On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:35:13 CST, "Gareee©"
wrote:

I yanked all those damned things out, and now only have the large air
conditioner sheets. Out of curiosity, what procedure does everyone use to
clean out their filters?

In my filter I have the 1" thick, approx. 2X3 feet open cell foam. Only
cleaned 1/year. DS made a rack with pvc and wire fencing. An A frame when
open that collapses flat to store. Since we have a nice power washer, we
use that to clean the foam. 16 sheets takes about 15 minutes.The pre-filter
full of vinyl screen door stuff is just spread out on the lawn and sprayed
with a spray nozzle. The spraying part only takes 5-10 minutes, but doing
the whole cleaning process, especially by my slow old self takes 45 minutes
to an hour, from getting stuff out thru putting it all back. Luckily I only
have to do that 4 times/year. Now the D.pond it has to be done
once/month.... and I've let it go about 2 weeks longer than normal. DS
helps and we'll be cleaning the pre-filter tomorrow on it.

I can only HOPE that since this was the first main use of the new filter,
that future cleanings will be less often, and less crap will be caught up in
the filter. I can't imagine that much work ever 6 days or so!

Yes it will get better... and 6 days isn't bad for the first few times
around. ~ jan

------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

"~ jan" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:35:13 CST, "Gareee©"
wrote:

I yanked all those damned things out, and now only have the large air
conditioner sheets. Out of curiosity, what procedure does everyone use to
clean out their filters?

In my filter I have the 1" thick, approx. 2X3 feet open cell foam. Only
cleaned 1/year. DS made a rack with pvc and wire fencing. An A frame when
open that collapses flat to store. Since we have a nice power washer, we
use that to clean the foam. 16 sheets takes about 15 minutes.The
pre-filter
full of vinyl screen door stuff is just spread out on the lawn and sprayed
with a spray nozzle. The spraying part only takes 5-10 minutes, but doing
the whole cleaning process, especially by my slow old self takes 45
minutes
to an hour, from getting stuff out thru putting it all back. Luckily I
only
have to do that 4 times/year. Now the D.pond it has to be done
once/month.... and I've let it go about 2 weeks longer than normal. DS
helps and we'll be cleaning the pre-filter tomorrow on it.

Cool.. that explanation lets me kno wit' snot just me, but the filters were
so thick with muck, that it just took longer here. Might pick up some of
that vinyl door screening. it's pretty cheap if I recall.. do you have it
stretched on a frame of some kind?


I can only HOPE that since this was the first main use of the new filter,
that future cleanings will be less often, and less crap will be caught up
in
the filter. I can't imagine that much work ever 6 days or so!

Yes it will get better... and 6 days isn't bad for the first few times
around. ~ jan

Yeah I figure 2-3 nasty clean outs, and all should hopefully be well for a
longer period.

Today I just enjoyed what visibility I had, and fed the fish,, they are
eating like monsters now!

--
Gareee
(Gary Tabar Jr.)

On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 00:09:58 CST, "Gareee©"
wrote:

Cool.. that explanation lets me kno wit' snot just me, but the filters were
so thick with muck, that it just took longer here. Might pick up some of
that vinyl door screening. it's pretty cheap if I recall.. do you have it
stretched on a frame of some kind?

Just wadded up in crinkled folds. I have to use some hardware cloth to hold
it down so it doesn't float into the bulkheads.

Today I just enjoyed what visibility I had, and fed the fish,, they are
eating like monsters now!

That is WONDERFUL, well... the visibility, I'm a little worried about your
monster-like fish appetites. ;-) ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

"~ jan" wrote in message
news
Cool.. that explanation lets me kno wit' snot just me, but the filters
were
so thick with muck, that it just took longer here. Might pick up some of
that vinyl door screening. it's pretty cheap if I recall.. do you have it
stretched on a frame of some kind?

Just wadded up in crinkled folds. I have to use some hardware cloth to
hold
it down so it doesn't float into the bulkheads.

I'm suspecting it's finer, so catches smaller particles?

Today I just enjoyed what visibility I had, and fed the fish,, they are
eating like monsters now!

That is WONDERFUL, well... the visibility, I'm a little worried about your
monster-like fish appetites. ;-) ~ jan

They are eating like a full 16 oz cup of food daily.. course there are about
40-50 of them now, and if I don't feed them, they just hack away at the
plants.

We still need to cull the 5 or 10 biggest out, and take them down to the
local aquarium for credit. We've kind of lost interest in the inside
aquarium, so not sure what we'll do with the credit there. Might look into
converting our indoor tank into salt water, so we can have seahorses....


--
Gareee
(Gary Tabar Jr.)

On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 10:51:05 CST, "Gareee©"
wrote:

I'm suspecting it's finer, so catches smaller particles?

Just like bug screening, mainly used in my case to catch the big solids,
the fines get caught by the bio-filter and break down.

They are eating like a full 16 oz cup of food daily.. course there are about
40-50 of them now, and if I don't feed them, they just hack away at the
plants.

Wow, plant hacking good indication. Don't forget peas.

converting our indoor tank into salt water, so we can have seahorses....

Now that would be cool. ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us