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  1. #61
    Senior Member Rank = Grand Champion voodoo_15_uk's Avatar
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    Looking fab New pond build....first timer!!!!New pond build....first timer!!!!


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  3. #62
    Senior Member Rank = Nanasai Gray's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Liam77 View Post
    Gray, I’m going to say the same...no updates will be done on this pond...because I don’t think I could have made it any bigger!!!!! But then I could run a nice waterfall into the bottom tier of the garden and bui!!!!!! NO, it’s not happening!!!

    Im pleased with the way it’s gone apart from the filters don’t fit in where I would like them in the shed so I’ve had to turn it 90 degrees which is a bit of a pain as all the pipework now needs an extra bend...bit frustrated but hey ho on we go.

    cheers Fred, it always looked like a pond in my mind but now reality is very real and I can’t wait to get the water in. Hoping I’m only a couple of weeks away
    Ha, stop it...you’ll get in bother making update plans already!! I got told off for that...

    Re switching your filters around, I had the same. Planned my filter layout on the laptop, measured out, all looked good, laid the base, built some of the walls to about 4 courses and then realised when I actually put the filters in I had to swing the lot by 90deg too. I’ve got an extra 90 bend on my set up now as well and I can’t see that it’s harmed the draw and flow at all. Runs absolutely fine so I’m sure yours will too.

    A big enough pump will suck a golf ball through a hose pipe anyway was my thinking New pond build....first timer!!!!

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  5. #63
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Liam77's Avatar
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    I’ll be running 2 x 20000 aquaforte vario pumps moving 14000 lph so should have enough power. 1 running straight back and 1 on a return but with a tee piece to go over the shower. The only restriction is 25000lph Draco drum so I’m thinking I’ve got all bases covered as far as draw...we shall see in a couple of weeks!!!

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  7. #64
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Liam77's Avatar
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    Hi all, it’s been a couple of weeks since the last update and I’ve been quite busy. Filter is now all plumbed in, only 2 pipes left to connect the shower. I was a metre short but James at park farm fisheries is going to cut me a metre so I don’t have to waste the rest of a 3m length...cheers...coping stones on and a little bit of tidying up to do on the render. Window and bottom drains in today so this weekend I should be ready for the big fill!!!! I cannot wait!!!! Just got to hope now that there are no leaks!!!!

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  9. #65
    Tidy setup there Liam, you’ll have to keep us posted on how your Evolve gets on.
    Not sure if there’s many members with one as yet.


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  11. #66
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Liam77's Avatar
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    Cheers mr. Big. I don’t want to keep plugging park farm but the guy there had a synergy 35 on an indoor tank with about 20mgood sized koi. He changed it for an evolve and the water clarity is so visible. His tank right next to this one has a bead and shower on it and that water has so many particles in it he is going to change them all in future. He also stuck one on his own personal pond. I’m looking forward to seeing what challenges it throws my way but I’ll definitley be about to keep everyone updated. It’s going to be next year now before I get a real chance to test it out but hopefully it will be matured enough for my order when it comes off a nice goshiki. The exciting bit!!

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  13. #67
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Liam77 View Post
    Cheers mr. Big. I don’t want to keep plugging park farm but the guy there had a synergy 35 on an indoor tank with about 20mgood sized koi. He changed it for an evolve and the water clarity is so visible. His tank right next to this one has a bead and shower on it and that water has so many particles in it he is going to change them all in future. He also stuck one on his own personal pond. I’m looking forward to seeing what challenges it throws my way but I’ll definitley be about to keep everyone updated. It’s going to be next year now before I get a real chance to test it out but hopefully it will be matured enough for my order when it comes off a nice goshiki. The exciting bit!!
    looks the business liam. nice and neat. also lots of room in the shed. can t wait for next year. to hear results of the big test mate.

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  15. #68
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Liam77's Avatar
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    So today was/is the day!!!! Started the water off this morning after finishing off a few bits of plumbing and getting some controllers on the wall. Water has now been on for 12 hours and I recon I’m about 2/3 full. Will put a stop on it in a bit so that when it gets to the business end I have some daylight to check for leaks. One thing that gets me is my air pumps have come with no plug attached and the controller boxes on the DM vario pumps come with American 110 plugs attached so these are going to be cut off with uk plugs put back on. I suppose in this day you expect everything to come in a plug and play stylie. Guess not!!!!
    Attached Images Attached Images

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  17. #69
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    You look like the cat that got the cream.

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  19. #70
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Liam77's Avatar
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    Hi all, well it’s been a while so here goes with what I have been up to.
    So, I got a few leaks once I had done the big fill, it really does pay to over do the solvent weld so you know your chances are better. I think I may have missed putting it on both bits of pipe and I’ve still got 2 / 3 leaks which is really getting on my nerves but I spent so many hours and money on fixing the first “batch” that the new ones aren’t to big so I’ll get round to them at some point. The new ones were after the pumps so might take a bit more sorting but I’ll get there!!! I’ve got my 4 fish in from my mini pond and they were a bit freaked to start and still aren’t feeding after 5 days but I’m hoping they will settle in soon and I might change their food to something a bit more koi which may help as it will be smaller.
    I was watching a discussion on here and had seen a few vids on pumice stone for the shower and compared to other media price wise and the different benefits I went ahead with the purchase and got 50kg from QK but it’s far to early to say but I have my fingers crossed on that one. I’m hoping I won’t see the benefits of it in a way as after the leaky start the rest will be plain sailing with parameters which will mean it must be doing its thing. I got a pond bomb in my bio which is jap matting earlier today 5 days after the fish went in so they should have something to eat......nice.
    I then went head first into getting myself a microscope and got a Brunel sp22 with the eye cam plus. I’ve had a tinker with it already and you could spend hours on there looking at crap!!! Love it!!! Scraped 1 of my fish before it went in and it looked all clear which was nice. I had taken a sample from the filter on the small pond which did have little bugs but none of the big 4/5.

    i would like a bit of advice on what I’m trying to achieve with regards to flow and filters. I know the ideal once an hour but I suppose I’m more after balancing and how to change ball valves to achieve better things? I have a gap of about 3/4cm around my BD and just wondered what others have?
    also the debate of how much air? I’m running my shower with pumice and I would say it is running with more of a trickle rather than a shower. That falls back in to my bio side for the second time in quick succession and that bio section has a 30lph air pump running constantly to aid the bacteria multiplying. On top of that I have a 75lph pump which is running my 2 spindrifters but I don’t run them on full because it’s just to much so how much is ideal? Especially now we are moving into the colder months. Do the Spindrifters even need to be on now? Obviously just the air I mean. BD’s on 24/7.

    oh and would you buy any fish (1 or 2) now or would you wait till next spring considering it’s a new pond? Got my eye on a nice tancho Showa but I think it will still be there at the start of next season, amongst other beauties!!!!!

    all advice appreciated

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  21. #71
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Liam77's Avatar
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    Sorry, I suppose I should say that currently all valves are fully open and I’m just playing with the vario pumps to change flows

  22. #72
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Liam77's Avatar
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    No takers for a bit of helpful advice?

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  24. #73
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Liam77 View Post
    No takers for a bit of helpful advice?
    my bottom drain gap is about 1 inch old school
    also turnover of my pond is about an 1 hour

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  26. #74
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion john1's Avatar
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    Hi Liam, lovely build so neat and tidy credit to you mate.
    Your air sounds ok in the bio but cant help with the spindrifters as i dont have one but i wouldnt think there is a need for them to be on.
    Gap on the b/d is 1/2ins or thickness of your finger as for the valves it is best to play around with them but i allways leave one open so as not to put too much pressure on the pump.
    Can i ask how the shower works as it is over the bio,is water pumped up then gravity straight down into bio and the bio is also fed straight from the drum? good idea.
    John

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  28. #75
    Senior Member Rank = Nanasai Gray's Avatar
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    Hi Liam,

    I have one aerated BD dome and I am running 75lph through that constantly. I have a bleed valve on the line so I can lessen it over the coming months through winter but I have no intention of turning it off, just a slight bleed. If I had two domes and was running 75lph across both I'd be leaving them on. Happy to be told I am wrong on this but

    The gap on my BD is around 15-20mm - give or take - as I measured it the old fashioned way of putting my hand between the dome plate and the BD housing and fixing it in place.

    I can't advise on your set-up as what I have from a system point if view is very different to yours.

    Re the fish / stocking - the advice I got on here was to keep the stocking very light for now (I have 5 x ~2" Goldfish in) and the same for the feeding and just be patient with the maturation of the filters and then look to ramp things up a bit more when the spring comes in.

    My parameters are good even though the Ammonia is always very low but I am happy to take it slowly and not cause any spikes or crashes for now seeing as everything is running smoothly. (famous last words right...)

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  30. #76
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Liam77's Avatar
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    Cheers Fred, so around the same as mine.. I can’t be to far wrong then

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  32. #77
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Liam77's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by john1 View Post
    Hi Liam, lovely build so neat and tidy credit to you mate.
    Your air sounds ok in the bio but cant help with the spindrifters as i dont have one but i wouldnt think there is a need for them to be on.
    Gap on the b/d is 1/2ins or thickness of your finger as for the valves it is best to play around with them but i allways leave one open so as not to put too much pressure on the pump.
    Can i ask how the shower works as it is over the bio,is water pumped up then gravity straight down into bio and the bio is also fed straight from the drum? good idea.
    thanks very much John. I tried to keep it as neat as I could and it seems to have worked for me. How you have explained it is exactly how it is. You can also run an extra pump from the mechanical side straight to the shower but I didn’t feel the need with the power of the pumps already on the system. It also keeps it neat as I didn’t want to fight the sound of having it on the side of the pond with a wider feeding it back. I do want a sound of water up there so now just need to figure out how I want to do it

    on the pumps and BD question then, if you close the BD slightly and leave the pump at the same speed does that create more draw on the bottom of your pond then or am I thinking about this in a backwards kind of way?

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  34. #78
    Senior Member Rank = Yonsai Liam77's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gray View Post
    Hi Liam,

    I have one aerated BD dome and I am running 75lph through that constantly. I have a bleed valve on the line so I can lessen it over the coming months through winter but I have no intention of turning it off, just a slight bleed. If I had two domes and was running 75lph across both I'd be leaving them on. Happy to be told I am wrong on this but

    The gap on my BD is around 15-20mm - give or take - as I measured it the old fashioned way of putting my hand between the dome plate and the BD housing and fixing it in place.

    I can't advise on your set-up as what I have from a system point if view is very different to yours.

    Re the fish / stocking - the advice I got on here was to keep the stocking very light for now (I have 5 x ~2" Goldfish in) and the same for the feeding and just be patient with the maturation of the filters and then look to ramp things up a bit more when the spring comes in.

    My parameters are good even though the Ammonia is always very low but I am happy to take it slowly and not cause any spikes or crashes for now seeing as everything is running smoothly. (famous last words right...)
    yes a bleed valve wasn’t something I put on the airline but I think I will get one in rather than restrict the pump. Sounds like it’s almost running the same kind of flow as yours is then.
    I haven’t got a test kit yet but think that’s what I’ll be getting this weekend. I didn’t want to get caught up in that to much at the start especially with the time of year and the hardy fish I have in their at the mo.
    Ive just ended up putting a deposit on a couple of fish that will be going in next spring. The guy knows how new my pond is so was happy to keep them in his personal pond over winter until my filters are ready for them.its a strange kind of excitement now waiting for next spring!!!

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  36. #79
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion john1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Liam77 View Post
    thanks very much John. I tried to keep it as neat as I could and it seems to have worked for me. How you have explained it is exactly how it is. You can also run an extra pump from the mechanical side straight to the shower but I didn’t feel the need with the power of the pumps already on the system. It also keeps it neat as I didn’t want to fight the sound of having it on the side of the pond with a wider feeding it back. I do want a sound of water up there so now just need to figure out how I want to do it

    on the pumps and BD question then, if you close the BD slightly and leave the pump at the same speed does that create more draw on the bottom of your pond then or am I thinking about this in a backwards kind of way?
    Hi Liam, In answer to your last sentence,as you have two bottom drains i think it would draw more on the other drain if you closed a valve slightly or on your skimmer if that is connected to the drum.
    I would think it would be a matter of trial and error with the valves to get the best pull,can be a bit frustrating but works in the end.
    John

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  38. #80
    Moderator Rank = Supreme Champion Feline's Avatar
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    One way of balancing the flow between the 2 BDs is to do some experiments with them one at a time. Drain down the drum with the input valves all shut. Then time how long it takes to fill from each line in turn. Then experiment with slightly closing the valve of the faster-filling one to make it match the other one in terms of filling time. You can then run one valve to a slightly closed position all the time once you have an eye for how far closed it need to be to achieve this.

    It doesn't actually matter hugely much if one drain is drawing more than the other anyway so long as you do regular purges to keep pipework clean. If you notice there is more stuff on the pond floor on one side relative to the other then it's worth balancing, but if not I would not be too worried.

    In terms of air- yes you can turn BD air off when temps are colder if you want to. However make sure you always run the domes for at last a few mins every few hours to make sure your membranes don't block up with algae. It is a pain if that happens in a deep pond when you don't fancy a swim
    I would not turn BD off though if you cover the pond. I turn mine down a bit when temps drop but not completely off for this reason. Every few days I go and turn them up to full flow for an hour to make sure the dome membranes remain patent.

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