I've been thinking about automating my pond.
I started by making water changes automatic via a constant trickle in/out system. Now I'm looking to automate filter cleaning, and have ideas based around a combination of timers, air pumps and solenoid valves.
Are there any folk on the forum who have automated filter cleaning successfully, or tried and have some learning points.
Regards
Adam
pond filter automation
Moderators: B.Scott, vippymini, Gazza, Manky Sanke
Re: pond filter automation
hi there i actually do what you do i fitted a ballcock and put a small pump which was connected to a timer and set the timer to roughly change 100gallons a night which on 7000gs gave me my approx 10% water change. might be a bit more challenging making a auto filter and making it work without encountering any disasters, but sounds like a good idea and might be the way forward. sorry i can't help you but youve given me something to think about. i think manufactures of the super bead may be going down that road but im not 100% certain wher i got the info from 
Re: pond filter automation
My new pond's going to have automated air uplifts that will purge about twice a day. The only bit to clean will be the sieves.
Re: pond filter automation
I read Stuart Tom's pond build on the Koi UK website and spoke to Stuart at the national this year. He does what you are planning Eds - and I think you mention that in your thread so I won't repeat here.
I spoke to the vendor of one of the bead filter companies at the National and asked about automation - and was pleased to hear that they had an add on that would automate cleaning the filter. only problem was it costs just over 900 pounds, which I didn't fancy. Also - it backflushes the bead filter, but wouldn't do anything for the mechanical filter that you need to place before the bead filter to stop large bits of waste from entering the bead filter.
So, I've started testing my own mechanism for emptying waste from the pond and backflushing the static k1 bay in my filter. First test gave mediocre results, but I'll persist and will let you know when I've cracked it.
What I would really like to do is have a small computer automating the starting and stopping of different processes to control cleaning of my filter, and perhaps doing other things for the pond too. but this is a stretch too far initially, so I'm starting with a series of cheap digital plug timers, a few spare air pumps and a spare pump.
I'm trying to automate 2 things:
1. washing out the waste that collects in the first section of my block built filter. this should work a bit like the air idea in eds pond design and the one Stuart T uses. I found in my first test that the waste didnt flush out by simply emptying water from the settlement area - so I've tried stopping the filter pumps to stop water flowing around the filter then applying some air to get the muck in the settlement bay into suspension before pumping it out. This didnt work quite as well as I wanted; so I need to persist and fine tune to get a better performance. The outcome I'm after is the one Stuart T has and the one Eds is aiming for,
2. backflushing my static K1 secion. not tried automating this yet .
I spoke to the vendor of one of the bead filter companies at the National and asked about automation - and was pleased to hear that they had an add on that would automate cleaning the filter. only problem was it costs just over 900 pounds, which I didn't fancy. Also - it backflushes the bead filter, but wouldn't do anything for the mechanical filter that you need to place before the bead filter to stop large bits of waste from entering the bead filter.
So, I've started testing my own mechanism for emptying waste from the pond and backflushing the static k1 bay in my filter. First test gave mediocre results, but I'll persist and will let you know when I've cracked it.
What I would really like to do is have a small computer automating the starting and stopping of different processes to control cleaning of my filter, and perhaps doing other things for the pond too. but this is a stretch too far initially, so I'm starting with a series of cheap digital plug timers, a few spare air pumps and a spare pump.
I'm trying to automate 2 things:
1. washing out the waste that collects in the first section of my block built filter. this should work a bit like the air idea in eds pond design and the one Stuart T uses. I found in my first test that the waste didnt flush out by simply emptying water from the settlement area - so I've tried stopping the filter pumps to stop water flowing around the filter then applying some air to get the muck in the settlement bay into suspension before pumping it out. This didnt work quite as well as I wanted; so I need to persist and fine tune to get a better performance. The outcome I'm after is the one Stuart T has and the one Eds is aiming for,
2. backflushing my static K1 secion. not tried automating this yet .