Oh what a day - Page 2

ILoveFish · 03-02-2012, 08:51 AM

Nice one mate I'll have a look at them cheers

/Neil

Doghouse Riley · 03-02-2012, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wellsi

Hi Doghouse
I want to keep my filters in a shed away from the pond; how far from the pond is your garage? And have you half buried the returns?

ILoveFish
Mate; nightmare for you, inside and out; some jumbo greenhouse bubble wrap form your garden centre will help....
Ian

Hi Ian,

If you read through "my first novel"

New Member, Old Pond

You can see how I built my pool.

Mine's 26 years old this year, I've a huge foam and flowcore set-up, not like the modern systems which are much smaller and more efficient (looked upon very suspiciously by the "old guard" of the regional Koi society I joined then when these new filters were just coming out).

This is how it all looks at present, except that I've put more insulation over the UV (not on at present) and the cover is now all over the whole pool, I gave up looking for a short length of Visqueen, I couldn't find any. I used to have lots of it.
As the air pump runs 24/7 at a reduced rate, I'm not worried about any gas build up. I'm running a 300watt aquarium heater in the pool 24/7, probably more for my peace of mind than much benefit to the fish.

The filters have about twelve feet of 1" pipe from the pump in the sump to the header tank in the room in the garage. The pump has to raise the water about six feet. But in the summer an Oase 8500 is more than adequate to supply the filter and the waterfall on a valved bypass when required (not operational at all at present as I'm running an eleven year old Oase 5000 to achieve a much reduced flow).

All the pipework is buried in the concrete collar, the only visible evidence of a filtration system is the round rubber sump cover, the original lid of the water butt.

Winter Pool Cover

wellsi · 03-02-2012, 07:41 PM

Well Doghouse
Having looked through your 'epic novel' and watched the vid, I can only take my hat off to you; superb work, and i can see a lot of my own traits in what you've done; always looking for improvements and designing things in your head as you go along...

i'm surprised that your return pipes are so small; 4 1" pipes are th same as 1 2" pipes, but it keeps things flat... And you have a good head of water pushing down on it.

My pond is very shallow; only 2 1/2 feet deep, but 21 foot long and 14 foot wide in a triangular shape; for that reason I'm using bubble wrap too; got some from the local garden centre, but have since seen a 100m 1.5m wide roll on Amazon, so might get that next winter.
Last weekend I fitted a 1kw Cloverleaf heater; not a day too soon as the hard frosts started that first night; we're in a rural location and since then we've been -4 to +1, yet the water has stayed consistantly at 7.3 - 8'C, enough to keep the fishies happy. I didn't want a 2kw heater (usually 1kw / 1000 gals) as I only wanted to stop the temp getting too low; this has worked fine all week, and I've worked out if it's on non stop, it's £2 per day to heat; less than a beer; well worth it!

I'm getting a new Nexus 210 this weekend and I'm pondering housing this a new pond shed, set some 30 foot from the pond to leave the pond a feature in the grass in its own right; hence my query; the Hoselock 8000 will probably cope pumping through a 1.5" feed to the filter (I'm pump fed), even if it drops to around 5000 l/hr with the head and length of pipe; I'm still wondering if the return through a straight shallow underground 4" pipe that lifts and opens at the pond edge will work... long return, but slightly down hill and so no different to a stream (except it's buried and insultated by the ground...). I'll be mucking around with tanks and pipes to see if this would work...

ILove Fish:
Didn't mean to hijack your horror story here; hope you're all cleared up now and fish are all happy and fine. Like I said, a bit of bubble wrap or frost fleece (for plants) wrapped around your pipes might well help; but I have to say, after fitting the baby 1kw heater last week, I've slept way sounder this week and happy for just £2 a day during cold snaps.
Cheers guys
Ian

Doghouse Riley · 03-02-2012, 08:20 PM

Thanks for your kind words Ian, I used 4 X 1.5" pipes for the return as the polypipe and the push connectors at the time were dirt cheap and I could keep a lower profile under the path.
The return is gravity fed and nowhere near the capacity of the pipes, in fact I run airlines from the Oase Aquoxy air pump to the airstones through two of them.

I gave up with bubblewrap. I did once manage to buy a roll of really heavy duty bubblewrap with "big bubbles" but it was about fifty quid for a big roll about twenty years ago. The stuff sold in garden centres and the sheds seems to be the consistency of tissue paper. My pool cover is very heavy duty.
I don't have to weight it down with bits of pie like I did even the heavy duty stuff to stop the wind from catching it. It also lets light through. I'll be able to wash the underside down with my jet wash in the Spring, dry it and put it away in its bag for next year

Yes you'd be advised to try a "dry run" well really a "wet" run. I did the same when I installed pop up sprinklers in my lawn last year, to make sure the mains pressure would activate the heads before I cut channels in the lawn for the speedfit pipes.

Here's a tour of our garden.

Our Garden, April 2011 - YouTube

I too apologise for hi-jacking this thread, but if it encourages some to install filter overflows who haven't previously considered it, then it's worthwhile. As I always say, we none of us know all there is to know about the hobby and I'm just as keen to be able to benefit from the experience of others.

wellsi · 03-02-2012, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doghouse Riley

.... when I installed pop up sprinklers in my lawn last year,

Utterly smashing.....

Will see how my wet dry run goes after the cold snap ends.....
And take your point on heavy duty pool cover versus flimsy bubblewrap.

Ian

Doghouse Riley · 03-02-2012, 09:11 PM

A further point worth considering for those who have any similar set ups.
In my filter room I've a 300 gall "hospital tank" (not in use at the moment) with its own filter with connections to a mains water supply if required and I've a domestic sink with both hot (from a small electric water heater, only switched on when required) and a cold water supply. So a lot of pipework!

Some of my pipework is Alkathene, (from the house to the filter room) then a mixture of copper and speedfit.
I've just started to trickle water into the hospital tank which will go via the overflow to waste, as I'm concerned about the possibility of a burst over the next few days even though the pipes are insulated.
The slow flow of water will prevent them freezing up and reduce the pressure.

IT'S GOING TO GET VERY COLD!