How to convert your swimming pool... Part 3Engaging on a filtration costing exercise with the brief of designing a filtration system to accommodate a high stocking density in the completed Koi pond it was decided that a chamberised system be used. This comprises of 4 separate compartments or chambers each with a different role to play in the filtration process. Firstly we started off with a decent size settlement chamber of about 2 cubic metres in capacity. The settlement chamber serves as our primary mechanical filter and feeding off this chamber we move to our secondary mechanical filtration. In this chamber the mechanical load of solid waste material is limited to smaller floating debris and in this chamber we opted to use 4 mechanical filters that had been previously sourced from a local manufacturer. Leading from this chamber we end up in the moving bed biological chamber which is where the biological filtration of the Koi pond takes place. Finally this chamber feeds into the pump chamber from where the pump pickups are located. This last chamber may appear superfluous but it is there in order to be able to hang bags of crushed oyster shell or additional media without interfering with the dynamics of the flow of the rest of the system.
Here we see the drain pipes penetrating the side of the pond shell. There are spare pipes ready to be laid in the background. Picture 2 shows us the piping channel that has been dug to accommodate the pipes to reach the settlement chamber from the pond. We tried to keep the piping run as straight as possible to minimise pipe bends and elbows - thus reducing friction losses and of course the costs of the high pressure fittings. Incidentally we only specify high pressure fittings and pipes on our Koi ponds - it is not worth the risk of saving a few bucks only to have to dig it up again at enormous expense to find a cracked pipe or leaking fitting!
In the first picture we can see how the pipes have been neatly run from the Koi pond through to the settlement chamber. The second picture shows the steel cage built for the filtration chambers and we can of course clearly see how the bottom drain pipes terminate vertically within the settlement chamber location. It is of vital importance that these pipes be vertical as you will need to able to stop the flow of water from the pond by using stand pipes - the only other alternative is 110mm valves which are not as effective or as simple and cheap...
These pictures are self explanatory showing the system in a little more detail. The first picture also shows the location of the two free standing Koi ponds which have been dug almost to depth.
In the first picture you can see the filter chamber system being built with steel and double skin brick walls. This is a solid installation as we do not want it moving and cracking the bottom drain pipes. The second picture shows the same thing but includes one of the free standing Koi ponds in which you can see it's integrated settlement chamber with it's single bottom drain pipe clearly shown sticking out.
Picture 1 above shows the nearly completed filter chamber design. You can see the settlement chamber with its 4 vertical pipes coming from the bottom drains of the Koi pond. Next door to that is our mechanical filtration stage which in turn leads to the biological filtration stage with the relatively small final pump uptake stage following this. The second picture is included to give you an idea of the size of the chamber. Note that EACH chamber is sloped slightly and funnelled towards a bottom drain which in this case is a 63mm pipe with a valve on it. The settlement chamber is more heavily sloped of course but also has a flush. This is done in order that each chamber can be independently flushed to minimise water losses during maintenance.   ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) |
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