Andymadd

Just thought I would share my conversion of a sand filter to K1. I tried running sand in the filter last year and had
stunningly clear water however cleaning the sand was a real pain and a lot of the muck remains in the sand and this can cause pond problems. I then spoke to my local dealer who offered to convert the filter to beads for £400 this included re plumbing the insides to reverse the flow adding floating beads and fitting a blower. I however decided I could do it simpler and cheaper.

Firstly I removed the spider from the bottom and took off all the sand strainers this left me with a Tee bar with big holes in it. To stop the K1 whizzing up this on backwash I put it in a net bag and cable tied it in place. Ok thats the bottom done then I removed the top pipe cut some slots in the vertical bit and put some mesh over the hole in the top to stop K1 going down it in filter mode.

Now to reverse the flow in the filter this is all I did. Run the filter in "Backwash" when filtering the pond when it comes time to backwash switch to "filter" and the K1 gets shot about and cleaned.

One more thing to do as when you put your multi-port valve in backwash it dumps to waste and filter returns to pond just swap the two outlets so the "waste" port goes to your pond and the "outlet" goes to the drain. This whole thing took me about 2 hours of messing about but it works very well and did not cost £400.

So far its all worked out beautifully

Andy

trickydicky

Nice one Andy
You just know that the sale of second hand sandfilters on ebay will go through the roof now
There are a few on here that'll be picking your brains when they pick up a cheap sand filter mate
How is it performing ? are you getting the same quality as before?

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Andymadd

I was gobsmacked when after the first 24hrs the water has gone from loads of bits floating about and a bit murky looking to Gin clear. I was expecting to have to run it for about a week or so until the K1 got a bit gummed up to start filtering fines.

So far all is good......I reckon it works better than the sand as the sand would need a backwash every other day but the flow on the K1 is massive with no sign of clogging.

Andy

trickydicky

I myself have never had a sandfilter but have been told by markf1fan all about the hassle of constant cleaning and then the inevitable blocking up and having to get your arms in amongst the stangnant smelly crap to release the compacted sand .
Was you not able to use the beads instead of K1 or is it not possible due to the mechanics etc?
I love that term gin clear water as quite a few members on here cant believe the quality that a bead filter offers

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Andymadd

I used K1 as I was going cheap and I have a Nexus so for the purpose of the "experiment" I was not about to go and buy some beads so I pinched some K1 out of the Nexus. I reckon beads may be marginally better but as they are smaller so you will have to put finer strainers on the in and out of the filter were as I used a mesh bag with big hole so less clogging can occur.

trickydicky

NEXUS? I am sorry but that word is deflamatory and not aloud to be used in the same sentance as a beadfilter
Its interesting however you saying about the amount of fine particles in the pond so i am assuming you were using the nexus aswell.
I say this because myself and markf1fan have been to a few ponds now running nexus filters and they have all had fine particles in them...mmm

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waynej4

I know this is an old thread, but hopefully someone can still advise as I am interested in doing this myself.

Why did you need to change the internals of the sand filter?

terrydog

hi wayne
this has been done and you can buy one
Aqua Hybrid

efficiencyman

I would like to know why other types need a blower or air agitation during backwash ? Why does`nt this K1 / reversed Flow conversion also need more agitation to clean it ?

slawomir

im looking for used bead filter. anyone have for sale