I need some advice please. In the drawing (if you can call it a drawing lol) you will notice that my partition (marked 1), brick wall (marked as 2) and skimmer are all at the same level. The water flow is perfect but I will run into serious problems when the water drops below the skimmer. I won’t have any water flowing through the filters and the motors will run dry.



Do you think it will be a good idea to lower partition (1) and wall (2)? The drawing is not to scale. The skimmer is about 1.1m from bottom of pond and Matala sheets only 500mm high, so I still have room to play. By lowering it with about 200mm I should have good water flow from skimmer and drains and the motors won’t run dry. Settlement should still be good.

All inputs will be appreciated, thanks

Hi Marius
I reason that your pump will run dry as soon as the water level drops to below the top level of the higher of either 1 or 2. Of cause I might be wrong.
In my pond, where I use an airlift system, the water level is important to allow circulation. My approach was to fit a ball valve to maintain a constant water level.

Thanks Jan. Maybe you can add a photo or 2 of your airlift system. I wanted to play around with such a system but time was very limited.

The leaking filter chamber is fixed now and no more leaks. Was a bit of a hassle to get into chamber (+-1.4m high x 480mm long and 600mm wide)

Still waiting to see how the waterfall return will look but my biggest concern to me is the way I have built the inlet part of the filter system. I am sure I will have too much water flow from skimmer and very little from bottom drains with the current setup. Hopefully by lowering the 2 walls I will get a better flow rate. In my big pond it is perfect since the suction pipe is more or less the same height as the drain and I get a good flow from both skimmer and drain. In small pond the setup is reversed.

I can even raise the drain pipes a bit if I don’t get the suction as wanted. Only time will tell and hopefully it won’t be a major modification I need to perform.

Marius another solution would to add a top up system to the last chamber.
Using the operating system from a toilet cistern?

what you have there is pretty much a sump arrangement, albeit on a vertical plane. I have the same problem, guess what i am doing on the public holiday. LOL

My ball valve is actually the cistern type that David describe plus a stop cock. My concern is that a water leak will go un-notice as water will automatically be replenished. So I close the water supply ocasionally and observe.

Hi Marius

Just thinking out aloud here but about shortening the plastic partition 1, who at all be possible to move it to the left to make the partition wide as possible you can then lower it a fair amount. doing it this way you will have more surface area available for the mechanical filtration ?

Reason behind doing so is being like it is pictured i would be worried the surface get blocked by floating debris that the skimmer brings in and that will effect you flow-rate too.

Cheers
Lee

Lee

Thanks, that is a brilliant idea. I can add a black Sheet (put into 4 pieces) to make it double as wide as now. I am sure the system will perform better when I lower the plastic with about 20cm, as well as the wall going to the pumps. By doing it this way, the sheets will still be +- 25cm above floor level for settlement and plenty room for water movement. Now the 2 drain pipes will be closer to the inlet of the mechanical filtration and better suction should be obtained. The water level in pond can drop a lot before the pumps will run dry.

Checked the water level in pond this morning and still at same level, so I think the leak is history. This pond is not the best looking at all, but very happy about the easy access to filters and fish. Still need to move the Log cabin back by a meter or so before I can decide where to put the glass window. Work never seems to stop when you have a pond.