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Thread: AEM Easy Drum

  1. #1

    Question AEM Easy Drum

    Hello i have recently purchased a AEM Easy drum filter but yet to install it. I cant get my head around the kind of setup i would need to run the drum filter properly. The drum will be used for a raised pond, 3 small goldfish tanks and a rack of two 4ft glass tanks. All of which are setup at different heights so gravity installation at water level is impossible? The outlets on the tanks are overflows so could the drum be setup below water level and the outlets on the tanks overflow into the back chamber of the drum? I am unsure on the water level that the drum operates on?



  2. #2
    Not the back chamber, the front chamber - aka the dirty side of the drum. You don’t want your dirty tank water to go direct into the drum filter without going through the filter first.


    On your raised pond, is there a bottom drain?
    What filter are you using for this currently?

  3. #3
    Hello Toffee currently the raised pond is empty. Although it does have a bottom drain installed. What would be your suggestion for the setup?

  4. #4
    Pond - ok

    and the tanks? How are you expecting those to run?
    Are you aiming for the water level in all systems to be at the same height?
    thats not impossible but because the volume in the tanks vs the pond are going to be quite different you may find the tanks water level difficult to balance.

    why don’t you just use the drum for the pond and get a large external filter or a sump system for your tanks?

  5. #5
    Oh and just to add. The drum is great for mechanical filtration, but you are still going to need biological filtration as well.

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  7. #6
    Hello yes i have got a homemade shower filled with crystal bio that will be suffice for the bio filter side. I think i will draw an illustration of my plan and you can decide if it will work or not?

  8. #7
    Screen Shot 2018-11-01 at 18.18.41.png
    Not too sure if this screenshot will work?

  9. #8
    Basically the 3 goldfish tanks will be all connected and a pipe brought up the side of the tanks will set the height off the water level from then they will overflow into the dirty side of the drum. The raised pond works on same principle with the pipe up the side to set the level and then overflow into drum? The glass tanks have a tank connector in top left off the tank and will simply overflow into dirty side of drum aswell? After the drum there will be a sump style tank containing pump to the shower filter and also the return pumps for all tanks

  10. #9
    Senior Member Rank = Nanasai GadgetBazza's Avatar
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    Hi Greg,

    if your diagram shows the relative anticipated height of your pond / tanks / drum, then even ignoring all the tanks, your drum will overflow, because the extra head of water in the pond will push the water out the top of the drum under gravity.

    Looking at the drawing, the only true gravity feed is the pond, all the other tanks are feeding by way of overflow (that is to say that the outlet level on the tank is at the top of the tanks versus the pond outlet being at the bottom.

    So, you need to set the height of the drum based upon the water level on the pond, that's a given. Then hopefully, you still have some slope between the overflow outlets of your tanks for the water to run down into the dirty side of the drum.

    You don't mention or show how you plan to return water to the tanks as far as I can see. Will you be having an additional small pump(s) feeding these tanks from the filtered water separate to the pump that is returning to the pond? You will need to make sure that the feed of water to the tanks doesn't overcome the capacity of the overflows.

    Hope that helps.

  11. #10
    Senior Member Rank = Nanasai GadgetBazza's Avatar
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    Actually Greg, I just noticed in your diagram that the return from the pond bottom drain is also raised up to the level of the pond so is also effectively an overflow.

    I think in this situation, you won't get very much flow through the drum as there is no real "weight of water" effecting any pressure on the return from the pond to the drum.

    It may well work, but I would think only with a low flow rate. I'd still suggest setting the drum at the pond level and not having the raised return pipe on the pond, hopefully you will still be able to get a run from the tanks to the drum?

    What's the main reason for pushing the tank water through the drum might I ask? Seems like a lot of work and extra pumps versus a standalone tank filter. Are the tanks large?

  12. #11
    Senior Member Rank = Nanasai GadgetBazza's Avatar
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    Also, would add that you would get an awful lot of settlement in that pond return pipe like that. All the muck will effectively stay in the bottom of the U bend because there is insufficient flow to push it through.

    Think of it like your toilet, without that flush "weight of water" the toilet won't empty, you would effectively have a trickle running through the u bend which we all know won't clear the turds!

  13. #12
    Senior Member Rank = Grand Champion andikoi's Avatar
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    i dont think 1 shower with cb will be enough for all that filtration,same as your drum,your trying to make cleaning multiple tanks and pond easy for cleaning but i think your asking too much of your drum,unless it has 4 inlets then i dont think you will do it,plus what fish are you having in your pond and tanks as effectively you will have the same water in each tank and pond,so if something goes wrong in pond such as a ph crash or high ammonia,the rest will too,same as if one has parasites so will the rest,andi

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  15. #13
    Hello thank you for the replies. iv used the system with all the tanks connected for a few years. Never had a serious problem regarding diseases and parameter problems before? i keep stocking level low with a few goldfish and Koi. 1 of the goldfish tanks is there as a backup so will be empty most of the time and the glass tanks are only used if any fry appear in my natural pond so wont be used all time either?. The only thing new is the raised pond. Will be looking at a combined capacity of around 3000l if all tanks are used. DIY shower contains 100l of Alfagrog with a 8000lph pump which keeps Ammonia and Nitrite 0.0 will definitely need to be upgraded with the addition of the pond. Nitrate is usually quite high but water changes daily via a tap and ballcock keeps nitrate reasonable. All this has been filtered with filter socks until now usually cleaned daily. Drum was purchased to replace the sock tank and generally upgrade the overall performance of the filter setup. The current layout can be changed if the design dosen't suit the drum. Probably should have mention all the tanks are in a shed out of sunlight and leaves.

  16. #14
    I wanted the drum to go in place of the filter sock tank i use. i understand its not normally how drums are setup so there maby be changes to be made?

  17. #15
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Mature Champion pip895's Avatar
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    As has been mentioned to get the best from your drum you need to set it up to gravity feed from the pond. Something like this perhaps?

    pond + tanks.JPG
    6000g in ground koi pond
    +3000g lily/Anoxic pond attached
    29 koi (40 to 65cm)
    Bottom drain, Mid water & Skimmer to Drum
    JBR boichamber->Blue eco 500 pump ->below surface return.
    Blue Eco 240 -> Large MB -> Waterfall -> Planted Anoxic pond (25 baskets)

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  19. #16
    Hello thank you everyone for the replies. I spent all day today trying to wrap my head around the best way to set up the pond via gravity feed and utilise the drum filter for the filtration of all the tanks. The current layout is almost impossible to set up for everything via gravity feed. Unfortuently the goldfish tanks are around 4 inches lower than the finished height of the pond? So having the goldfish tanks overflow into the drum wont work? I think for this year im going to install the drum on the pond via gravity feed and use a spare sieve in combination with filter socks for other tanks. Keeping them on two seperate systems. And next year i will dig out the ground under the raised pond and lower around 6 inches and raise goldfish tanks about 3 inches and go ahead with pip895's design. Thank you everyone for their replies.

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  21. #17
    While everyone is paying attention to the thread. Having closer looked into the drum setup for the pond im unsure how to set up the chamber after the drum which will house the pump for a shower filter? Does it need to be inline with the drum?

  22. #18
    Senior Member Rank = Grand Champion andikoi's Avatar
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    Yes it will gravity feed off drum so has to be same height as pond level.andi

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  24. #19
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Mature Champion pip895's Avatar
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    Is your pump submerged? Most people fit there pumps dry mounted directly after the drum.

    You need to think of what will happen both when the pond is flowing and when everything is turned off. When it is running the water level in the drum and pump chamber will be at a lower level than the pond but turn off the power and everything will fill up to pond level. If you don't have the pump chamber high enough the water will spill over the top.
    6000g in ground koi pond
    +3000g lily/Anoxic pond attached
    29 koi (40 to 65cm)
    Bottom drain, Mid water & Skimmer to Drum
    JBR boichamber->Blue eco 500 pump ->below surface return.
    Blue Eco 240 -> Large MB -> Waterfall -> Planted Anoxic pond (25 baskets)

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