hey Lavonne it's Chris here out in Massachusetts I duplicated your bio filter and kudos to you what a great design 3 Days 2 flushes my koi pond Pond is clean..... thank you very much for your idea ,videos.
Really good job that shows a lot of experience and collected ideas. I liked the word choice and pacing. Worked like you did a script, fine flow of it all. But, like several folks commented, got bit cloudy inside the barrel under the grid. Unsure just what the manifold was all about. I have used a rubbermaid box as you showed off on the left of the barrel for about 15 years and it does the job well. But, real pita to clean and I have to watch the weather close so I can get out there and muck the thing out in cold weather. I have not read all the comments or watched your other vids on the subject and suspect I'll learn more on how to do this one. My challenge is that filter sits on top of a waterfall. I have berm of azaleas to help soften the sight and am now thinking your approach will help me a lot. Thanks Good job.
@@faroukmartin197 I use on old Kirby vacuum $50 from the Salvation OP shop here in OZ, and use the blower side with the original hose (just fits). Works great for me and it really agitates the water.
at the bottom of my filter I used an old flower pot my wife had lying around. It fit in the bottom nice and I drilled small holes for circulation and large holes for the baffle and intake. Works great so far, second year but a uv light makes a huge differnce too. Just a tweek I made looking for something to use in the bottom.
I bought the 2” shower drain you recommended, also my pump is rated to move 1500 gph. My question is can I use 11/2 pvc for inlet and outlet of the filter instead of 2”? My pond is 2000 gallons , building this filter mainly for mechanical filteration to add to my biological filteration, and also to tee off to my uv light like you show in your video. I think you did a great job in designing a filter that’s easily cleaned.
Just saw your video and love the filter system. I'm setting up a pond myself. Do you by chance have a "shopping" that I can take to the stores for supplies so that I can have everything for when my husband builds this.
Up there with the best productions for a big hobby. Like to waterfall dishes in black, where can I get these? Have not seen them in Australia as yet but they look very good. Richard
I love this I just bought a house with 3 ponds on it and was wondering if you could send me how to make the manifold not to sure what it is (im a blond ha ha )also what size hole you used. where do you buy the pump ect.
Great vid - unfortunately I'm having trouble with my 1" PVC pipe that comes up for air is filling up with water as I put into the barrel. When I try to blow air into the pipe... the bubbles does not come up. It almost seemed like the water is too heavy for me to blow air into manually with my mouth as well as with my Leave Blower. Let me know if you have any suggestions I can do. Are you getting water coming up the 1" pipe as well?
Looks like a good filter. Please can you explain how you support the large weight of stones and rocks. You mention a milk carton but how is this raised off the bottom. How do you stop the smaller stones dropping to the bottom? I look at other sites and most others use plastic media instead of stones. Have you tried these and do you find stones better? Thanks
This raises an issue I've had with "bottom up" designs. I believe they end up being more work than a "top down" design, which would incorporate a few layers of progressively finer plastic screening, followed by a layer of polyester floss, followed by the 'permanent' bed of lava rock, bio balls, etc. If as you say, your old "top down" system choked up weekly, using my method would only involve the weekly maintenance of throwing the plastic screens onto the lawn for a garden hose blast, and the replacement of the polyester fiber if needed (ultra cheap). Your "bottom up" air blasts leave a significant amount of the solids in the filter unless you undertake repeated cycles, whereas my "top down" removes 90% with quick attention, is easily accessible, gives more control, and avoids the need to ever break down the barrel completely.
Been there, done that, look at my first filters I built, exactly what you discribed.. I don't have time to do weekly washes, Thanks but this has worked fine for almost a year with only one flushing. I thank you for your input, thanks for watching
Great video. I built a smaller version of this since my pond is alot smaller. How long did it take for your water to clear up? Also, in the event of a power outage, how do you prevent backflow into the pond? I'm going to install a backflow preventer.
Yes Chris, you will need to add a back flow preventer on the line going into the bottom of your filter.. I'm in LA so we rearly get power outages. it will clear out in 48 hours or you should notice a big difference by then. Good eye and good job on the build, Thanks for watching
Excellent job...Can you provide a scematic drawing. I'm new to this whole thing and explain the reason for the UV filter. How important is this device and where are you purchasing this?
Dear Levon. Could you please sketch your wonderful Filter diagram and send it to me?I'm really going to try to build one. Looks very promising. Thanks!
Excellent design, well done. Would you be able to explain the air feed cleaning system in a bit more detail? If possible would you be able to email me a quick sketch of your design? Many thanks
No, the air will not move the heavier stones at the base and the medium stones in the middle, the small stuff is on top so it should be fine, thanks for watching
It seems my final layer of this filter is grabbing all the fines... I can see them floating past crushed oyster shells and into the pond.. Any suggestions what my issue is
Loadedorerater7 Love the design, going to try it out on my pond. What is the brand of the pump you're using and how did you attach it to the 2in pvc pipe?
Sorry for the late reply, I just used teflon tape to connect the pump to the filter and a male adapter that sits on the top of the pump, I pressure fit the pipe because I don't like using the glue as it contains chemicals that might end up in my fish or my food as I started using this water for my Aquaponics, thank you for watching and commenting, please subscribe for future videos
sorry, it is just a 1 inch pvc pipe connected with 45 degree fittinggs that go all the way around the bottom perrimeter and a Tee fitting to bring up the pipe to blow air down, then just drill a bunch of holes in the pipe going all the way around so when you blow air down the stand pipe it pushes through the filter media and out the top drain you install.. Hope this helped you, thanks for commenting and watching, please subscribe for a future video on a complete build when I get a chance to build another pond, as for now my 2 and 6 year old kids kepp me busy, lol Thanks
@@loadedoperator7 when do you think you'll make the new video? Pandemic is almost over. We need to see the complete set up with layers and parts. A quick drawing would really help us verbally challenged viewers. Thank you for making this video though.
The best way to handle those Tetra waterfalls is to take the pad out and fill that P.O.S. with lava rock and no bag. You only need to clean it about 4 times a year and its not that much lava rock to deal with. My biggest problem with it is hat there is no way to connect it securely to a liner>
hi could you email me a more detailed explanation/drawing of the air feed cleaning system. and also the materials I need to buy for the air feed cleaning system? I would very much appreciate if you could do this please brilliant videos brilliant watch cheers lance
I will be building another unit soon for a friend and his Koi pond. I will make another video to explain in more detail..Thank you for watching and commenting.
You can buy them at Lowes or HD, the base should be big river rocks like you see in the video, then put 4 to 5 bags of 3/4 river rocks or gravel, then 4 to 5 bags of 1/2 inch river rocks or gravel. Wash it well before putting it in your filter.. Put your bio bag on top and you are done.. Thanks for watching..
I have had good luck with them. It is important to use the right size hole saw to get the right tight fit. I buy the MADE IN THE USA ones and they are ok so far..Thanks for watching
Yes it would but that was in Los Angeles, we never lose power there, I do mention putting a check valve in line to the filter in case you live somewhere that has power loss issues, like where I live now, lol. We live in the country and often lose power due to heavy winds knocking down a tree that takes out the lines with it, but thats what back up generators are made for, lol thanks for watching and commenting
I designed it to feed from the bottom up, this means it has to go through the filter media, in this case its 3 grades of gravelgoing from large to small as it goes up for finer filtration. For 1000 gallon pond I use to flush it once every 6 months, you can divert the dirty water into your garden for a boost in nutrients for your plants. I will be building one of these filters for one of my neighbors here in the near future so subscribe to my channel to be sure you see the build, I will be giving detailed instructions on how you can build yourself one of these awesome units. Thank you for watching and commenting
+Rick Mezera It is called a uniseal, you can buy them in many different sizes, you can find the if you run a search on the internet, hope this helps you..
It's just a series of pipe that goes around the base with holes drilled into it, once every 6 months, you blow air down this to disrupt the big growth accumulated on the larger rocks close to the base. Air from a compressor or the blowing end of a shopvac. I have a video on how to flush it. Hope this helps. Please like and subscribe for more, will be making another one of these in the near future, stay tuned for that. Thanks for watching
it would work better if you back washed in the opposite direction of the usual filter trying to flush it in the same direction as usual flow will not work as well as a "back" wash
The air and the water coming in are going in the same direction, plus they are seperate systems so they can not interact with each other or impede the water flow. Mine works great.
It's too bad you didnt show the building of everything step by step, ie you talk about a shower head and a manifold but you dont show how to make them??
Hello Levon I hope this is how you spell your name. I enjoy your videos for diy best design gravel filter. I used your design for the air manifold and intake. and have given you credit for it in my video. look for my latest video you channel is at the end of my video. thanks for your videos. Ronald k4get
If anyone is interested in how the filter holds up and flaws continue reading: I have been running this filter for 3 years now, and with running it so long some flaws have shown up. First of all the filter itself is antigravity, so its good for cleaning the water, but terrible for when YOU have to clean it. For example, the inflow is at the bottom of the filter meaning all big particles get trapped at the bottom, leaving finer and finer particles all the way to the top, as the video explains. The problem is that the majority of the muck gets trapped at the bottom and when you use the cleaning method (air from a vacuum) the majority of the debris is going to remain trapped at the bottom of the filter because it cannot go to the top because the gravel gets smaller by layers. Eventually what happens is a clog in the cleaning manifold where you drill the holes, and it ultimately stops working. From there you have to take all of the pea gravel, medium gravel, and large gravel out of the barrel and clean it by hand, which if you're lucky will take you around 6-8 hours. I've found that you have to repeat this process at least once a year if not twice. Basically to sum it up the debris gets trapped and the filter will work for a short period of time, once the gravel gets dirty it will never be as clean as when it first entered the filter unless you take it out and clean it by hand. Again not hating on the filter, it has held up but there definitely could be adjustments made to make it run better.
I had mine running for over 5 years and did not have any issues like those you described, the small amount of muck that remains in the filter is good to rebuild the needed bacteria that helps neutralize the ammonia from the pond water making it sustainable for your fish. I drilled 3\8 inch holes into the flushing manifold that sits on the bottom and never had it clog up on me, you could also push high pressure air from a compressor into the manifold but to do this the manifold should be glued as it might come apart from the high flow rate of air. On the other hand, having to do a full maintenance after 3 years of filtration is still pretty damn good if you ask me, so what if it takes you 6 to 8 hours, thats 3 years of fish waste you haven't had to deal with every week for an hour or more like all those garbage filters you buy today, and believe me I have tried them all, there is no filter on the market today that can go without a full cleaning for 3 years. Thank you for commenting and watching the video..
What if you put all your different filter rocks into different small bags that way you just lift out a few bags instead of every single rock? Something like laundry bags
If a fish tries to scratch it self once in a while at the bottom does that mean it has a parasite attached to it, if so, how do we deal with parasites pls. ??? Cause I have heard that if not dealt with, it could suck the living daylights out of your fish. Pls. help anyone. Can ick on a fish be seen by the naked eye, or you have to use a microscope for that.???
That's called "flashing". It's a pretty good indicator of an ailment called Ichthyophirius or "ich". The only way to be 100% positive is to identify the culprit with a microscope. Pro form C is an excellent treatment for ich but it requires some effort and must be properly administered. If it's left untreated it can infect the whole system and kill all of your koi.
Thank you sir, what about raising the water temperature, cause I have heard that the ICH would detach itself from the host fish if the temperature gets too high, for a few days etc, and then changing the water etc
Yea, I'm not sure on that. I know it doesn't break out in warm waters but if it will kill it, I just don't know. You'll have to do a bit of research for your particular situation. Salt works but kills plants, Pro Form C works but not with salt. Just one fish could be moved to a treatment tank but if they are established the babies will be in the pond system. If they are in a smaller tank already, bringing the temperature up for the time frame of the life cycle of the protozoa in all of it's forms of the cycle might just work. If it is indeed "Ich" to begin with.
Why put the UV light before the filter? That defeats the purpose of the filter. The light is designed to kill any bacteria that makes it through the filter, so it should be after the filter before the pond. Putting the light before the filter kills the majority of stuff first, not allowing the filter to do its job.
