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  1. #81
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion NickK-UK's Avatar
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    I just stuck my GoPro clone under the water with it's waterproof housing. The sun is off the pond. Ignore the timestamp

    First - I still get a couple of bits at this end of the pond if you look at the left of the picture as the mottley mob come to investigate the hand in the water (the small back are the green tench):

    Screenshot 2020-06-22 at 19.00.58.jpg

    The bottom left goes down to the pump (only one in the pond).

    I caught the most skittish koi snapping in the shallow spot out of the flow. They all fight for this spot as it's warm but it shows that by the waterfall (only return to the pond). I get the most bits as the food simply gets broken up by the flow (top right). a little to the top right are the roots that the timid green tech sit in.
    Screenshot 2020-06-22 at 19.01.52.jpg


    As you can see - I still get tint, more brownish than green along with some food but I don't get anywhere near that level of larger bits floating around.

    Screenshot 2020-06-22 at 19.14.49.jpg

    Screenshot 2020-06-22 at 19.14.58.jpg
    14000l, my mutts: Chargoi (2010), Doitsu (2022), Tancho (2022), Kujaku (2022), Hi Utusri (2022)

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  3. #82
    Senior Member Rank = Gosai Stephen01's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by NickK-UK View Post
    I just stuck my GoPro clone under the water with it's waterproof housing. The sun is off the pond. Ignore the timestamp

    First - I still get a couple of bits at this end of the pond if you look at the left of the picture as the mottley mob come to investigate the hand in the water (the small back are the green tench):

    Screenshot 2020-06-22 at 19.00.58.jpg

    The bottom left goes down to the pump (only one in the pond).

    I caught the most skittish koi snapping in the shallow spot out of the flow. They all fight for this spot as it's warm but it shows that by the waterfall (only return to the pond). I get the most bits as the food simply gets broken up by the flow (top right). a little to the top right are the roots that the timid green tech sit in.
    Screenshot 2020-06-22 at 19.01.52.jpg


    As you can see - I still get tint, more brownish than green along with some food but I don't get anywhere near that level of larger bits floating around.

    Screenshot 2020-06-22 at 19.14.49.jpg

    Screenshot 2020-06-22 at 19.14.58.jpg
    For what it’s worth I’m running a Draco drop in On a four bay jap mat and micro k1 set up, the drum is cleaning every 8 mins or so, but with the sun shine and algae burst and the koi feeding and moving and stirring the pond up I think it’s pretty much impossible to have a completely clear pond, I’ve got zero plants in my pond so it’s the detritus that’s from my garden. That’s my ten pence worth. Good luck


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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  5. #83
    Do you have any airstones on the bottom of the pond? If you do they will continuously be shooting fines about. Try having them a foot or so unter the surface

    Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

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  7. #84
    Quote Originally Posted by sephuk View Post
    Do you have any airstones on the bottom of the pond? If you do they will continuously be shooting fines about. Try having them a foot or so unter the surface

    Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
    I've got 2 x 20cm ceramic discs on the very bottom, sharing 60l air pump between them. I actually could put these about a foot down as I have a shelf in two corners. May give that a try tomorrow. I could even turn them off as the flow rate over the water spout into the pond is generating a decent amount of bubbles.

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  9. #85
    Quote Originally Posted by Stephen01 View Post
    For what it’s worth I’m running a Draco drop in On a four bay jap mat and micro k1 set up, the drum is cleaning every 8 mins or so, but with the sun shine and algae burst and the koi feeding and moving and stirring the pond up I think it’s pretty much impossible to have a completely clear pond, I’ve got zero plants in my pond so it’s the detritus that’s from my garden. That’s my ten pence worth. Good luck


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    I agree that its going to be difficult to get 100%. I'm pump fed for a start, decent quantity of fish that are all eating well, pond in full sunshine all day etc etc.

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  11. #86
    Quote Originally Posted by DiabloDave View Post
    I think it’s worth taking three jars / glasses of water side by side. Take one from the water as it goes onto the veg channel, then as it comes out of the weir, then one in the pond.

    Im wondering if you are flushing the water too quickly through your channel and it’s taking soil/sediment with it.

    I’d definitely think about putting in another return so that you have a decent amount going straight back to your pond from your bio and then the remainder through your veg channel.

    I think you have to leave it for a decent amount of time too to take the sediment out.
    It could be that the plants in my water trough are not helping although there doesn't seem to be any stuff coming off the plants and the bits in the pond appear to be like little white bits of plastic, like it's come off the media in the bio chamber. The plants are only in there to keep the wife happy! As she's been very supportive of the oodles of money I've spent on the pond, thought it was a fair compromise! 😂

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  13. #87
    Does anyone have trouble with the gravity fed 16 and bio unit?.
    Seems like there are more fines and suspended particles with the pump fed version due to the blades on the propeller cutting it all ip into pieces.
    Im also concerned with floating fines in the pond due to the air stones on the bottom.I will try raising them to a foot or two below the surface.
    Un able to fit my gravity fed units at the moment due to putting my back out.Fed right up at the moment.Cheers.Steve

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  15. #88
    For me the bubble has burst a little on my Draco drum. Constant issues with the water level changing in the pond and filters (goes up and down as the drum get dirty/clean) that it’s more effort than I thought. The other day my pond lost 2” of water and it was because of the above where almost all of the water was pumped out of my bio because the drum had run a certain number of cleans with the float in the horizontal trigger mode that it had then put all of the filter water into the pond which had overflowed continuously.

    I’m at a point that I think I HAVE to install an auto too up but because of the silliness of how the levels are constantly changing in the drum, the bio and the pond I’m just not sure how I can get it to work.

    Basically I don’t think you can run a gravity fed system anywhere near the flow rates they say as it’s definitely causing the above issues!

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  17. #89
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DiabloDave View Post
    For me the bubble has burst a little on my Draco drum. Constant issues with the water level changing in the pond and filters (goes up and down as the drum get dirty/clean) that it’s more effort than I thought. The other day my pond lost 2” of water and it was because of the above where almost all of the water was pumped out of my bio because the drum had run a certain number of cleans with the float in the horizontal trigger mode that it had then put all of the filter water into the pond which had overflowed continuously.

    I’m at a point that I think I HAVE to install an auto too up but because of the silliness of how the levels are constantly changing in the drum, the bio and the pond I’m just not sure how I can get it to work.

    Basically I don’t think you can run a gravity fed system anywhere near the flow rates they say as it’s definitely causing the above issues!
    Dave I find with mine I had to find a medium. As in flow. I played with my pump on my draco nexus 320. My pump is 30000lph. Vario. I played from 15000lph
    To 10000lph. Inbetween there I found the most stable for my drum and nexus was 10000lph. Which was 11000lph. Running over a shower.
    I emptied my nexus twice into the pond. That was due to the senser switch. I found with mine. After stopping it needed resetting. So after a shut down and stopping the drum. Then restart up. I just activate the lever.
    With my finger. And on mine i found it reset mine. If i don t do this. And wait for it to automatically wash The same can happen it will empty my nexus.

    Also i drilled 2 x holes in the waste tray. Where the waste drain pipe slots in at the side. This way i find i can trickle in and out.
    And i know exactly where the water level should always be. As i cannot see the level
    Inside the drum waste tray.

    After i did that i played with the senser to give the drum roughly 40 minute clean.
    It's been running now incident free for 3cweeks now.
    Someone on here told me if the digital clock goes to 99. It will empty my nexus.
    Also you have to in my opinion have trickle in and out.
    Hope this may help you.
    Fred

    Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

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  19. #90
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion davethefish1's Avatar
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    Not really what i wanted to hear problems with drums,
    As I'm looking for one myself for 2500 gall rebuild.

    Makes me want to go old school like my old pond.
    Cleaner Midwater feed to filters
    and separate purge chamber for bottom drains...
    send all the crap straight to waste, not to the filters...

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  21. #91
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion NickK-UK's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by blondie View Post
    Does anyone have trouble with the gravity fed 16 and bio unit?.
    Seems like there are more fines and suspended particles with the pump fed version due to the blades on the propeller cutting it all ip into pieces.
    Im also concerned with floating fines in the pond due to the air stones on the bottom.I will try raising them to a foot or two below the surface.
    Un able to fit my gravity fed units at the moment due to putting my back out.Fed right up at the moment.Cheers.Steve
    I will be moving to a gravity fed and bio once the new pond is actually built. However it will be driven by airlifts so it's unlikely to have the same maceration effect as a pump impeller. If the pumps are macerating the bio output then we should have seen the same problem for all drums with a bio. If the bio is grinding the medium and causing plastic shards, it would be interesting to know which media is being used. Mine is 50l of HelX13 media in a standard (185l) slower cycling.
    14000l, my mutts: Chargoi (2010), Doitsu (2022), Tancho (2022), Kujaku (2022), Hi Utusri (2022)

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  23. #92
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion NickK-UK's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DiabloDave View Post
    For me the bubble has burst a little on my Draco drum. Constant issues with the water level changing in the pond and filters (goes up and down as the drum get dirty/clean) that it’s more effort than I thought. The other day my pond lost 2” of water and it was because of the above where almost all of the water was pumped out of my bio because the drum had run a certain number of cleans with the float in the horizontal trigger mode that it had then put all of the filter water into the pond which had overflowed continuously.

    I’m at a point that I think I HAVE to install an auto too up but because of the silliness of how the levels are constantly changing in the drum, the bio and the pond I’m just not sure how I can get it to work.

    Basically I don’t think you can run a gravity fed system anywhere near the flow rates they say as it’s definitely causing the above issues!
    I think this would be a problem for all drums - they have a change water levels in the drum (or use a larger micron mesh so maybe it's less apparent). Perhaps a way to mitigate this is using a set weir system so that only a certain level of water is drained from the bottom drain even if the water levels vary - or possibly a pre-sieve taking out the larger stuff reducing the rate of waste hitting the drum.

    If you think about it - if the drum can't handle the rate then all that would happen is that the clean side drops causing repeated cleans. It would increase the water (as the water is pumped out of the filter by the pump but not refreshed) causing the pond level to rise and if the pond overflow is setup with the waste chute then the inlet level rises and overflows. The question I have is it would then sit at that height unless the drum suddenly can cope with the water rate and the water surges through to refill the empty filter and the cycle starts again (causing the water level to drop).
    In this scenario you shouldn't loose water but the pond would rise/lower the water level after the first loss. The surges simply cause a massive rate increase in waste entering the drum which compounds the issue.

    This would make me think that the clean drum could handle the rate but once the level of waste builds up the drum can't handle the flow rate. The wash then results in the drum being clean and the cycle restarts.

    So this makes me think you're right - but perhaps the flow rate vs the amount of waste for that flow rate ("rate of waste"). A larger micron "high flow" screen would suffer less but it would still have a variation in height. The way I would perhaps go is a larger drum area with a lower water level difference level trigger - which points to the drum being too small (physically) to handle the rate of waste.

    In a grams of waste per hour rather than simple liters per hour is needed to rate drums?

    If you put a larger drum (physically a larger area) it allows for more waste rate to have passed through before it needs flushing, slowing the cycle. If you put a larger micron mesh, the rate at which the waste rate needs flushing reduces for smaller particles (so, logically, if you have large particles then it's not going to help).

    So this sounds like a stock vs throughput (rate of waste).



    An aside.. I did experience an interesting effect with a hydro lock, where the water rushing out of the 4" return into the waterfall head was above the pipe return. The water exiting caused a syphon effect, emptying the bio until the pump caught up and then repeating. It was fixed by removing the 90 bend on the end of the pipe so it was open to the air. Not related but caused an overflow in the pond loosing water level as a result .
    14000l, my mutts: Chargoi (2010), Doitsu (2022), Tancho (2022), Kujaku (2022), Hi Utusri (2022)

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  25. #93
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by davethefish1 View Post
    Not really what i wanted to hear problems with drums,
    As I'm looking for one myself for 2500 gall rebuild.

    Makes me want to go old school like my old pond.
    Cleaner Midwater feed to filters
    and separate purge chamber for bottom drains...
    send all the crap straight to waste, not to the filters...
    Nothing wrong with them mate. In just that every pond is different. As in water height.
    Pump flow. Trickle in and out. What a filter takes in and out. I just played and worked it out.
    My last drop in drum was none digital on the controller panel. On this new drop in drum. Has a digital part that times your wash from one wash to the next wash. So you know how often it washes and how quick or slow.
    Once you work that out. Just leave it running.if I emergency stop it I trigger a wash with my finger on the senser to reset.
    After the bottom drain. Best thing to be made for a pond.
    Fred

    Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

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  27. #94
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion NickK-UK's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by davethefish1 View Post
    Not really what i wanted to hear problems with drums,
    As I'm looking for one myself for 2500 gall rebuild.

    Makes me want to go old school like my old pond.
    Cleaner Midwater feed to filters
    and separate purge chamber for bottom drains...
    send all the crap straight to waste, not to the filters...
    I would just ensure your drum/chamber/filtration has a bypass for treatments.

    I am starting to think a 120-250 micron sieve in front of a drum helps reduce the impact or allow a faster flow rate but then.. you're simply adding cost that you could use on a bigger drum.
    14000l, my mutts: Chargoi (2010), Doitsu (2022), Tancho (2022), Kujaku (2022), Hi Utusri (2022)

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  29. #95
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion NickK-UK's Avatar
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    Interesting comment on fines in this - to paraphrase "algae growing in the day and then dying at night causing additional load on the filters - everyone seems to be affected this year". If true would explain it..



    I was out earlier, before seeing that, and the filter is firing more often than it has been previously (I can tell by the level of waste in the bucket).

    At about 6am this morning (bucket cleaned out last night) I had an almost full bucket. I scooped up the top and you can see the fines/algae - further scoops going down the bucket simply got larger particles and more muck.

    IMG_7891.jpeg


    Pond seems fine in the heat and the fish are sunbathing yesterday - ignoring any food..
    IMG_7888.jpg

    Then as the sun moved, the washing line blocking the sun... they follow:

    IMG_7890.jpg

    The fish seem to be following the cycle - when there's sun.. sunbathe and doze... then at night they go nuts and will take several loads of food. The grass is due to the temp position of the filter.. but then the rest of the garden will have 1 ton bags of earth soon enough.. Today is D-day for the new pond.. as I'll be ordering the BD/skimmer and 4" pipe work
    14000l, my mutts: Chargoi (2010), Doitsu (2022), Tancho (2022), Kujaku (2022), Hi Utusri (2022)

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  31. #96
    Quote Originally Posted by NickK-UK View Post
    Interesting comment on fines in this - to paraphrase "algae growing in the day and then dying at night causing additional load on the filters - everyone seems to be affected this year". If true would explain it..



    I was out earlier, before seeing that, and the filter is firing more often than it has been previously (I can tell by the level of waste in the bucket).

    At about 6am this morning (bucket cleaned out last night) I had an almost full bucket. I scooped up the top and you can see the fines/algae - further scoops going down the bucket simply got larger particles and more muck.

    IMG_7891.jpeg


    Pond seems fine in the heat and the fish are sunbathing yesterday - ignoring any food..
    IMG_7888.jpg

    Then as the sun moved, the washing line blocking the sun... they follow:

    IMG_7890.jpg

    The fish seem to be following the cycle - when there's sun.. sunbathe and doze... then at night they go nuts and will take several loads of food. The grass is due to the temp position of the filter.. but then the rest of the garden will have 1 ton bags of earth soon enough.. Today is D-day for the new pond.. as I'll be ordering the BD/skimmer and 4" pipe work
    Your description is uncannily like what we are going through. It’s just bizarre. Our fish basically won’t eat until after lunch and then in the evening say 7-9.30 they are ravenous.

    Also the same with seeking the shade then in the sun at different times of the day. My ammonia and nitrite are good but my nitrate is through the roof even though I’m trickling in and out.

    I’ve also noticed an issue with the drum not clearing the floating food that hasn’t been eaten and has been skimmed off. It just doesn’t sink and floats, goes all yucky with what looks like the contents of a Petri dish clumping it all together. It then gets stuck floating between the drum and the waste chute. Worth checking yours carefully (remember to turn it off to avoid trapping your digits! I’m not sure how to resolve this issue without making something up at the top of the water in the first drum section to stop it floating through.

    We are also getting exactly the same cycle of dead algae in the water - first thing in the morning big clumps of it then clearing by lunchtime - I’m wondering if the fish are eating the algae and that’s why they aren’t interested in the food until lunchtime.
    Last edited by DiabloDave; 26-06-2020 at 10:33 AM.

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  33. #97
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion NickK-UK's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DiabloDave View Post
    Your description is uncannily like what we are going through. It’s just bizarre. Our fish basically won’t eat until after lunch and then in the evening say 7-9.30 they are ravenous.

    Also the same with seeking the shade then in the sun at different times of the day. My ammonia and nitrite are good but my nitrate is through the roof even though I’m trickling in and out.

    I’ve also noticed an issue with the drum not clearing the floating food that hasn’t been eaten and has been skimmed off. It just doesn’t sink and floats, goes all yucky with what looks like the contents of a Petri dish clumping it all together. It then gets stuck floating between the drum and the waste chute. Worth checking yours carefully (remember to turn it off to avoid trapping your digits! I’m not sure how to resolve this issue without making something up at the top of the water in the first drum section to stop it floating through.

    We are also getting exactly the same cycle of dead algae in the water - first thing in the morning big clumps of it then clearing by lunchtime - I’m wondering if the fish are eating the algae and that’s why they aren’t interested in the food until lunchtime.
    Only real way is to disable the skimmer whilst feeding. Someone tried putting an air stone in front - that's good, turn on and blows the surface matter away but only on when feeding!

    I don't think it's the food causing their sunbathing torpor - same behaviour with both Medikoi Probiotic and JPD Yamato colour.

    Only thing I can think of is that it's like a warm muggy day for humans.. the effect of higher water temperatures directly and the higher temperature also causing lower oxygen causes the fish to become sleepy, less active and possibly learn there's no point doing much until things cool down. The colder air through an air pump supposedly cools the pond water down
    They aren't breathing excessively - just the normal relaxed rate.

    Grr.. just spotted some food rotting in the greenery in the photo.. grrr.

    Edit: Just took some underwater footage - once they get spooked they stir up quite a bit of bits so we'll see what the comparison is like tonight. I can understand why the system is washing more frequently. I don't change the speed of the water going through the filter so all of this is generated from inside the pond. I can only assume the increase in food intake results in more waste. What I should do is shove the waterproof camera into the drum inlet..


    EDIT2.. I've been letting it run at 10,000lph. Simply to catch up with the amount of waste (I think algae mainly) appearing during the day. I hope that the added flow rate will cause any additional mess that's settled to be filtered out.
    14000l, my mutts: Chargoi (2010), Doitsu (2022), Tancho (2022), Kujaku (2022), Hi Utusri (2022)

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  35. #98
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion NickK-UK's Avatar
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    Interesting - I shoved the waterproof camera into the filter chute and into the inlet to see the state of play. The waste bucket was full so 1/2 a bucket from last night.

    This is looking up through the waste chute and onto the inside of the drum mesh.

    Firstly - note the green line on the mesh - solid algae with some fines and chunks. The position of the green standards out because it's not directly under the jets but above the water level. In a wash cycle the drum rotates counter clockwise here but on #1 setting the wash doesn't do a complete drum rotation (the portion of the drum top right remains out of the water but washed so there's no reason to wash it. So this great area is washed and as part of the drum rotation in the wash end up above the water level. So that portion of the screen ONLY sees filtering action during the wash itself. So it's a sample of the inlet for the short period that the filter is washing, the inlet has is 'surging' with waste as the water level in the inlet dropping and the drum is rotating. It ends out of the water (and above the water chute overflow so no more waste can be added.
    That's one hell a lot of algae in that sample for what is a dip of about 5-10 seconds! Now you could say that the algae continues to grow but the drum has had a number of washes during the nighttime period and the drum sits in total darkness. So no algae growth should occur. It's also a good sign that the drum mesh looks clean from algae after the wash.
    It may be that the inlet area simply becomes a condensed concentration of algae but the water in the inlet seems relatively algae free compared to the mesh.

    This could explain why a longer wash setting (2 or even 3) would cope better with a 'waste surge' as the surge is purged from the screen during the same wash cycle. Maybe this would a suggestion during higher temps and bright sun - switch to a 2 or 3 setting.

    Secondly - the waste tray obviously needs a clean. I use mains water so it has some chlorine still in it adding a little anti bacterial effect on the tray but it definitely needs a little TLC. This drum hasn't been cleaned other than hose pipe spray shoved up the waste a few months ago. Ignore the timestamp.
    Screenshot 2020-06-27 at 08.14.44.jpg

    Next I tried getting under the waste chute to look at the drum state in operation (ie the portion of the mesh that is actively filtering). The light level (it's raining and overclouded) compared to yesterday is very low. So I tried shining a torch from the top of the housing (the waterproof camera is water proof but the torch isn't). It did show a couple of frames where the drum mesh is visible and there's lots of chunks (or snails?) and green of algae present.
    Screenshot 2020-06-27 at 08.34.31.jpg
    The Draco drum controller has a time adjustment - this changes the speed of the the clock it uses. It is likely that this also plays a part in the rotational timing of the drum cycle too. So in theory (I can't see the microcode program but the clock dictates the speed of that program execution thus a constant drum wash will vary with the clock 'speed'). My gut feeling is that the adjuster is a wash time adjustment to allow the drum rotation and the wash on/off to maximise efficiency.
    Another way to look at this is - the adjustment makes the controller run fast or slow, just like the per-second time adjustment in a mechanical watch.

    It makes me think about UVCs a little. I don't have one.

    What I really got out of this is the amount of algae the system is extracting. Naturally this seems to clump and appear in the bucket shots but seeing it close up means the drum is doing a lot... also because my pond doesn't have a UVC then the algae present doesn't appear as dead matter but as green algae. Some of the issues with fines may actually be due to the dead algae. With a UVC the algae won't due immediately but instead are returned to the pond and the left to die. If the algae dies and it's smaller than the drum then it simply becomes dead matter fines that never get removed until they settle out.
    Does a UVC stop the generations of algae - well there's still a massive amount of algae cells in the pond.. replicating.

    I'm starting to feel a UVC may effectively be adding to fines unless your filter can extract the small micron dead algae. At this level the dead algae becomes a haze or clumps into chunks. However a UVC may be better sized in the pond volume (and surface area) rather than just flow rate. The reason being the UVC needs to keep up with the replication of the algae on a full sun day - it actually needs to overtake the rate of replication of the remaining population in the pond which takes flow rate. The flow rate ensures all the existing population in the pond goes through the UVC before it can replicate further.
    To put the 'existing population' in context - algae can replicate sexually and asexually. The former is slower but has more diversity whilst the latter can occur thousands of times a day. That's a considerable rate of population replacement. Thus if your UVC isn't keeping up with the population growth then you will simply be wasting electricity.


    With the evidence that the larger algae is removed by the drum - causing drum waste load (beyond the few strings of threads). Especially over the last couple of days, the heatwave weather really made the pond water almost textured. I turned up the flow rate (yes that caused more washes) but it seemed to have an impact on the murk.

    The danger after a big heatwave is there's not enough sun to sustain the algae blooms - causing an increased oxygen load but also I should see more "dead" looking mess in the filter bucket. I'll keep an eye out today but that could be why the drum was washing a lot during the night too during the hot weather. A drum keeps up with the algae large enough to filter but the smaller simply take their space.

    Striving for energy efficiency - I'm still in two minds about a UVC for the new pond. I have a gut feeling that the Solum16 may not be able to keep up with the 'reaping' of algae to keep the larger ~12,000 pond clear in full sun and that to keep the population of algae from blooming may need the anoxic filter to be supplemented with a UVC on a timer/controller that looks at the amount of sun and temperature.

    Anyways.. I've got some decorating todo
    14000l, my mutts: Chargoi (2010), Doitsu (2022), Tancho (2022), Kujaku (2022), Hi Utusri (2022)

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  37. #99
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion NickK-UK's Avatar
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    Update.

    It's been windy/rainy over the last couple of days and now the sun is back and so too is the increased wash cycle. I emptied the bucket (this is a base container of the revolution 9000 so it's a large bucket) and this morning it was full and the first was I triggered manually was a #2 wash. Full pressure from the tap at the moment. A lot of mess and the small bucket all the way down - light to dark green.

    It's interesting that the during the non-sunny period, the amount of mess in the water increased as a blip which I assume is dying algae, and then reduced. Only now with the sun out again it's ramping back up.

    I have noted that the switch to JPD food and the summer in full has resulted in a lot of tannin in the pond water. I think I may try some Mediclay as this acts as a flocculant.

    Update 16/7/2020 - currently the washes are over an hour apart during the day. Noted last timings of anything from 40 minutes (peak), to 70-90min rough average and off the scale. Most activity seems to occur at night, I assume the fish area rummaging around and less active during the day.
    14000l, my mutts: Chargoi (2010), Doitsu (2022), Tancho (2022), Kujaku (2022), Hi Utusri (2022)

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  39. #100
    Senior Member Rank = Mature Champion dbs's Avatar
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    This has been a great read Nick, really pleased you have done it, I was ready to upgrade my 220 nexus to a 320 and a bead, but now am certain on going with the Solium & Bio

    I currently have the worst algae blooming every day that is taking it's toll on the water and I am struggling to stop it being some shade of green, I have even just upped my UV to a 110 (delivered today) to try and give it the big boost I think it needs (though noted and pondering your thoughts on UV, the large surface are of my current set-up is the main cause) so my new pond & system cant get here soon enough at the moment !!

    A couple of thoughts for me, my temporary pond, do I get the nexus running on it with the current pond water and K1 & K1 micro media - OR do I get the Solium & Bio and get that running on it so when the swap to the new pond happens I have a feel for it... I think keep the Nexus running on it, so indecisive

    Then, when the new pond is ready I get the Solium and Bio running on it, can I use the media from my Nexus so I have some kind of head start with the media, or do I get new media for it and risk the fish with a totally new system

    Lastly size, does anybody have thoughts on the 16's capacity, as always Budgets have to come into play and like when I got my Nexus all those years ago I ordered close to the limit on it's recommended pond capacity - with the 16 stating 7,500gal (sounds okay) but the Bio Midi stating 6,000gal am I pushing it again with a circa 5.5k to 5.75k gal pond.

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