I have my matala laying flat as a block for the exit pipe of the vortex.
This serves two purposes. The first being to keep the fines from finding
their way to the filters. The second to keep frogs from taking the ride to
the pump impellors. Putting the matala in vertically would prevent the
water from being able to swirl, and would impede the settlement of the
solids. Some of the people that had the vortex filters when I got mine used
brushes in the vortex to catch a lot of the material that was too light to
settle.

A better option might be to split the water flow, with half coming from the
bottom drain to the vortex and half coming from a skimmer or mid water
return around the vortex. This would bring the bottom drain into the
correct flow range. 4" gravity feed pipe will have about a 1" draw down at
3500 gallons.

--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html
Zone 7A/B Virginia
"~ jan" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 3 May 2008 11:14:01 EDT, "RichToyBox"
wrote:

I have two ponds. Each has a vortex filter. One has the W Lim large
vortex
and one sequence pump pumping about 3500 gallons and it works well. The
exit pipe on this one has a piece of hardware cloth covering the exit pipe
to keep frogs from taking the ride to the pump. The other has a different
vortex, about the same size and has two sequence pumps, handling about 2
times the flow and it does not provide enough settlement time. This one I
use a piece of Matala to cover the exit pipe and it collects a lot of the
algae and other debris before it goes to the pumps. There are a couple of
microstrainers out there that are pressure washed from the inside to keep
it
a hands free cleaning, supposedly, but I think they are more than I want
to
spend. I have had small fish take the ride to the vortes filters, but a
small net gets them out and back to the pond. I don't think that I have
had
one make the trip twice.

RTB, if Dave got the largest vortex would just the swirl drop the solids
using the 7500 gph pump? Or do you think a piece of course matala hung
vertical would be wise? This would stop the fish and solids and probably
wouldn't need cleaning all that often. ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

On Sun, 4 May 2008 11:04:16 EDT, "RichToyBox"
wrote:

I have my matala laying flat as a block for the exit pipe of the vortex.
This serves two purposes. The first being to keep the fines from finding
their way to the filters. The second to keep frogs from taking the ride to
the pump impellors. Putting the matala in vertically would prevent the
water from being able to swirl, and would impede the settlement of the
solids. Some of the people that had the vortex filters when I got mine used
brushes in the vortex to catch a lot of the material that was too light to
settle.

A better option might be to split the water flow, with half coming from the
bottom drain to the vortex and half coming from a skimmer or mid water
return around the vortex. This would bring the bottom drain into the
correct flow range. 4" gravity feed pipe will have about a 1" draw down at
3500 gallons.

Since Dave wants it to catch fish, and the fish go down the bottom drain,
that might work.... depending on his plumbing.

I've only seen my sister's vortex filters once. The water comes in the top
and goes out somewhere close to the bottom, is that right? I believe it has
a coned bottom where the solids collect and where there is a pipe to draw
them out as needed? Or is it just the opposite, comes in at the bottom, up
thru the media and then out the top? ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

Our 4' x 4' x 18" veggie filter is functionally a vortex with root
filters. The water comes in at a corner, parallel to the side...call
that south west corner, going north. It falls into the pond. The
exit is at the south east top corner going east. The celery roots
actually restrict the circular flow. It takes over 45 min to turn
over the volume. Almost all of the muck gets dropped before the
exit. It then goes through a 4' x 8' x 18" veggie filter with more
roots. Water enters there from the southwest, going east and exits at
the far top going east. The hyacinth roots clean out what remains of
the muck. Not pure vortex, but really effective. Little much gets to
the second pond, which takes 1.5 hours to turn over. Slow filtration
is a key element!

Jim

The water comes in about 1/3 of the way up and continues to the top where it
exits near the center of the top of the vortex. The cone bottom catches the
debris and it is then piped to drain with a valve. Takes a couple of
minutes to have clear water discharging. I do this about every day to keep
the solids out of the system.

As for keeping the fish from making the trip, some formn of hardware cloth
or matala is needed. In my skimmers, I use shower drains to block the
piping form having unwanted riders down the plumbing. The first week that I
had the 4000 gallon pond, I had to take plumbing apart twice to get frogs
out of the piping, amputating on hind leg in the process.

--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html
Zone 7A/B Virginia
"~ jan" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 4 May 2008 11:04:16 EDT, "RichToyBox"
wrote:

I have my matala laying flat as a block for the exit pipe of the vortex.
This serves two purposes. The first being to keep the fines from finding
their way to the filters. The second to keep frogs from taking the ride
to
the pump impellors. Putting the matala in vertically would prevent the
water from being able to swirl, and would impede the settlement of the
solids. Some of the people that had the vortex filters when I got mine
used
brushes in the vortex to catch a lot of the material that was too light to
settle.

A better option might be to split the water flow, with half coming from
the
bottom drain to the vortex and half coming from a skimmer or mid water
return around the vortex. This would bring the bottom drain into the
correct flow range. 4" gravity feed pipe will have about a 1" draw down
at
3500 gallons.

Since Dave wants it to catch fish, and the fish go down the bottom drain,
that might work.... depending on his plumbing.

I've only seen my sister's vortex filters once. The water comes in the top
and goes out somewhere close to the bottom, is that right? I believe it
has
a coned bottom where the solids collect and where there is a pipe to draw
them out as needed? Or is it just the opposite, comes in at the bottom,
up
thru the media and then out the top? ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us