fish and all runs good, If I keep up with good maintance, and watch my water quality, do my scheduled cleaning I can assume I can sucsessfully keep about 10 full grown abults +/- 1 or 2. Per unit.
That's all I was looking for was a base line to go by. I really didn't know if the # of inches was 50 or 5000. From what you posted I now have something to go by when I'm calculating what I want to accomplish when I build my next set-up. Thanks, it was very useful info to me.
Your right about racecar drivers, But they too need a base line to go by on RPM or they would get a lot more pit road speeding penalties. LOL
FN is sure slow in getting out the scores. I think I got a 739. I have a spreadsheet that calculates the scores for me by just putting in the finishing positions.
fishin4cars
True friends just call me Larkin
First week I did good, this week, NOT SO GOOD! LOL
DrDave said:
so does this mean that i would not need to put some sort of filter screen material on top of the tubes to stop fine particals from going back into the pond?, still kind of confused about how this works can you explain a little more please?
thank you
Tatal101
Since I believe you are till in high school I will put it in terms that I think you will understand.
Do you understand how gravity works? The particles are heavier than water. The upflow is impeded by the small cut tubes long enough for gravity to prevail. The round 55 gallon drum is perfect to maintain a swirl in the rising water. Did you know the center of a tornado or hurricane is dead still? The water coming out of my overflow looks like bottled water.
There may be an occasional particle that has a gas bubble in it that excapes, however the tens of thousands that did not make it are trapped in the vortex.
I can't make it more elementary than that.
Since I believe you are till in high school I will put it in terms that I think you will understand.
Do you understand how gravity works? The particles are heavier than water. The upflow is impeded by the small cut tubes long enough for gravity to prevail. The round 55 gallon drum is perfect to maintain a swirl in the rising water. Did you know the center of a tornado or hurricane is dead still? The water coming out of my overflow looks like bottled water.
There may be an occasional particle that has a gas bubble in it that excapes, however the tens of thousands that did not make it are trapped in the vortex.
I can't make it more elementary than that.
DrDave said:
yes i am still in high-school so some of the terms are still new to me, thank you for clarifying it more for me...and wow that is pretty cool i didn't know that tornadoes were dead still in the centre very interesting fact. thank you for the information and i will make sure to keep all the helpful tips in mind when i finish building mine.
just wondering, if i was to add pea gravel instead of the filter tubes and use a finer grate on the bottom, could i potentialy turn this into a bog with plants?
thanks
thanks
DrDave said:
Its worth pointing out that pump volume factors in here.
Im also using ~55 gallon tanks daisy chained, one empty (only vortex), one with cut PVC pipes of all kinds or diameter, and one with real plastic filter media (mix of bio balls and whatever). when I hooked up a 22.000 liter pump, it swirled so much particles didnt get much of a chance to sink. Especially the empty vortex barrel did little or nothing, I was hugely disappointed, as I spent a lot of time making a nice cone as in the professional vortex filters. The one with pvc rings did trap a fair amount of solids at the bottom as the water colliding to the random orientation of pipes gives it more chance, but it still wasnt exactly bottled water that came out if I send in stirred up mud.
Now I connected a 15.000 liter pump, which due to the head, produces about 5-6000 liters I think (compared to 10.000+ actual flow for the cellar pump I used earlier). Now it works nicely, and no matter how muddy the water I send in, it comes out apparently clear.
If you go for wider and higher barrels, you could use a bigger pump, also if you dont daisy chain but put the filters in parallel, but for regular 55 gallon tanks, I think ~1000-1500 gallon / hour actual flow is the upper limit.
fishin4cars
True friends just call me Larkin
Got a question/problem. I made a noobie mistake, I didn't make a list before heading to Lowes. I bought all 1 1/2" pipe for the in line. from top to the 90's at the bottom. Is this going to be to big of piping? I had to make several modifications as 1- I couldn't find a 55 gallon barrel so I'm substituting a 35 gallon trash can for now. the pond I'm going to hook this up on is only 300 gallons. I'm planning on using a exsisting 1500 gph pump, This should be plenty of pump for the system I would think but would like any input if anyone has any. 2nd modification I had to make is lifting the bottom grate to 8" off the bottom. Is this going to be a issue about being to high? I'm not too worried about losing the media area as this pond only has about 7 small koi and is primarily used as a hospital tank/ plant starting pond. I wanted to build a DOC filter to get a feel for it and see first hand how it works. Everything can be adapted to a 55 gallon drum later if I can locate one. This is just a prototype for me to play with. Bored and needed a new pond project to play with.
fishin4cars said:
I dont see why it would be too big. Wider pipes means slower water, which is a good thing here. Not sure how wide your tank is, but 1.5 inch pipes wouldnt likely make much difference in volume.
It ought to work, but not as good as a big tank obviously, especially not if its not very high, which brings us too...
How high is your tank? The only problem is losing filter media, but if you arent concerned about that, why would there be an issue? In fact I think its better to dedicate an entire barrel as vortex and keeping it empty, or at most with brushes to trap solids, and using subsequent tanks for the biofiltration. You can combine it in one tank, but it wont be as effective. The more height/time you have before reaching the biological filter, the better.
I used 3/4" for my input.
koiguy1969
GIGGETY-GIGGETY!!
i used 1&1/2" in both of my filters.......works beautiful. the larger pipe lets more water flow out with less force. this lessened force enables particles to drop from suspension and settle to the bottom quicker and easier. more force (faster flow) keeps the particles in suspension longer allowing them to travel up into the filters media further.