Ground excavation has already started on this installation near Penang, Malaysia.
The owner decided to go ahead with this system after witnessing the results of this system installed near to him over a year ago.
His existing pond, shown below, has been running for several years and will make an excellent quarantine or treatment set-up when the new pond is completed.
This design is based on four 3m x 3m square base ‘areas’ joined together.
The maximum water depth will be 2.0m and each ‘area’ holds 3,960 gallons (18,000 liters) to give a combined total of 15,840 gallons (72,000 liters).
Each base area will be connected by gravity to a standard Eric Three filter unit by way of a custom-made diffuser bottom drain via a 4” bore (110mm) tube and that’s all.
The U/V lamps will be placed in the base of the waterfall return.
By having a 10’ (3m) ‘reach’ across the pond it makes periodic netting of the Koi simple but the ample length of the pond allows the Koi to exercise freely.
The 3m x 3m ‘modules’ are simply planned to demonstrate how the bottom drains can best service the pond base. The custom drains that will be used here have an 18” dia. (45cms) top and a gap of only ¼” (5mm) between pond base and the underside of the drain top.
Each drain will have an identical pump and suction rate as the other drains simply because the very short return travel from pump to pond will be almost identical on all four. All return lines will enter the pond 28” (70cms) below water level.
The actual flow rate through the Eric Three units will be to process the incoming water volume from each base area once in every 2.5 hours, which computes to 1,550gph (7,000lph) per filter. The water pumps powering this will be Messner Eco-tec 7500 units.
Heavy aeration is vital in this very warm and humid climate; the four drain diffusers will be supplied by two 80lpm air pumps and each filter will have it’s own 80lpm air pump.
Please note that the four filter returns produce excellent recirculation but that vital extra circulation in this design must be made by way of the skimmer unit at the bottom of the illustration in order to continue the circulation along the front edge of the pond.
The construction team employed are the same guys who installed the pond nearby and so this should all be plain sailing. It will be a shuttered concrete construction with 9” (22cms) thick walls onto a concrete base, final waterproofing will be an excellent rubberised paint also used on the previous system.
A few explanations here, these will be seen far more clearly after the pond walls have been completed.
The final pond water level will be the same as ground level and the walls shown in light grey will finish 9” (22cms) above water level to keep the dust out and the Koi in!
The pond walls in darker grey will finish18” (45cms) above pond water level and the pond walls in black will finish 36” (90cms) above pond water level in order provide a good, formal backdrop of the pond and to conceal the filtration units and the access path for service behind it.
As is shown, the 4” (110mm) bore waste outlets to all four filtration units are interconnected to a single 4” (110mm) bore line that will take all water discharged to waste by ‘head’.
27/03/11
These are the first shots of the excavation.
More to follow soon.
Waddy.
06/04/11
These shots above show the prime base and the Rebar preparation for the timber shuttering. The guys involved here construct shopping malls & tower blocks usually – this job is tiny in comparison!
14/04/11
They don’t mess around in Malaysia.
Talk about ‘Do it once but do it properly’!
The shuttering on the first wall comes away to leave the smoothest internal pond wall possible.