Thread: retrofit bottom drain

hi
considering fitting a retrofit bottom drain with aeration. would like to connect EA 10000 vari pump.
Who's using what make and the pro's and cons please.

Regards
keith

I take it no one has anything to say good or bad about retrofit aerated bottom drains.
looks like spending a few hours reading up about the pros and cons.

keith

thanks for reply i shall do some reading up and have a wonder around youtube so far eco filtration seems the front runner.

keith

Hi Keith
if you do find out let me know please , I bought one 2 years ago and can’t get it going with my Aquammax 8000 . I’ve just bought a EA20000 vari pump so hopefully better luck with this .
steve

hi steve when you say cant get it to work do you mean its not pulling muck up into the filters etc.
what retro bottom drain did you buy. looking at youtube and reading up about the Eco filtration aerated bottom drain this afternoon it recommends 60/80 L/min.
Im looking to pull from pond to a stand alone sieve onto a homemade barrel filter then pumped into easypod auto then back to pond.

keith

steve im sure you've will have tried everything,
but got me thinking where was your pump situated with regards to bottom drain.if it was dry mounted it would need priming as there would be an air lock in the pipe from pump to aerated drain. nothing like stating the obvious .

my thoughts so far are to connect drain to pump with a short length of pipe not using jubilee clips dont want koi rubbing against clips.

Let us know how you go on ive got an hour spare in the morning so will have gander at youtube.

Keith

Hi Rolo
i can’t seem to get pressure from the bottom drain through the pump .
pump is on pond floor about 2-3 feet away , or it was , I’ve taken bottom drain out .

I’ll have look on YouTube and how to set up with EA20000 as not tried yet .

steve

hi steve
that's a mystery apart from L/pm for air pump can't find any mention of what size pump to use.
Before spending just short of £100 on a retro fit bottom drain first thing im going to try is to drop a big flat air stone right next to the submerged pump and see if the sieve is collecting more crud. £8 for a new length of air pipe as opposed to £100 ( tight yorkshireman).
I'll let you know the result.
keith

I’ve been using one for maybe 12 months ish on an aquamax 8000,it was delivering flow to filter but wasn’t clearing bottom so I changed to a 20000 vario pump hoping I could max my flow to filter and in turn get a better draw from the drain but I’ve had nothing but problems- the flow was terrible even on max setting of 10 which should be 19000lph there just wasn’t enough flow and after a few days it would slow or stop completely I’m guessing an airlock issue,I’ve now gone back to pump cage and my flow at the filter is increased so much that setting number 1 is adequate so was deffo an issue somewhere with the drain
I had it setup as above with the pump in the pond maybe a meter away from the drain hardpiped all
the way to filter via 40mm/1.5” pipe

Originally Posted by Frimley Koi keeper

Only just seen this thread.

I fitted a retro BD on mine last year or could have been the year before?

I used pressure pipe from the retro BD to an EA 20,000 lph variable speed pump then pump up to a uvc, pump fed sieve, Eazy Pod and then back to the pond

Have you any pics of this setup mate please? I’m thinking of adding a sieve before a nexus on a pump fed system