Go on, have a laugh - you know you want to. Blue Peter time

Big John · Post by **Big John** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 10:44 am

Y'know, I'm getting really tempted to grab a water butt, stand a grid off the bottom (above the outlet), chuck all my media in & feed it out of the pressure filter at whatever speed it comes out at.
Not sure if I should leave my current setup running for a while though to see what effect it has on the fines.
I took some readings last night & my only 'concern' was a high pH of 8.4, Nitrites, Nitrates and Ammonia were at the bottom of the scale.
The pond has been running for almost two months so I didn't think those readings were too bad.

Gazza · Post by **Gazza** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 10:53 am

Hi John,

PH @ 8.4 is not a worry as this normally means you have hard water and at least this will give you a stable KH and in doing so less risk of a PH crash.Unfortunately PH is something you have to live with as thats what you get out of the tap

Big John · Post by **Big John** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 12:14 pm

Just been watching my fish basking in amongst the weed & I'm amazed at how clear my water now looks - nothing in suspension - not bad after 16 hours through the trickle tower

With regards to the hard water, a chap down the road works at Hozelock & he told me that all their tanks are filled from the tap & the fish love it, they don't treat it in any way.
I think that if you blast the water in through a jet nozzle on your hose, a lot of the chlorine will dissipate anyway as the water is greatly stirred up & oxygenated.

I was topping up the other evening & the fish really loved the jet of water hitting them, they were really getting into it - especially the chagoi

Might just give them another treat later on

(maybe time for another Blue Peter on the camcorder?)

macaws fly · Post by **macaws fly** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 3:53 pm

Hi all, now on the debate of whats a TT and whats a SHOWER?

my understanding was a TT was fed from the last filter bay (clean water) and returned to the same last filter bay at a rate of 200/500gph, and a shower is fed directly from the pond and returned to the pond at a rate of 1 to 2 times the pond volume depending on the size of the shower.

so taking this too hand any blue peter device thats fed from the pond should be called a shower and thus pumped at high volumes. feeding a TT with cruddy water will just clog it up and the media will soon go bad.

John if your DBS (double bin shower) was over the filer bay and fed from it then a slow feed would be good but seeing as you have the pump in the pond and you are returning the water back to the pond then you need to get the flow rate up to something like Gazza has on his QT BS.

Big John · Post by **Big John** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:12 pm

Ahhhh, I c now.

I've just had another brainstorm. I've got a Dyson DC01 vac which I'm not using

Wondering if I can BP this into some sort of filter

macaws fly · Post by **macaws fly** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:21 pm

John, i have thought of that one and i even asked good old dyson themselves if it would work. their answer was that they made vacuum cleaners. (stroppy buggers)

as far as i can see what works with air should work with water. the flow might need a bit of playing with and you would have to make it water-proof. i am suprised that one of the big boys in filtration havn't made a design based on the principle though.

Big John · Post by **Big John** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:42 pm

My thoughts exactly. I mean, it's not as though I'm daft enough to start sucking water up using an electric pump designed only for air is it?
Just need to find a schematic to see which parts I can scavenge

I have to agree though, if the design is sooooo good with tiny bits of fluff etc then surely it would be great to force water through a vortex - although I've a feeling it wouldn't last long before it would need emptying

macaws fly · Post by **macaws fly** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 5:22 pm

if you take off the hole vortex/dust collection assembly and remove the top air filters you should be able to use all of the assembly. just attach a pipe from a pump on the inlet and another on the outlet and in theory away you go!!

you might need a bit of sealing tape around the main body.LOL

go-on give it a go youve got the pumps and bits out already... you know you want to.

Big John · Post by **Big John** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 6:09 pm

Well, I was just taking some more pics of my babies basking in the evening sun. I've just discovered that pondweed acts as a buoyancy aid to expensive digital cameras

vippymini · Post by **vippymini** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 1:41 pm

Oh dear John i do hope you didn't do too much damage to the camera. did you spook the fish

have you decided on a pump for your new WBS (waterbuttshower)

Big John · Post by **Big John** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 5:53 pm

The camera has spent the night in the airing cupboard & it now turns on & takes pictures

Unfortunately, the viewscreen looks all smeared inside the camera & pictures come out a bit misty

Anyway, 'phoned my insurance & they are getting Jessops to contact me. It'll cost me Ã‚Â£50.
Perhaps I should have paid the extra (Ã‚Â£90) and bought a proper underwater cover.

As for the pump, I'm thinking about clearing out the shed to make room in the corner for a few stack 'n' store bins. If I have two or three stacks I can divide the output of the filter over the three stacks which should lessen the impact (?)
Perhaps a Y shaped arrangement of pipes with the output from the filter coming in & teeing off to two pipes, each pipe having an arrangement of holes over each stack of bins?

kimr · Post by **kimr** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 8:24 pm

Hi John
You go for it, I liked the first idea and I was interested as to how it could work with out the water seeping out of it, but the main thing you had a go, and well done for trying. I hope you are enjoying your new found talent and from now on we can "Watch this space" for some cleaver looking filtration. Well done again and keep it coming.

P.S Sorry about your camera

fatherted · Post by **fatherted** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 9:08 pm

Brilliant thread John, I applaud your ingenuity.

I think you should go for the water butt (or bin / boxes) on the end of your pressure fed filter. No harm in dropping your water through any additional filtration.

I am currently in negotiations with my wife about skimmer line filtration options. I want to do a Blue Peter shower of some kind but nothing has been accepted as visually acceptable by her.

Gazza · Post by **Gazza** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 9:14 pm

Hi Ted,

When planing my new pond one thing my wife asked was could we have it so there was no "stuff" showing as on my old pond i never got round to boxing in the multi-bay filter

I then decided to put all the filtration behind the back of the shed and box it in and that i would have a large TT on my skimmer line which would fit inside the shed with all the pumps,boiler and stuff.

Have you got a shed local to the pond you could put the TT/Shower in as this also acts as insulation as in the winter they can chill the water big time

Big John · Post by **Big John** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 9:24 pm

fatherted wrote:Brilliant thread John, I applaud your ingenuity.

I think you should go for the water butt (or bin / boxes) on the end of your pressure fed filter. No harm in dropping your water through any additional filtration.

I am currently in negotiations with my wife about skimmer line filtration options. I want to do a Blue Peter shower of some kind but nothing has been accepted as visually acceptable by her.

Oh tell me about it, SHE's never happy with anything I do.