Firstly can i appologise for poor picture-will try and knock up a drawing of whole garden tonight. I would prefer a rectanglular pond but am frightened it will totally fill my poor little garden! Il post a couple of photos of garden later. With regards to a bubble bead filter-il be honest i know nothing about them! Is this similar to a sand filter? I was under the impression that they are expensive to run as you need such abig pump? Am seriously thinking of the Nwxus 300 and a pod on the skimmer- would give me plently of extra filtration. Although a second type of filtration on the skimmer is still an idea???
On a more positive note ive got a guy with a mini digger coming round tonight to price up the dig and levelling out the garden-feel like things are moving in the right direction at last!
Here are some pics of the garden before and after we put up the fence, hopefully it will give you an ida on what the garden looks like and where the pond will go.
Am just scanning in my newest picture of pond (only 1 mionr adjustment to length of pond) and where I am thinking of having in the garden.
Right here is my design of the garden, with the pond. Wanted the filters at the back, so not looking straight at them when sitting on patio, thought maybe could put decking over top of filters, with steps going up to make use of the decked area. Have also left half a meter around side of pond and back of filter for access.
Let me know your thoughts, comments or ideas.
Thanks
Andy
With the filter, get all the bits you need do deal with regularily at the front. Otherwise you are forever clamboring over the decking to get to where you want to. I know this from experience and banging my head on the pergola many a time - had to take it down in the end!
Andy,
Sorry for late reply, but here we go! Firstly, similar to a sand filter? In a fashion. Basically, all the bead filters work by having a pressure vessel filled with floating beads of a small size, normally 3-4mm dia. When water is pumped into the base or side of the filter, the beads float to the top, forming a floating pack with very fine gaps between. Bio media also forms on the media. To clean the crud off, the flow thru is stopped, and the media is agitated via incoming air. The bubblebeads Weldec & myself have can be set up for a fully automatic backflush, which is handy if you work shifts like me, and are away for 24hrs at a time. Pumps don't necessarily need to be expensive runners, I was initially running a 1+kwh swimming pool type jobby, but have moved onto an aquamax 12000 thru a BBf3 on 5000gals. (a 15000 would be even better on this setup, but a 12 is more than adequate) I've an estrosieve in front, and one more plus point is that this set up is a completely hands dry filter cleaning operation. This is the Bubblebead web site for info, the main plus point in your install would be that excavation would be minimal, and that a bbf3 with 5000gals filtration would only have a footprint of 3ft square....
http://www.bubblebeadfilters.co.uk/
Nearly forgot, ask Jules for info, a couple of his customers have bead filters installed, he may give you a couple of pointers...
Thanks for that, ive probably been a bit narrow minded as i only really considered filters using k1. Am i right in thinking that these are pump fed filters? From what i read on the website they will filter below 15 microns so would be good for water polishing??? Would it be possible to run one of these after a eazy pod for water polishing??
Thanks for your advice on the filter maintenance-your totally right about having good access. I made the mistake of hiding my last filter behind a water fall and had to use scaffold boards to access it.
Me and Em have had a rethink and have decided to place the filters in the top left hand side of the garden- this is a much bigger area and means that its not squeezed in behind the pond. Will post pics later.
Digger arrived on Friday morning and digging began! Id spent hours marking out the garden to get it perfect.
BUT then there was a problem, firstly the ground was solid- solid clay which meant instead of going down 4ft i could only get 3 ft 6 inches.
AND then there was another-the tree roots were to thick in the area we wanted the pond in. So plan b came into action, after Bobs advice on good access to the filters i was very reluctant to squeeze the filters behind the pond (Em wanted them hidden!) I decided to move the pond back into te area orginally intended for the filters which was root free and move the filtration towards the tree roots. I also increased the size of the pond to make up for the loss of depth i had planned for.
So here is the design, ive dug the hole big enough to allow for the sizes in the diagram to be the internal dimensions(hopefully anyway!)
Good plan Andy and nice to see it getting 'developed' a little.
Looks like you need a cheap grab lorry, I'm sure there is lots more soil to come out.
Top soil you can move around the garden, raised flower beds using some old railway sleepers saves having to have it taken away.
Well it looks like its all go Andy and that looks like a nice shape for a pond
You could always build the filtration into a shed next to the pond so you cant see any of the "stuff"....make it big enough to get a small growing on system in there
if the mini digger wont cut into the clay to dig deeper then you can hire a electric breaker with a clay spade which will make hand digging easy,you really would be better with at least 6' of water depth if you can
Hi Bob,
Unfortunately the plan didnt really work out, ended up sort of making it up as i went a long with some very speedy calculations tryin to keep around the 5000 gallon mark!
Hi Tony,
If you were closer you would have had 10 tonne delivered by now! Saying that its not top soil-solid clay no good to any one unless they are wanting to make a lot of pots!
Hi Gazza,
Emma says NO t6o the growin on shed-i have to admit i hadnt thought of that. Only way i got permission to move pond was if she could have a decked area right where the growing on shed could be-although im sure i can persuade her in time (she could always move back to her mums!)
Hi Jackal,
I was originally after 4ft below ground and 2ft above ground, will have to make do with 3ft below ground and as high as possible above. Or failing that could raise the garden two foot in the air and just use a ladder to get up to garden from back door!
So anyone want any soil??? Off to shop around for the Nexus today-anyone know anywhere doing a deal???
we all know how you feel, well worth it in the end.
