Hi all,

I have noticed that there is not much suction on my bottom drain. Is this normal? Why I ask is that the debris on my pond floof is not been sucked in to the drain. Does any body experience the same ?

On the same line I am also running a Skimmer. My pump is a 1.1kw
any assistance would be appreciated.

Hi Wayne

It does happen that your pipe leading to the bottom drain clogs up from time to time, especially if you are using 50 mm pipes. That is why it is essential to have a valve on the line from the skimmer. Then you can close the line from the skimmer from time to time for a few minutes to force the pump to suck only from the bottom drain, and thereby cleaning the pipe and suck the nearby debris into your filter. This principle applies mainly if you do not have a 110mm pipe from your bottom drain.

If you do not have a valve on your skimmer line, you can block the hole on the skimmer for a few minutes. (Put a pair of socks in a plastic bag and close the hole with that for a minute or two)

If your bottom drain leads to your settlement chamber(not in your case), the same principle applies. You either use a standup pipe to block your settlement chamber or install a valve on that line. Then you suck the settlement chamber empty and release the standup pipe or valve to force the water back into the settlement chamber with force, which clears your pipes from debris and it sucks the debris close to the bottom drain into your settlement chamber.

Hi Paul,

Hope all is well with you. Are you over the crazy move yet? I guess that takes a long while to get organized.

Thanks for info I will try your method out but I think it would be better to instal a valve on the skimmer line

I still need to get some FMC from you and mofe food.

Thanks again

Will be in Table View tomorrow from 10 - 1pm. You can pop in.

Wayne, is your bottom drain and skimmer connected....like on the same pipe? Can you control the suctions? Do you have ball valves on the lines?

The water will suck stronger from your skimmer than from your bottom drain if your skimmer is closer to your pump. Water will take the shortest route.

Hi Wayne,

If you have a 110 mm bottom drain the suction path of the water is vertical into the drain. It will not suck the sludge from around it that is on the floor. I know as I have been into ponds with bottom drains with goggles and snorkels. It’s amazing – the water is literally sucked down in a column.

To overcome this you need a bottom drain with a cover. Not with air stones or an air blower just a cover. The water then is sucked in from the sides and will clear a wide area of debris.

Do you have more than one bottom drain (110 mm)? If so the number of drains will determine how fast the water moves through each one. The more bottom drains to the discharge box the slower the movement of water in each drain. This is a recipe for sediment to collect in the drains - and a great place for parasite to breed.

The placement of the bottom drain or drains is important – if you have a single drain in the middle of the pond then you can get the sludge to move towards it by creating some circulation around the pond. The whole pond becomes a vortex and the sediment will settle towards the middle.

Regards,
Chris

Hi Wayne,

Paul and Wayneb are spot on. If your bottom drain goes straight to the pump then a valve is a must – on the surf ace skimmer.

I also have a 1,1kW pump (speck hydrostar) on my bottom drain. But on the skimmer I run a separate pump - a speck magic 8. This is a small pump but works extremely well.

The 1,1kW pump sucks the pond water through 75mm piping then pumps it directly to the single chamber bioconverter again through 75 mm piping. There are no restrictions. The return is via a 15 meter stream / water fall for oxygenation etc

The surface skimmer is driven by the magic 8 pump. The water is sucked through 50mm piping to the pump then the water goes to two sand filters in parallel to polish the water. The return goes back to the pond. Here it returns at an angle to create circulation.

I do not have bottom drains.

Regards,
Chris

Time posted 6:16 am

Are you guys awake at that time ......

A technical correction - I have a 1.1kW pump sucking from the floor of the pond. I do not have a bottom drain.

Well spotted Jaco.

Regards,
Chris

Chris, you where still going to tell us why you dont have bottom drains....you mentioned in another section on this forum that you will do it in a seperate post.

Hi Wayne,

I have a plastic liner in my pond. I am not keen on making holes at the bottom of a pond with a plastic liner just to install a "bottom drain". As I made the pond myself (with others doing the digging) I was determined to make a pond a simply as possible as an experiment.

Instead of loading the pond with every known apparatus (and sending the cost through the roof) in 2000 when we moved I decided to build a simple pond.

Bottom Drains:
No where does it say you must have a bottom drain. What is critical to pond and water keeping is the fact that the only way oxygen (air) can be dissolved into water is through contact with the atmosphere. Oxygen in pond water is one of the fundamental criteria for successful koi keeping.

So where is the furthermost point from the atmosphere? - the bottom. Therefore, you must draw the water from this point (the bottom) and return it to the top/surface after some sort of an interface with the atmosphere. This interface could be a waterfall etc.

How you do that is dependant on your concept of how it should be done. This can be from a suction pipe on the floor, or through bottom drains gravity fed to a discharge box etc.

So to answer your question - my pond has a flat bottom (don't jump to conclusion here about my anatomy please) and a single suction pipe placed on the bottom in one corner. This is simply my way of drawing the water from the point furthermost from the atmosphere.

I return it via a waterfall and stream.

Regards,
Chris

Just pooling your leg Chris.
Regards.

Hi Chris

I'm not actually in this convo I just would like to know how do you keep the bottom of youre pond clean ??

The reason I'm asking is I also have a pond with no BD and find it tedious to clean at best of times.

Hi Bubbles,

I have a suction in one corner. This goes directly to the pump. I also have a gentle criculation around the pond.

The 30 or so large koi are always fooding on the floor and they stir up the sediment which moves to the suction.

The floor is not 100% clean of algae and sludge. but it certainly is clean enough to see a small coin of the bottom of the 1.2m deep pond.

There are some companies that make a mixture of hetrotopic bacteria specifically for munching up organic sediment. The more reputable ones work really well. Have a look around: www.novozymes.com

Regards,
Chris

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all your replies.

WayneB - I have no valves on the skimmer line and yes they are on the same line. I will be installing a valve on the skimmer line soon.

Chris - I have got a Lid on my BD also what I've done is put a submersable pump into the pond and redirected it towrds the BD to clear up some of the debris.

Lets see if this works

Hi Wayne

The bottom drain will never suck like an electrolux but there will be a genle suction from the bottom drain and you should atleast see the debris gathering around the bottom drain.

There is something you can do in addition to the ball valve. I dont know if you can add an diffuserlid to the bottom drain...the air from the diffuser lid will cause a vertical current that will cause the debris on the pond floor to be dragged towards the bottom drain...if this is not possible them you can simply put a airstone ontop of the bottom drain lid - that will give you the same effect.



Wayne

Hi WayneB

What does a diffuserlid look like? How does it operate?

Hi Wayne

I hope i havnt caused confusion here. You must still add the ball valve. The diffuser head is something you can do in addition to keep the pond clean.

http://www.koiadventures.co.za/Home.aspx?Page=UsrGeneric.ascx&Rec=263

Hi Wayne B,

Thanks for that. I am still installing a valve on the skimmer line. I had a look at the link. There is no chance of me changing mine but i get the jest of it.