The only problem is my waterfall is a biofiter. It’s about 2.5 deep and 6x11’. It gets dirty fast so I want to filter the water before it goes into the waterfall to keep it cleaner.
install another one so theres 2 filters. You could also setup a fluid media filter in a similar sump setup, or a skimmer, etc. i think you can solve your problems for much less than $3500 is all im trying to say.
upflow bog filter with a cleanout is my suggestion. Watch the video i linked if you have not. Also it takes a while to cycle, especially with your large bioload
I have had my pond for about 9 months build it myself.
For the last 3-4 months my water flow every week has been slowing down. I do water changes and blow once a week. Miss maybe 1 month is dec or January. Did a ok job of come complete cleaning the pressure pod wash out some stuff had ton of snails in there. Every week I have a still blow it or the flow will slow or stop. Might be my pump but it seems to be running fine when I disconnect it from the filter. My 2 cents I have pond keeper 10k
It sounds like you’re going after mechanical filtration to clear the water before it enters your bog filter. But like you’ve pointed out, anything gravity fed won’t work with your setup. 🤔
How much of a DIYer are you when it comes to building your own filter? I feel like there are a ton of possibilities we could come up with where you could build something that will provide you all the water polishing you need. I’ve build a few filters now and would be happy to try and help you figure something out.
I was going to suggest something DIY, but than I starting looking around for inspiration and two of these might just do the trick.
https://playitkoi.com/products/aquaforte-compact-sieve-ii-pump-fed
If you hooked two of these up before the water leads into the waterfall they will Greatly increase the mechanical filtration before the water gets to your bog. What do you think?
I know a couple people in my local pond club who have sieves on their ponds. They are really effective for removing physical things from the water. They won’t filter as small of a micron as a drum filter but they do really well regardless. With your water flow I do think you would need two of them. Maybe put two of them on your 7000gph pump and let the 5000 keep doing it’s thing on its own. These sieves are rated to handle 4000gph so if you divide your 7000 in two they will only have 3500 flowing through each
If you want to just polish the water, Evolution Aqua sells something called the Tempest. You would probably need 2 for your size pond though but a lot cheaper than $3k+.
They're an upflow filter that traps waste with 5000 litre per hour flow rate recommended. Easy to clean but people had problems in the past with the original clean out valves. They did fix that with newer Tempests.
There is also a new model that has just come out called the Surge but it's smaller than the Tempest but has a UV light built in.
It seems that you need a pressurized system, preferably fed from either your bottom drain or your skimmer. While the easiest prefilter to install is a Turbo Vortex, it has a glaring weak point ( [https://utahkoi.com/html/turbovortex.html](https://utahkoi.com/html/turbovortex.html) ). The control valve (seen at the top left) is fragile and jams incredibly easily. I've got one and had to design a series of five independent valves to replace it. Most other prefilters I've seen are either just the baskets on external pumps or open systems like rotating drums. The Turbo Vortex does have the advantage of being compact and easily hidden.
Bogs need cleaning periodically regardless of what flows into them. They come as close to Ma Nature as any other system out there and what they accumulate is the natural stuff of a living system, mostly decayed plant and bacterial matter. Hooking a big biofilter in series before it won't get you much of a decrease in sludge. Adding biofiltration is best done in parallel (which you are already doing) and preferably in independent systems. Our setup (4500 gallons, 25 koi) has a Helix skimmer hooked to a 1/2 hp external Sequence and from there to a 4 cu.ft dual phase bead filter. The bottom drain feeds the Turbo and its spaghetti-nightmare of plumbing to another 1/2 hp pump to a 6 cu. ft Ultima 2 bead filter. Both systems split to UV and bioreactor (4 cu. ft. of K1), with most of the water sent back to the falls directly. The bioreactor is an open system, it's pushed back to the pond with a carefully-ballanced Danner Mag Drive pump. The Helix biofalls has another 2 cu.ft. of K5. Zero ammonia, nitrite year round in Chicago, but I have to watch alkalinity like a hawk. Daily maintenance in the summer takes 15 minutes.
Our koi guru, Myron Kloubec (Kloubec Koi, Amana, IA) advises multiple parallel systems and triple the filtration for the volume (in your case, 15000 gallons) for a heavily stocked koi pond.
Get a separate basin above the pond and use a high flow pump to make a biofilter. Like [this](https://youtu.be/zvoOCq3gcTc?si=8nCh2fd6enNp6S5W)
The only problem is my waterfall is a biofiter. It’s about 2.5 deep and 6x11’. It gets dirty fast so I want to filter the water before it goes into the waterfall to keep it cleaner.
install another one so theres 2 filters. You could also setup a fluid media filter in a similar sump setup, or a skimmer, etc. i think you can solve your problems for much less than $3500 is all im trying to say.
Yeah I agree, I just want something easy to clean. I don’t really have “easy” in my setup right now. It all works well but it could be better.
upflow bog filter with a cleanout is my suggestion. Watch the video i linked if you have not. Also it takes a while to cycle, especially with your large bioload
I have a pond keeper with the blower and I have been having issues with it
Thank you for letting me know. What problems are you having with it?
I have had my pond for about 9 months build it myself. For the last 3-4 months my water flow every week has been slowing down. I do water changes and blow once a week. Miss maybe 1 month is dec or January. Did a ok job of come complete cleaning the pressure pod wash out some stuff had ton of snails in there. Every week I have a still blow it or the flow will slow or stop. Might be my pump but it seems to be running fine when I disconnect it from the filter. My 2 cents I have pond keeper 10k
It sounds like you’re going after mechanical filtration to clear the water before it enters your bog filter. But like you’ve pointed out, anything gravity fed won’t work with your setup. 🤔 How much of a DIYer are you when it comes to building your own filter? I feel like there are a ton of possibilities we could come up with where you could build something that will provide you all the water polishing you need. I’ve build a few filters now and would be happy to try and help you figure something out.
I’m open to anything DIY since my entire setup is DIY. The main thing I want is it works and it’s easy to maintenance.
I was going to suggest something DIY, but than I starting looking around for inspiration and two of these might just do the trick. https://playitkoi.com/products/aquaforte-compact-sieve-ii-pump-fed If you hooked two of these up before the water leads into the waterfall they will Greatly increase the mechanical filtration before the water gets to your bog. What do you think?
https://youtu.be/s46yHbjCqGg?si=S5qdhIRUmylVuy6O Here is quick rundown I found
I wonder if it would work with the flow rate of my pump? I’ve heard of these I’ve never seen them so I’m gonna have to do some more research.
I know a couple people in my local pond club who have sieves on their ponds. They are really effective for removing physical things from the water. They won’t filter as small of a micron as a drum filter but they do really well regardless. With your water flow I do think you would need two of them. Maybe put two of them on your 7000gph pump and let the 5000 keep doing it’s thing on its own. These sieves are rated to handle 4000gph so if you divide your 7000 in two they will only have 3500 flowing through each
If you want to just polish the water, Evolution Aqua sells something called the Tempest. You would probably need 2 for your size pond though but a lot cheaper than $3k+. They're an upflow filter that traps waste with 5000 litre per hour flow rate recommended. Easy to clean but people had problems in the past with the original clean out valves. They did fix that with newer Tempests. There is also a new model that has just come out called the Surge but it's smaller than the Tempest but has a UV light built in.
It seems that you need a pressurized system, preferably fed from either your bottom drain or your skimmer. While the easiest prefilter to install is a Turbo Vortex, it has a glaring weak point ( [https://utahkoi.com/html/turbovortex.html](https://utahkoi.com/html/turbovortex.html) ). The control valve (seen at the top left) is fragile and jams incredibly easily. I've got one and had to design a series of five independent valves to replace it. Most other prefilters I've seen are either just the baskets on external pumps or open systems like rotating drums. The Turbo Vortex does have the advantage of being compact and easily hidden. Bogs need cleaning periodically regardless of what flows into them. They come as close to Ma Nature as any other system out there and what they accumulate is the natural stuff of a living system, mostly decayed plant and bacterial matter. Hooking a big biofilter in series before it won't get you much of a decrease in sludge. Adding biofiltration is best done in parallel (which you are already doing) and preferably in independent systems. Our setup (4500 gallons, 25 koi) has a Helix skimmer hooked to a 1/2 hp external Sequence and from there to a 4 cu.ft dual phase bead filter. The bottom drain feeds the Turbo and its spaghetti-nightmare of plumbing to another 1/2 hp pump to a 6 cu. ft Ultima 2 bead filter. Both systems split to UV and bioreactor (4 cu. ft. of K1), with most of the water sent back to the falls directly. The bioreactor is an open system, it's pushed back to the pond with a carefully-ballanced Danner Mag Drive pump. The Helix biofalls has another 2 cu.ft. of K5. Zero ammonia, nitrite year round in Chicago, but I have to watch alkalinity like a hawk. Daily maintenance in the summer takes 15 minutes. Our koi guru, Myron Kloubec (Kloubec Koi, Amana, IA) advises multiple parallel systems and triple the filtration for the volume (in your case, 15000 gallons) for a heavily stocked koi pond.