Day Three of Filter Replacement - good progress with great quality work but a lot still to do

Another bright and sunny start to Wednesday morning. Craig, as always, on site by 6:35am with his cousin John for some extra push.

 

Firstly the two return holes were cut into the pond wall by Neil. Whilst in theory this is just cut a 4" hole it certainly wasn't a quick easy and especially wasn't a bad language free zone. Neil had to go initially cut through the fibreglass wall of the pond, then through the full width of concrete block work and as to make things worse it was at 6ft height from the pond floor so reaching up whilst doing it then finally stood in 6" of cold pond water.

 

Once that was done two of the old 2" returns were filled with expanding foam because we won't be needing them for the new filtration solution. Once the foam is set we will be smoothing them over and fibreglassing over them. Whilst that was happening Craig and John were putting a 2-3" layer of pea shingle into the return pipe trench to restrict movement of the pipes.

 

Now the remainder of the return pipes could be joined and fixed into place. To ensure a nice round flow and to help with the cutting of the 4" return pipe hole we put a 45" angle on the end of the return pipe into the pond. Once in place this was concreted in and then sealed with expanding foam inside the pond.

 

Next was the plumbing in of the three remaining 4" pipes into 4" ball valves and then into the drum. Again a really nice a tidy bit of pipework.

 

The final (we hope) trench was dug over from the back corner of the garden over to the filter house. This trench will contain the new dedicated power feed and also a water supply. With all the trees this was extremely tough going because the ground was solid because the tress had sucked all the moisture out. This is Craig and John exhausted but happy that the digging of this trench is over.

 

As you can see from the picture above the manifold has been cut to the level of the soil and the power cable has been laid. Within the trench that goes from the house to the back corner of the garden, they have placed the two conduit pipes, the water feed and power cable and then covered with pea shingle. Next to go down will be the yellow electric warning tape.

 

 

The temporary pond vats that are holding the koi only have air stones in so therefore no filtration. Saying that the koi haven't been feed for two weeks now to ensure waste would be at a minimum. To ensure they had the best conditions possible we performed some sizeable water changes. Whilst working on one we noticed that there had been a spawning in one of the vats and let's say the males in there will be well and truly spent. That vat needed the largest water change!!

 

We need a very big Thursday to ensure we are ready for the 40-50% pond fill to start late in the day and at the very worst on Friday morning. This will take 36ish hours. Thankfully we only need 40-50% pond fill from the tap because we have saved a large volume of water within the four vats. The 20 boxes (200kg) of BHM media was delayed by a few days getting to the UK port so that won't be arriving on site until late Friday evening or first thing Satuday morning. This will then be placed into the bakki shower trays, then the spray bars fitted above the top tiers and finally the whole filtration setup is turned on on Saturday afternoon. That's looking like very best case!

 

 

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