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Thread: Always turn the drum back on!!!
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16-11-2017, 05:16 PM #1
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Always turn the drum back on!!!
Well that was a crap the pants moment... Long story, i had been out and cleaned the fine matt/wool thats in the first bay after the drum earlier today. It didnt really need it but due to me doing it less often as the weathers turning and hardly any feed going in, i needed an excuse to do a bit if a water change and just drop the bays to flush them as a routine thing.
Anyway cracked on, all done and dusted the bays back online and all sorted. Nipped out to post office to pick up a missed parcel, gets home and looks out the back doors thinking the ponds looking a little low....
S**T!! Ran out in my socks to find water pi**ing out of the filter shed and the drum waste bucket over flowing. As you do with any brown stain moment i jumped straight in, turned all the pumps etc.. off at the sockets and then it struck me, staring me right in the face, i had fogot to turn the bloody drum back on at the control panel .
I normally after turning all back on and running up do a manual rinse to make sure alls working but obviously today was my forgetfull day. Ponds lost about a foot of water so its got a water change alright... could have been alot worse though so lucky i found it when i did.
So for all of us with pump fed drums, DONT FORGET TO TURN IT BACK ON AFTER ANY MAINTENANCE ha ha
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16-11-2017, 06:08 PM #2
Lee, don't forget to turn your drum back on after any maintenance will you......stick a big sign on it...'I Lee must remember to
turn my DRUM BACK ON AFTER ANY MAINTENANCE'' .
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16-11-2017, 06:45 PM #3
Lee, if your drum suffered a blown fuse or other outage, would you have similar flooding?
And if so can you install some kind of overflow?Last edited by dc197; 16-11-2017 at 06:49 PM.
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16-11-2017, 08:14 PM #4
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Thats a very good point dc about if the control panel for some reason packs up, ive now plugged my main BD pump into the drum controller so if the control unit trips/faults or i bloody forget to switch on then the pump will turn/stay off.
I only had the skimmer pump and uv on it before today (theres only 2 power sockets on it) i never even noticed the skimmer not running
Skimmer will be off for the winter once all the leaves have dropped and the covers go on so it hopefully shouldnt be an issue fron now on. Was just one of those dumb moments i think ha ha
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16-11-2017, 08:16 PM #5
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Ha ha a moment of numptyness anne will haunt me now ha ha. I will be so maticulous now i doubt i could ever forget it again. Thing is i always always run a manual clean after having it off to make sure but for some reason i never did today.
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16-11-2017, 08:19 PM #6
No float switch in your pond?
It would actually be fairly simple to put a float switch inside the drum to control the pump in this kind of situation. Otherwise your pond is at the mercy of any fault that affects the drum motor or spray bar and not the pump.2016 new 6000 gallon pond
https://www.koiforum.uk/pond-construc...ghlight=feline
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16-11-2017, 08:33 PM #7
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Always turn the drum back on!!!
No float switch lara, i never got round to fitting one as when i first installed the drum i had the BD pump into the controller so the pump woukd shut off etc.. The skimmer line was completely seperate but since ive plumbed the skimmer into the drum too i switched the plugs over (bit of an after thought to be honest) now ive swapped them back over (skimmer on own socket and BD to drum unit) if the skimmer keeps pumping after the drum turns off it can only physically drop the pond to the bottom of the skimmer mouth so should be covered now from all angles (well it will still overflow but only to that point so fish will be safe)
Ive also been meaning to rig the drum waste into my large soakaway properly but still running it on a bucket so i can manually tip the heaviest crud away rather than it going into the soak away and festering. (I put it in the compost heaps or on the garden normally)
Ive just been a bit slack this year with other things grabbing my interest and the point of planning a rebuild at some point next year where i will be going gravity fed etc.. so i suppose ive just plodded along this year.
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16-11-2017, 08:36 PM #8
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Always turn the drum back on!!!
Sorry just fully understood what you meant now lara, if something mechanical goes in the drum the pump(s) will remain running as the control unit will stay on ay. That is a very, very good point and now there is my job for the weekend. Im not going to be able to sleep now
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16-11-2017, 08:40 PM #9
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I Cant actually believe ive been so dopey and not even thought about these dialemmas. Suppose ive just put my trust in the drum but today has opened my eyes at how quickly it can go south.
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16-11-2017, 09:45 PM #10
We all live and learn Lee,i wouldnt have thought of that happening but now we have all learnt by your expense.
Dont think it will happen again Lee.John
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16-11-2017, 09:51 PM #11
Your not the only one Lee; MWrightlx (AEM Drum Thread) has had a shocker this week also. You’ll get it sorted mate.
Rob.
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16-11-2017, 10:07 PM #12
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16-11-2017, 10:10 PM #13
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Cheers rob, yes i saw that one mate hope he gets his sorted, at least mine was a simple doh mistake hopefully mwtightix is also a simple one. Certainly opens your eyes and im definatly looking to put a float switch on the pond now until i do whatever next year. Problem is if the covers where on i would never have even noticed and it could of been a whole different story.
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16-11-2017, 10:11 PM #14
Nightmare when you think about it Lee,you will have to do some sort of mod on it asap !!!!
John
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16-11-2017, 10:17 PM #15
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Always turn the drum back on!!!
Thats the plan john, to be fair though (touch wood) ive never had an issue with the pond dumping in all the years ive had one. Obviously before the drum it was just the bay so it just overflowed and bypassed it back to pond if any issue like blocking etc... but with the drum the waste is waste ay so cant bypass it, might try and rig an overflow just under waste tray hight to bypass the drum but could be very fiddly getting levels right etc... i still trust the drum as nothing failed just wasnt turned on but a float switch is a good idea ay. Be a different story once i go gravity, only thing then is pump may run dry but at least the fish will be safe.
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17-11-2017, 05:58 AM #16
i know it aint funny mate. but was pissing myself laughing. with your quotes . like brown pants.crap the pants ha ha. i could imagine you mate. running around like mad. seriously though. you got away with that one mate.
at least you have sorted the problem in your head now. like a float switch. reminds us how easy it is to get caught out. i liked anns quote as well with the signs. or mate is it an age thing ha ha. all the best lee.
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17-11-2017, 12:30 PM #17
The last issue I had with my drum was exactly as described above, pump fed drum with the pumps connected to the drum control box. A fault in the control box which shut the drum down but not the pumps resulting in the screen blocking, the drum overflowing and half my pond emptying. Luckily the way I have mine set up means that the pond only empties to half its depth and the pumps then run dry
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17-11-2017, 02:28 PM #18
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Ah so the control unit might not stop the pumps then if a fault occurs so thats not really a fool proof option either. I suppose ive just ran my luck for years but the drum with its waste tray and slight complexity as in been electrinically ran etc.. has opened up a new can of worms. Once its gravity fed it becomes alot simpler in terms of not loosing the pond level and worse case needing new pumps. Most pumps have thermal cut out etc on them anyways so would no doubt survive nowadays.
Think im going to just botch a float switch into the actual pond on to the main pump line or now until next year
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17-11-2017, 04:24 PM #19
Hello again Lee
You have a retro bottom drain into a pump don't you?
With this set up there is a risk that if something fails or leaks (e.g. the pipe taking water back from the filter to the pond springs a catastrophic leak), the pump will empty the pond all the way to the bottom.
One way to protect against that is to lift the inlet up off the bottom of the pond, but of course this is useless for you as you have a retro BD and it wouldn't suck enough debris.
I've been mentally toying with the following solution to this problem. Please let me know what you think. I reckon it would work for you and doesn't rely on any electrics (c.f. float switch, which could itself fail closed).
Instead of a flexihose all the way from the retro BD,up and out the surface of the pond, you replace it with a vertical pipe that's open at the top, connected to your BD at the bottom, and in which sits the flexihose to your dry pump.
The pump empties the water from the vertical pipe, and it then refills the pipe under gravity, sucking in from the retro BD. If the pond leaks and the water drops, the system can't empty it past the level of the open end of the flexihose.
It's only slightly less sightly than the existing flexihose come out the pond.
What do you think?
Cheers
DC
Pond rundry with BD protection.jpgLast edited by dc197; 17-11-2017 at 04:27 PM.
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17-11-2017, 07:11 PM #20
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Always turn the drum back on!!!
Thankyou for the thought and suggestion DC. However for me and my system theres a few issues with it. My retro is on a 2” extension from center of the pond to the edge where it joins the inlet of the pump (submerged), this is then 1.5” hard piped to the drum in the shed but this does come up and over the pond wall. As the retro BD can only take 2” pipe my 12,000 pump or even my spare 8,000 would draw way more than the 2” pipe could flow via gravity to refill it. I fear crud would collect in the bottom of the standpipe too which could also bring its own issues. As im looking to rebuild/revamp the pond early next year it will be a bit too much faffing. I only have to get threw this winter essentially. I know we should never say never but in 18 odd years ive never had a pipe blow off or lost the pond level in any way (other than my own mistake yeaterday lol) at all and always had pump fed with the pumps or BD directly on the pond floor at the deepest point. The biggest difference is my system has always been able to overflow/bypass back to the pond if filtration blocked etc.. now with the drum its not really an option without hacking into the drum unit but as said due to planning to go gravity very soon its not worth it mauling it up for the short period.
Retro has been running pump fed for the past 3 years with no blockages etc.. so for now i think a simple float switch will do sat in the corner of the pond for winter
Thankyou though its really appreciated mate and to be fair its a very good idea you have put forward, my grown on tank is pretty much exactly ran like that the bd gravity fills a sump and the pump draws from half way up the sump. The sump needs flushing often to get rid of all the waste though as it settles in the sump and the pump takes little, this is how i think a standpipe would end up in your diagram depending how it was done. 4” bd and standpipe would be better as this would flow a decent amount under gravity but would no doubt need flushing out/hoovering periodically which defeats having the drum really.
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Every day feeding container?
Good shout, I'll have a look at Takazumi :)