Author Topic: Filtering water  (Read 6288 times)

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harley1782000

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Filtering water
« on: February 24, 2011, 05:40:13 PM »
Here is my problem.  I have a duck pond that is 10 feet long by 8 feet wide, It is just over a foot deep.  I have been trying to find a way to filter it.  Last year I went threw probally 2500 gallons of water.  Every three days I have to empty it and refill it.  Any suggestions on a homemade filter.  I tried a swimming pool filter and it just plugs up in a day.  I want to stay with something small on the pump so it don't cost an arm and leg to use.

I only filter it at night.  Not 24 hours a day.  I was thinking of something that could pump into a barrel and gravity feed threw something and back into the pond.  With a switch that would turn the pump off when the barrel got too full and as the water ran out it would turn back on.  I don't know what to put in the barrel to filter the water.  I had suggestions on rock and sand and rock and just screen.  I would like to be able to clean what is in the barrel and reuse it.

I know this is a weired request but the wife loves her ducks and a mad wife equals a very rough life for me.   ;D

Jim

Bruce S

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Re: Filtering water
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2011, 05:54:17 PM »
There's a few tricks you can use to keep it cleaned.
I gotta ask ? why are you filtering a pond for ducks? Is there a run off of some kind causing algae?
The ducks around our office usually head for the muddy ponds anyway.

Using a barrel , you can fill it with kiddie sand 2/3rds the way up.
Plump the incoming water to drop on top of the sand, but not from the top, hang a screen door type mesh 1 inch below where the water comes in to catch leaves and stuff.
Put outlet about 3 inches up from bottom as return AND put it 180 degrees from where the inlet is.
This is what we did for a neighbor who used rain run off from his shed to water his garden. Had the water tested, and was nice and clean.

IF there's an algae problem, that's different , but will still work , activated charcoal with help with nasties in the water BUT can be pricey.

Again why are you filtering the pond? seems a bit weird for ducks that's all.

Best of Luck
Bruce S

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DanG

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Re: Filtering water
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2011, 06:40:13 PM »
If the pool slopes evenly to 12-inches at the deepest point you've got 300 gallons, flushing every three days it is nearing 3000 gallons a month drained-to-waste.


harley1782000

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Re: Filtering water
« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2011, 07:44:56 PM »
There is no fresh water coming in or out. Just a homemade pond for them.  I am just tired of dumping and refilling.  I just want to make it last at least 2 weeks and then I will change it again. Basically it.  They can take 100 gallons of water in 15 Min's and make it chocolate real quick.  When I dump the pond, I use the water for the garden.  Feild corn loves it.

Jim
« Last Edit: February 24, 2011, 07:48:39 PM by harley1782000 »

zvizdic

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Re: Filtering water
« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2011, 07:58:53 PM »
OK I think I can help.
You need 3 barrels, #1. barrel filled with coarse gravel #2 fine gravel and #3 sand .
Whit some luck you would haw to wash coarse gravel only.
#1 and #2 attached at a bottom  and #3 coil a plugged garden house whit lots of holes and wrap in window screen.
Connect to the top of #2 barrel .

Wother comes in top of barrel #1 and out of a top of a barrel #3.
You can experiment with 5 gallon pails sealed or covered .

WindriderNM

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Re: Filtering water
« Reply #5 on: February 24, 2011, 09:55:04 PM »
If you use a sealed system you could put a fitting on the top of the last barrel to back flush it to clean it.
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zap

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Re: Filtering water
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2011, 11:22:13 PM »
Go green... build and artificial wetland?
www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/pdf/design.pdf

just-doug

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Re: Filtering water
« Reply #7 on: February 26, 2011, 10:59:01 PM »
OK I'm a bit red neck,but around central or. all the streams have these bottom feeding sucker fish.i d go fishing and throw the sucker fish in a bucket with a little water.these fish are hard to kill anyway,and put them in the duck pond and let them clean it.the wife should think its neat having fish in the pond too.if the fish need replacing ,i can all ways fish up some more.

harley1782000

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Re: Filtering water
« Reply #8 on: March 01, 2011, 07:41:04 PM »
I don't want to run a big pump.  What size do you think?  As for the fish I was thinking about that too.  I like the filter.

Jim

Ungrounded Lightning Rod

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Bottom filter.
« Reply #9 on: March 01, 2011, 10:35:35 PM »
A hack from aquarium technology:

Put a network of pipes in the bottom.  Cheap plastic pipes with holes in them.  A closed run around the edge (a bit in from it - more shortly), with "stripes" across periodically.  (If it were rectangular you'd have elbows at the corner and Ts where the stripes connect.)  Add one more T and a riser (without holes) to a tad under the surface - at a deep place if the bottom is not level, about in the middle of the cross-runs.  Space the pipes so the space between them is about twice the space between the circumference and the wall.  But it's not critical.

Cover the pipes with sand.  Cover the sand with pretty gravel.

Get an aquarium air pump and a bubble emitter.  Put the bubble emitter near the bottom of the riser pipe (like by punching a hole in the side of it for the air hose.)  It doesn't take much of a pump, even for a big pond.

The bubbles pump water up the riser pipe, which causes the water near the bottom to be gently pulled into the pipes.  This sucks the crud through the gravel and traps it in the sand - keeping the algae from floating around and building up while shading out most of them.  Meanwhile the bubbles and circulation aerate the water and encourage gaseous degradation products to enter the atmosphere rather than hang around and suffocate any fish.  The whole circulation is gradual and has low energy consumption - the same as an aeration bubbler alone.

If you REALLY want to use the crud for fertilizer (and don't have fish or are willing to take them out for the cleaning cycle), make the plumbing strong enough to take a little water pressure.  Refill your pond from the bottom by feeding your water supply into the top of the riser, blowing the crud back into the water and then out the overflow.  (Even if the sand and rocks get strewn around a bit the sand will tend to settle out below the rocks afterward.)  Switch back to normal operation before all the crud is gone (sucking the remainder back down) to preserve the aerobic bacteria that compete with the pathogens.  (Don't put the fish back in until the water has clarified.  You can leave 'em in a floating bucket to avoid thermal shock when you release them again, if you do something to keep the bucket from getting blown over while you're waiting.)

Note that if you make your pond too clean the ducks won't be very interested in it.  They feed by filtering out nutritious lifeforms from the crud near the bottom.  Being too clean means it's good for swimming or overnight parking during migration but theyll need to find food elsewhere.
« Last Edit: March 01, 2011, 10:47:14 PM by Ungrounded Lightning Rod »