Koi Pond Upgrade Begins

After a three day rain delay, work on the koi pond upgrade began!  So far, mostly just a big pile of dirt.  The goals of the upgrade are: 
1. improved water quality through the addition of a Cetus Sieve filter,
2. a slightly deeper pond, which will give the koi more room to maneuver, making them more comfortable,
3. depth will mean a greater amount of water, also improving water quality,
4. improved plumbing, which will reduce electricity use.



What do a closet and a hole in the ground have in common?  They both have a lot more stuff in them than you think--and you don't realize how much stuff is in there until you take it all out. 



The new area for the filters. 


There will be a 4" line running from the new larger bottom drain.  It will gravity feed through 4" flexible pipe through a 4" core cut in the wall to a Cetus Sieve. 



A Sieve is an innovation in pond filters drawn from technology developed in the wastewater treatment industry.  Water flowing via gravity out of the bottom drain will flow over a section of wedgewire screen.  Wedgewire is as it says: wire in the shape of a wedge, rather than the usual cylindrical shape that most wire has.  Wedgewire screens have the ability to filter out most solid matter ("solid matter" is a polite term for "koi poop") before it reaches the pump, where it would normally be pulverized.  Pulverized poop is very difficult to remove from pond water.  The Sieve gets it out pre-pulverization, improving water quality significantly.  Currently the "solid matter" goes straight to a pump, where it is smooshed, to use the technical term.  Some of it remains in the water despite running through two filters after the smooshing.  The Sieve will change all that, removing nearly all of it from the water, intact. 

Here's the Cetus Sieve waiting to be installed:


There are one or two other brands of Sieves available.  The Cetus is the most commonly available.
If you are interested in seeing how much crud this removes from the water, there's a YouTube video of the beastie in action here
The old filters will be re-used in the new system, but the Rube Goldberg plumbing will be corrected.  Every elbow and bend requires more electricity to push the water--the less bends, the less power required.  Too many bends here!


Adding new pipes meant avoiding existing pipes. 




The reason for it all, those sweet innocent faces...


"Hey, you with the food!"


"Hey, you with the food!"  (It's the only thing they know how to say--it's the only thing they need to know how to say):


Tomorrow they move the equipment, and get everything on the other side of the wall plumbed, with the pipes running through and ready to connect to the new bottom drain.  All that soil will be put back in the hole.  Next week, the koi come out and into a holding tank for just a couple of days while the new bottom drain is installed...that is the scary part.