"Grumpy" wrote in message
news:XobRc.106526$eM2.24499@attbi_s51...
Let me know what you think, all sugestions welcome. It's at the bottom
of the page:
http://home.comcast.net/~grumpy232/pondpage.htm

Hi,
Is the 'head pool' in your diagram the beginning of the stream? Why is this
water not filtered? The 'tree' is the veggie filter, right?
Not at all familiar with the Ultima 11 bio tube filter but think that
frequent backwashing would be in order with this setup. The fact that you
have a bottom drain is good however, think about this, the particulate
(fecal matter, plant parts, etc.) in the pond, settles to the bottom. This
is nature's mechanical filter in action, remember crap flows downhill.
Forcing this 'dirtiest' water by the pump impeller makes a slurry out of
everything and increases the difficulty to re-filter it and would increase
the need to backwash the filter. I would have the water flow from the bottom
drain to another basin and draw the water from the top of this basin to the
filter. This would dramatically cut down on what enters the Ultima. Ideally
I would have the pump on the other side of the Ultima because the water
should be 'clean' at this point and pumping clean water is best. The
additional basin could be barrel/s or even another liner pond but covered is
better as it limits sun exposure and wind blown debris. Don't know the
skimmer you've chosen and won't get into the UV or not UV question here but
I assume there are mats in the skimmer, I prefer nets because they catch the
larger floating pieces but don't clog as fast as mats and the Ultima should
filter the small stuff.
There will be other opinions, this is a fact, all filters work some better
than others and some make you work more.
HTH -_- how
no NEWS is good