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^The pressurized vessel as the last (sand) filter in my filter cascade (as I showed above) has the function not only to catch up the fine particles but providing the possibility to backwash the sand every week or so, thus spraying the surrounding garden with the water containing the fine particles (actually the fish shit) whether it is with nitrate or ammonium residua or whatever...
And the garden likes it...
Believe it or not, I was actually thinking to include your back-wash routine in my reply.. Any paranormal skills you have Klondyke..lolQuote:
Originally Posted by Klondyke
So the waterfall is running, and with all of your suggestions the water is clearing up a bit.
and it is time yo tidy-up the area. I got tired of the dogs walking in the mud and walking all over my just cleaned tiles.
So it is grass time. I was going to do it myself, but every place I went to buy it, they wanted to do it themselves, and it was so inexpensive , I let the,. The whole thing cost $70 usd. including a nice thick layer of good dirt under the grass.
If you can find it in your area the dirt brand was "Diamond" and it came in green bags, It is good stuff. I will go buy some more later for my flower beds, and will post a picture of it.
They striped the old grass off,
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laid the grass down ( Non Noy I think it is called) and rolled the heck out of it
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and all for the equivalent of $70. I am beginning to like Thailand more LOL.
Notice how I am holding my beer stomach height? That's so it would not have far to go. LOL
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I did stump on the grass a bit, so I can honestly say I helped.
That's looking good!.. Now off to Home-pro and get that lawn-mower.. your beer stomach will be gone in a couple of days.. lol
Before we left the US we shared a container with others in the area and shipped a number of large boxes with clothes, kitchen equipment, and some tools, included in one box is my self propelled craftsman lawnmower.Quote:
Originally Posted by Schuimpge
I have it all figured out. tie the lawn mover with a rope to a pivot post, every time the lawnmower goes around the rope wraps it's self on the post becoming shorter and moving the lawnmower close. What can go wrong? LOL
It was supposed to have arrived already, but I guess the blockage of the Suez Canal slowed things down. No worries as we did not really need any of it. Though I do miss my Kitchen aid artisan stand mixer, Ninja airfryier/ Foodi grill, and cast iron crock pots. Friday, I start construction of a 13x18 ft utility room to house my toys.
Nothing fancy , since it is under the house and all I have to do is put up the walls, a couple of windows, a door.
I will start a thread about, it should be a short thread. .
Lawn mowing made easy... - YouTube
No construction in Thailand could possibly be captured in a short thread... if it is a short thread, then sure you're hiding mistakes and disasters..Quote:
Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai
Ah ok, so you're gonna run behind it?Quote:
Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai
I was thinking run from it when the rope brock LOLQuote:
Originally Posted by Schuimpge
Then I guess best to start practicing in front of it....lol...Just to make sure you get fast enough...Quote:
Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai
Made a little airlift pump for the pond at my brother's house this weekend. Had never tried one before, but boy does that thing pump...
it's very simple, takes maybe 15-20 minutes to make and basically what it does is to lift water from the bottom of the pond and pump it out at or above the water level.
You can use it purely as a circulation pump, which is valuable when having koi. Or you could lift the water up and drop it into a filter before it flows with gravity back into the main pond.
Attachment 72179
See the first outlet. This is before attaching the airlift at the other side inside the pond.
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Here I switched on the air. The volume coming out is much bigger.
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And a look at the pump.
Basically, it's a 4" pipe that sits about 5cm above the bottom of the pump.
The top is a T that has a 1.5" side which is the diameter of the inlet to the sump.
In the bottom of the 4" pipe I've attached an airstone with a tie-rap and that's it.
I'm using a small air pump that runs 6 air stones in total. 1 inside the airlift, 5 others spread throughout the sump and pond.
I had 2 airstones inside but disconnected one because the pump could not keep up with the volume going into the sump..lol.
You could just fix this to a side of the pond and the water will start circulating a lot more than before, helping oxygenation as well.
https://www.koinet.net/j/images/kn2/figure3-800.jpg
Here's a drawing of a pump.
I used a T with open top. This helps to make the water flow faster as the air can escape upwards.
Also, in my setup I used a T with smaller diameter, but that's purely to fit the outlet. Same diameter would again be better for flow rates.
Hi Schuimpge,Quote:
Originally Posted by Schuimpge
Sorry for the late reply, I only just saw your post, as I have said before on another tread, one f the problem with this forum is that there is no convenient way of getting notifications when someone replies to you or to a post you follow.
Your lift pump It is a brilliant idea and oxygenates the water also. I had used something similar very many years ago when I was maintaining a very large salt water aquarium. It was a protein skimmer. It was a very simple devise that removed organic compounds from the water. You can easily make one yourself. but in the US they sell good ones already made,
A long clear acrylic tube so you can see what is going on, but it does not have to be, PVC pipe will do.
water goes in 3/4th of the way up , and exits from the bottom , an air stone at the bottom would introduce air bubbles rising against the water flow and try to lift the water much like your list pump. but the tube would be too high for the water to be lifted high enough to escape. foam from the organics would fill the top 1/4th and overflow from the top into a collecting cup. You will be amazed how much it helped keep the water clean. I might make one for my pond, but my water is clearing up nicely for now.
Attachment 73189
As I said above, my water is clearing up nicely. I can see the bottom of the pond now.
Aside the bio-ball filter, and the water running down the waterfall and trough moss , at the advice of my neighbor, I introduced floating waterplanes into the pond. The plants look nice, the fish love them and their long roots hanging under them soak up nutrient. So far it is working nicely.
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That really looks way better than before!
The floating plants you have look like water lettuce? They're good animal feed what I heard.
Guess you're spending much more time looking into the pond now that you can see the bottom?! lol
Recently fell in-love with Kois and ponds, but I've managed to kill over 30 Kois in a span of six months. Bought a dozen Kois again a week ago and have an appointment with a friend to purchase another dozen Kois for another pond tomorrow. Wish me luck guys!!! Koi ponds are harder to manage than plants or flower gardens.....
Grace, welcome back. Surely aren't you throwing good money after bad until you've solved why they are dying?
My thoughts as well. Would help if you give some pictures, dimensions of your pond, what filtration you have etc.
Because Koi actually are quite hardy fish even with very little maintenance for the pond. (that is if there's at least some filtration and oxygenation properly running.
Trying to have a pond with natural filters such as underwater plants and floaters. Also, trying to have a pond with no aerators as the power system in PI is real shitty and hours of black-outs would kill the fish. Easier said than done. I do use a small solar-powered fountain in the pond, but it doesn't operate at night.Quote:
Originally Posted by Schuimpge
Waiting for the rains to stop so I could build another pond. Will try to post it here once work in that pond has started, but it's really hard to construct something in this weather. It has been raining cats and dogs for months. I miss the hot sunny days.
Trying to get to the bottom of it, but I'm new to this pond thing, so have to read and research about fish and ponds as I go.Quote:
Originally Posted by malmomike77
In my limited experience, I've learned that when fish get sick, you don't have loads of time to troubleshoot the problem because they die way too quickly before you could even start to fix their environment. It's really v frustrating.....
Why not use a small UPS and an air pump filter? I assume that your pond has a plastic liner to keep the water in? No soil on the bottom..
If you work with a small air pump, it's like 45 Watt power draw. A desktop UPS will supply many hours of power to run that air pump.
Also, the UPS and the air pump can be put inside your house or a garden shed, running only the air-hose to the pond. That will keep electric equipment safe and dry.
Can put some simple drawing together for you if you like. It's a bit of PVC pipes, an air-stone (bubble stone) and some air hose connected to the air pump.
The deeper the pond, the better it works, but sure it will help a lot to improve the water quality and it will provide movement in the water which is important for Koi as well.
Absolutely! A drawing would be helpful and would give me some valuable insight and pointers when I build my pond. Right now, my ponds are made of glossy sacks which are meant to be temporary. Another concern if I use filters and aerators would be the power supply as we experience 3-6 hours of brownout almost every day.Quote:
Originally Posted by Schuimpge
Is a plastic liner really necessary? I thought you could mix some stuff in the cement to minimize water leaks/absorption or something like that.
Hey Grace ^ Nice to see you back posting.
I am working on a Koi pond at the moment and it will be positioned under a shelter and receive no direct sunlight.
Will this be a negative issue?
By the way thanks to those that have contributed their ideas and expertise to this thread. Very handy indeed! :)
Rain is probably your problem. I was doing great until the heavy rains started. then I started losing fish. I talked with people where they sell fish and I was told that the rain changes the PH ,and reduces the absorbed oxygen (I would have thought the opposite about rain and oxygen) . I purchased a powder that you sprinkle in the water and increases the oxygen as it dissolves and it seemed to hep a little, but I still had the PH problem and god knows what other contaminants the rain introduced into the Koi pond.Quote:
Originally Posted by GracelessFawn
I was told Koi need highly oxygenated water.
then I got a big tent that I had from a party occasion and put it over the portion of the pond that was exposed , and that solved the problem from me.
Now that the rains have stopped I took the tent away, and my fish are doing fine. Next year if I am still in Thailand I will istall a retractable awning.
I also build a filter out of one of those blue plastic barrels the water is sprayed on the top with a spray bar I made out of PVC pipe. it first trickles through a glass wool type of filtering material, them through a layer of volcanic rock, then a layer of bio-balls, and then it is returned to the pond via a waterfall I build.
I know you mentioned , electricity problems. IMO better to use it while the power is on rather than never. My uncle has installed a couple of Solar cells at his farm where he does not have electric, for the well pump , and it was not very expensive, They have really come down in price, you might want to look into that .
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Notice the pipe set up and valves.
closing the bottom valve and opening the top sends water to spray bar.
Reversing the valve derangement, reverses the flow from bottom to top acting as a backwash.
Notice pipe all the way at the top of barrel? It acts a a return to pond in case of backwash or if filter gets clocked and overflows.
Valve with quick disconnect, to attach hose and drain water from pond.
Do not glue spray bar parts together , as you will need to take it apart every so often to clean it.
Plastic liner is not totally nessacery, The people that build mine used a waterproofing additive to the cement mix and five years later i never had a leakage problem . You might want to tile the inside of your pond as they di in pools for some added protection. I should have done it my self and if I ever drain the pond I will.Quote:
Originally Posted by GracelessFawn
Not an issue IMO, half of my pond is under the stairwell and the fish seem to prefer that side . I wish all of it was under cover as it would had solved my rain problem. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Loy Toy
^^^ I do not understand why rain would be a problem and why it would deplete oxygen in the pond. Water = H2O has oxygen....