Drum Draining The Pond, Parameters Stabilize **UPCOMING PLANS** For The Koi Pond

Drum Draining The Pond, Parameters Stabilize *UPCOMING PLANS*
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Today I caught my drum in the act in the process of draining the Koi pond. Luckily it hadn't been going long. A quick update on my water parameters as i have been fighting against Nitrite build up and a quick brief on my plans for the up coming season.

[@LeTwistedOne]

See bloody technology 😂😂😂😂😂😂glad you got it sorted bruva 👍👍👍

[@UpNorthKoiPond]

So do I🙄 seems to be ok ATM, time will tell👍

[@kevinallison2856]

Hope tha gets it sorted mi ole mukka. Staysafe budd.

[@UpNorthKoiPond]

Cheers bud👍

[@sroRAGE]

Damn I was looking at that drum cause it was cheap also the burtons and dracos but after watching videos and the problems people have I am glad I paid double but went with Oase all I did was plug it in and haven’t touched it in a year people bash Oase for being expensive but it’s worth it

[@UpNorthKoiPond]

I've not really had any major issues with it as of yet, tbf there's not much to go wrong with them as they're pretty basic. It's just getting the float switch set right to suit my pond and setup.👍 My wife's uncle has an Oase drum but hasn't got it set up yet.

[@TelfordKoiPond]

Hello buddy👍😊. Took me a while to set my float switch sensor at the optimum position on my drum filter (then added another pump and had to do it all again☹️) but once you hit the “sweet spot” you’ll probably never have to touch it again😊👍. I set up a whole raft of water test charts on my pc after watching how Cat (catandeye koi channel) kept her digital records but after about 2 weeks I reverted back to the good old paper method …….old school😉👍😊. Interesting to see you have GH of 6 degrees, mine is 17 degrees as we live in a very hard water area but koi don’t seem to mind👍. Keep up the good work and stay safe👍🐟🈲😊

[@UpNorthKoiPond]

Thanks Phil 👍 although I'm not bad with a computer, I like to keep some things as simple as possible, the paper chart suits me Down to the ground 😂 blimey 17 is incredibly hard water, you must deal with some bad limescale in your house😳 drums are a great idea and perfect for people such as myself that doesn't get much time to spend on cleaning filters, but they don't half take some faffing with to get them set just right. How much does the water line drop in your filter with the pumps running?

[@TelfordKoiPond]

@@UpNorthKoiPond Tell me about it, think we’ve got virtually every anti-lime scale device on the market fitted to our water supply😊👍. Re my water levels, my pond is 11,500litres and I run an 18000 lph pump and a 12000 lph pump at 50% in the summer so circa 15,000 lph on paper but more like 12,000 lph in reality once you factor in pipe runs. The difference between no pumps running and both pumps running is just under 2” / 50mm drop in my drum chamber. My Oase unit gives you settings to use based on the level of water in the drum at rest and different pump pulls through it from 5000 lph up to 30,000 lph so it’s quite easy to set up in the first instance but additional tweaking definitely improves things in terms of removing fines and water clarity (by cleaning on a timed cycle as well as the minimum water level sensor). I’ve got mine set up to clean every 45minutes at the minute (every 20 minutes in height of summer) and once every 24 hours using the minimum water level sensor so on average it cleans roughly 20 to 30 times in a 24hour period and each clean uses 800 ml of water 👍😊. There are so many settings it’s mind blowing but once you get the setting that are right for your pond it will run itself👍😊. Hope this helps👍🐟🈲😊

[@UpNorthKoiPond]

Yeah thanks, thats the only downside to the filtreau drum, due to the nature of it being a budget drum (albeit doing a great job for the most part) it is limited to what it can do in terms of programming. Basically it will only clean when the float switch drops or if I was to manually press the clean button. Other than that, you have to manually adjust the float switch to a position where it will clean regularly or not so regularly. In my instance it was set to a position where it was set a little to low therefore after it had finished cleaning the drum, the water level wasn't high enough to deactivate the switch, hence why it carried on cleaning 🙄

[@keepingitkoi]

Thank god you came out when you did otherwise you could have had some right issues on ya hands

[@UpNorthKoiPond]

Too right, if I hadn't had gone up garden it would have been half emptied by morning 😳

[@keepingitkoi]

@@UpNorthKoiPond yeh this is my worry with my drum just hope I get it right at least seeing your video has given me a clue on how to get it right now thanks 😊

[@UpNorthKoiPond]

@@keepingitkoi no problem. Do you have the same drum?

[@keepingitkoi]

@@UpNorthKoiPond no I have the oase premium compact M

[@KoiRun50]

Great water parameters and a good way of keeping records. Been keeping records for 8 years now and it just gets more complicated. It’s interesting that in newer ponds it seems that the tap water ph tends to be lower than that of the pond’s. It’s also interesting to know what is eating up your GH. I never test for it.

[@UpNorthKoiPond]

I suppose with pH the difference can be put down to numerous things such as weather conditions, food & waste etc but as for the GH, I haven't a clue. It's not something I'm too concerned about at the moment, so long as the KH & pH remain at good levels.

[@jiggsmountainviewkoipond]

Good to see you back mate 👍 hope you get it all sorted and running perfect I can't deal with the hassle of all the technical side of koi keeping I'm old school lol 😆 👍

[@UpNorthKoiPond]

I'm sure I will get it right eventually, all trial and error. My old pond was a pretty simple setup and ran fine, the only downside was I didn't have enough time to keep up the regular maintenance that standard filters require, and a drum just makes my life much easier not having to worry whilst at work and being able to spend more time with the kids.👍

[@richardmullins1656]

Hi im no expert but i have a drum , could your drum be too high just a thought hope you get it sorted

[@UpNorthKoiPond]

Thanks for the comment👍 the drum height itself is absolutely fine and the water level is where it should be at inside, the issue was caused by the float switch being set slightly too high up so after the drum had rinsed a few times, the water level had dropped to a point where the top up tank couldn't fill it up quick enough so the drum was continuously rinsing thinking it was still dirty.

[@surreykoi]

Could be worse you could have a Burtons 🤣🤣🤣

[@UpNorthKoiPond]

😂 you really don't like that do you! I'm at a loss as to all the issues you've had with yours. What have Burton had to say about it?

[@surreykoi]

@@UpNorthKoiPond it’s way to thin material as everyone who’s been here has said! Shakes like made the pump cleans…. float switch played up twice, had 2 leaks, came without the UV I paid for… lid doesn’t fit properly but apart from that it’s AMAZING 😂😂😂

[@UpNorthKoiPond]

@@surreykoi sounds awesome 😂

[@martingage5323]

Hi, had similar problems with the same filter, My pond now runs fine with a bit of fine tuning, water in filter approx 1 inch under waste Shute which is same as pond water height. The float switch, the white square top is level with water height, I have a 20000 vario pump running and 2, 3 inch feeds, 1 bottom drain 1 skimmer. The filter works perfectly now on full bore or less, normal speed is 50%.

[@UpNorthKoiPond]

I had to double tune mine as my filter originally came as the pumped version. Lol When I got it I converted it to gravity by moving the float switch from the dirty side to the clean side and flipped it upside down. The only downside was, I wasn't sure on the height of the float switch bracket on the standard gravity drums so I had to guess and go from there 👍

[@martingage5323]

@@UpNorthKoiPond if you need the height of the bracket holding float switch I can measure mine tomorrow, if you can get top of float level with water height that should do. Also check no crud gets round the 2 round movable floats as that can play up with its working. Good luck

[@UpNorthKoiPond]

@@martingage5323 that would be great if you could tell me the height from the bottom of the drum to the top of the bracket👍 at the moment, the water level is about at the same level as the square bit above the top float.

[@martingage5323]

@@UpNorthKoiPond from base of filter to top of metal bracket 35.5 cm. From top of bracket to top of filter 15cm, hope this help you out with resolving the issue, anything come back to me and I’ll try and help. Cheers Martin

[@UpNorthKoiPond]

@@martingage5323 fantastic! Thank you very much 😎

[@deano6187]

Just an idea which has helped me. A cctv system in your filter house can work wonders. I have mine monitoring pumps and ph meters etc. Also have cameras on the ponds. I often check every couple of hours. Everything in my filter house is controlled with a smart plug. If i check my camera and see a problem i can isolate anything on an app on my phone. Drums are great but they are not without problems unfortunately as i have seen many of peoples ponds emptied by a dodgy float switch. 👍

[@UpNorthKoiPond]

Absolutely, definitely something I will be keeping a close watch on and may treat it as a serviceable part and replace it every other year or so. They're not that expensive and will save a lot of headache. Fitting some sort of monitoring system is something I have thought about previously so may we'll be in the works at some point👍