So you saw the plan a couple of posts ago (if not see below). That was the Plan, here is the reality.
Sunday morning started digging hole for the filter. 48 x 24 x 19 deep. It took about 4 hours with a bit of refining at the end to get the hole slightly pitching forward and toward the inlet so I can use it to drain also. Another 2 hours to dig the trench for the piping behind the raised bed. Note: a pick axe is great tool for trenching if soil is not rock hard, but it will strain your back.
Monday (JULY 4) started running the piping from filter to Jandy Valve to approximate location of the pumps new home. I moved the pump closer to the block wall of the raised bed and back toward neighbors fence. As I toiled, I looked at the return line plumbing pieces I had and found bits I could reuse. I marked where to cut those with a big green crayon. I glued unions to the base of the filter and two sides of the jandy valve so I could remove the pipe works if necessary. 4 hours with a couple of long breaks cause it was freakin’ hot, 94 Degrees.
Tuesday evening – Turned off the pump and moved it to its new home. Spent two hours cutting pipe and gluing fittings to create the new plumbing system for intake and return to the pond. I was able to reuse a couple of the ball valve assemblies as well as the check valve assemblies. I had just enough pipe to do the job without an extra trip to home depot. I put a couple of unions in strategic places that will allow me to expand the system when I get my UV or if I decide to route the plumbing differently in the future. I added a shut off for the jet return side. 2 hours work and whole lotta sweat.
Wednesday morning – Looked at all the unions and made sure they were attached, and checked to make sure the valves were open on the outtake and intake sides. Primed the pump and turned it on. It didn’t quite fill the waterco multicyclone prefilter before the leaf basket went dry so had to re-prime and start again. I had one major leak at a union where the male thread went into the union. So I shut off the pump, loosened the union, took the assembly off the male threaded connector, applied a bunch of teflon tape, reassembled and tightend everything down good. I forgot to tighten the union on the prefilter so got a bit of a blast of water from that. after tightening all that down again, I turned on the pump and voila, no leaks, and water flowed into the big new filter. It took a few minutes to fill that big tank and the pads floated right up with the water. So I grabbed a bag of crushed coral from the bog and put it on top of them.
The pond has been circulating about an hour and I can see some improvement in water clarity. The pond was really messy this morning since I stirred a bunch of gunk up in the bog when restarting. I am sure I will see big improvements later today.
Still to do:
– Finish Jet outlet plumbing, bury pipe.
– back fill pipe trenches and around filter
– disguise the top part of the big black filter box on my side and neighbors side. I have rock left over from the water fall construction.
– combine and simplify intake side plumbing. I have a temporary zig-zag pipe work working now.
– finish landscaping to help hide new pipe work. I may even paint the pipe brown so it doesn’t show so much.
