Barrels Away....

[Ian]

I wanted to do a pump fed filter system for a 780gallon holding tank/QT... What I did makes a fairly good filter quick and easy and I don't have to wash out filter mats! :grin:

Two 55 gallon plastic barrels both with drains to waste out of the bottom.
http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/DSCF0008.JPG

The pump fed connection, flex hose to valved hard pipe into a 2" shower drain. Inlet comes in 12" up from the barrel base.
http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/DSCF0009%7E0.JPG

This is the mechanical portion of the filter. Bottom drain is to waste, the home-made air ring is to blow the K-1 media when flushing to waste. The drain on the right is the inlet from the pump. The two drains on the left are flow through to the other barrel(bio).
http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/DSCF0011%7E0.JPG

50L of Kaldnes in each barrel, both barrels have air rings siliconed to the bottom.
http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/DSCF0016%7E0.JPG

Turn on the pump... the first barrel starts to fill with water. The second barrel is the biological portion and will have air bubbling the media. The water exits back to the tank through two 2" shower drains(seen left).
http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/DSCF0021.JPG

Turn on the air pump... that's it, not very exciting :roll:
http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/DSCF0023.JPG

The kaldnes in the mechanical part fills the top portion of the barrel. This should do nicely to trap and filter the waste/solids.
http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/DSCF0026.JPG

The nice thing about this set up is that I can flush the mech barrel of waste and still keep the bio with just over half the barrel full of water.

Turning into a pumpkin... off to bed. Zzzzzz

[Jackie Ramo]

I can see I have to stop hanging out with the wife if I want to learn plumbing.... :grin:

[BonnieIN]

Ian, great DIY project.

what type air pump do you use?

[Ian]

Seems to be after a couple days running there may be a few modifications to do so I'll keep you posted.
A 40 lin air pump is enough to run the barrel but I am using a Airtech 120 to run air rings in the pond and filter. Full boil for this tank :grin:

[Ian]

Oh.. Jackie... I hold seminars every weekend on pond building, filter building, digging, and plumbing. Some guy named Wayne showed up for the digging seminar but never came back ? :frisbee:

[Jackie Ramo]

Oh I think digging seminars are a great idea. How about we have the next one at my place? I'll supply some nice cold refreshments :grin: Then we can have a plumbing seminar :grin: I have a great shovel but no one who knows how to use it !rofl

[Busy B]

You are a clever guy aren't you Ian...are you convinced K-1 is the way to go?

[Dman]

Ian,
The only thing I think I missed on this is the out flow.
I got the inflow on barrel one (mech) 12inched up, right? Then two connectings to the Bio barrel, near the top. Two drains for waste, one in each at the bottom. Where's the water go from there?
Dman

[Tom C]

Now that's what I'm talking about. Who need to spend $3,000 + on a Nexus. I have a home made filter just like this on one of my QT tanks.

Tom

[Ian]

Sorry, I've been pretty busy with my job... and a long honey-do list when i get home :wink:

Dman, a better picture showing the two pipes I've used for the out-flow. Using two to keep up with the flow rate going through the barrels. 1200gph
http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/diybarrel_01.jpg
The home made air ring for the bottom of the bio-barrel. I removed the one out of the mechanical barrel as it didn't help purge the waste out, just mixed it up more. We found it was just to easy to drain with out air.
http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/diybarrel_03.jpg
Just a picture of the air connections, T'd off from the air pump - one to the bio-barrel and one to the tank.
http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/diybarrel_04.jpg
This tank had about 140 small koi (5"-8") put into it a couple days after it was built and the barrels done. We seeded the bio with a few handfulls of K-1 from another filter, just a small hicup of ammonia for about three days, no nitrite reading what so ever.

BusyB, it sure seems we are leaning heavily on K-1. It is the bulk of our bio on all our systems now and slowly turning over to mechanical applications on each system.

[Ian]

Tom, seeing as Terri won't let me have another Nexus I'm doing another barrel system for a larger tank (2500gal) :grin:

This system is going to be gravity fed. All connections are 4".
http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/barrels_01.jpg
Barrel number one... 4" toilet flange 1/4 way below the top of the barrel which will be where the bottom drain will connect. The white 4" pipe is where an Answer is going to sit.
http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/barrels_02.jpg
Just to give you a visual of what the Answer will look like in the barrel. I can't have another Nexus but Terri didn't say anything about another Answer :frisbee:
http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/barrels_03.jpg
http://backyardpuddle.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10001/barrels_04.jpg
Once I get this up and running I'll update. Gearing for next weekend if my pumps arrive.

[Tom C]

Ian, very nice. If I had the room I would have save the extra few thousand on filters and did something like what your doing.

A few questions for you. In my homemade filter like yours, I used air stones. Tell me a little more about this air ring of your. How did you make the holes in it, and how many did you add? What size tubing is it? What size air pump are you running on it?

I doesn't shock me that you didn't get a nitrite spike on that tank. For some reason these tanks with K1 in them work great.

Tom

[GregBickal]

Cool. I just got my first Alita 45 air pump this weekend.

[Busy B]

Did you get it at the show Greg?

[Ian]

Thanks Tom, The air ring is poly tubing 3/8 or 1/4 will do. A few of them I had used a small drill bit but the bubbles were to big for me. Now I heat up a pin with a propane torch and poke the poly tube every inch to an inch and a half on a twelve inch diameter circle. A 40 linear air pump works such a ring but an 80 or 120 is better as I use 2nd poly ring around the pump as it seems to work like a bottom drain diffuser and pulls waste to the pump.

[Busy B]

Looking over your plans again Ian..

Could you use springflo instead of the K1?

And what size pumps are you using for the smaller and the 2500 tanks?

[ozzyrockman]

Busy, I know I might catch a little heck by saying this however I would use the K1 because I don't think the springflow has as good of total surface area for bacteria to grow as the K1.

For the sake of argument if I where to consider an alternative to spring flow I would use bird netting yep the stuff used to cover fruit trees packed tight in a 4" pvc drain pipe however cleaning it is nasty. The bird netting is the media I would use in the first barrel as an alternative to the answer and just remember cleaning is nasty in comparison to what Ian made.

I am flowing 3600gph thru a total of a bit over 5 gallons (will be adding 10 more litres) of k1 for a 4800g pond and would not be afraid to flow 5000 gallons an hour thru it due to its design with the small openings that hold bacteria. They do have alternatives to the K1 however I would want to know if any of those other medias are used in waste treatment plants. Allen

[Jackie Ramo]

I use bird netting in the biofalls. Folded and stacked in bags. Has worked nicely and easy to clean.

[Dave in Innisfil]

Ian, is there any way I could condense your version to a single 55 gallon plastic barrel ? My DIY skimmer/filter uses a fibreglass filter to strain the pine needles, and fibreglass wool to strain the rest, and is clogging up every couple of days it's working so well (OK, 'cause my pond's so dirty... LOL) My plan is to extend the pump's 1.5" discharge to the top pond to a barrel in the centre of my top bog. A two-barrel set up would have to be piped to our pond/garden barn, with lots of resulting complications. I've got a 220V pool pump sitting idle, but I fear the cost to wire to my house panel, and run continuously might be a tad high. The one barrel filter would be to augment the skimmer and natural bog filtering I rely on now. My pump sits on the bottom of our main pond in a large plastic planter surrounded by lava. Looking at the cleanliness of my discharge, I'm thinking the lava is saturated with muck already, but would mean I have to drain 3/4 of our pond water to remove and clean.

For cleaner water, I'd commit to wading once a week in the top pond to replace dirty filters. Seems my only other option is to rig up a manual pond vacuum system. I can already see the look on Tina's face when I am willing to vacuum our pond but not our carpets.

[Jackie Ramo]

I can already see the look on Tina's face when I am willing to vacuum our pond but not our carpets.

Probably very similar to the look on Smith's face when he sees me vacuuming the pond :) I don't do the house.. either

[Ian]

Sorry late... All work no play.. But as of late Terri would be best to answer to how they really work because she is the one that has done the majority of the maintanance. We get some great growth out of smaller tanks and have alot of healthy fish. Worth the cost believe you me :wink:

I think one barrel of static k-1 adds a nice mechanical filter easy to clean, plus I do believe it adds a fair bit of bio.

Got to run.. greasy chicken awaits....don't ask

Regards Ian

[Busy B]

OK Terri...when you have time *hint*

But I'm patient :grin:

[Terri]

Hint taken... :grin:
I agree with Allen, K-1 would be the better choice of media to use. Not only would you get more surface area for bio purposes but when used for mech filtering K-1 is excellent for trapping waste/fines and very easy to clean - plus it will not clog/channel, or so it's been my experience.

For the pump fed K-1 filters we're using Danner magdrive pumps(pondmaster), with 2" outlets you can only push so much volume(about 900 to 1200gph). For the larger tanks with gravity fed K-1 we're using 750 series Sequence 4200 pumps, these are a good match so far.

As to maintenance, cleaning the gravity fed tends to be quicker/easier than that of the pump fed systems... but I think that goes across the board no matter what medium you're using. What saves time with Kaldnes is not having to hose it off like you would pads or other media's(springflow) to get rid of trapped waste,... all I do is give it a good swirl a couple times while flushing the barrel- using air stones(or rings) would allow one not to get their hands dirty.

Dave, pine needles are hard to deal with, even with a K-1 set up you would want something to catch those needles. Using a course filter pad ontop would be sufficiant.

[Busy B]

Thank you Terri!

Your setup looks like something I can try and imitate for the winter tank. Still need to make one but now I have some ideas on how to.