In the never ending quest to find the perfect filtration system I have stumbled upon some interesting designs. Most are undersized for a big pond despite their designers claims. Or they are fitted for 1″ hoses which is silly for a filter designed for a 4000 gallon pond. However there are a couple that look like they were well thought out and could at least have a chance at achieving good mechanical filtration.
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A slightly smaller variation of this concept is the TurboVortex pre-filter by FluidArt which suctions water into the base of the unit capturing large solids though settlement onto a settling plate. The smaller lighter weight solids will float up and be trapped in a layer of bio-balls before passing on to the pump strainer basket or the filter. Backwash is achieved by reversing the flow.
The advantage to both of these systems is that the solids are removed before they reach the pump, prolonging pump life, and reduction of particles before they reach a UV sterilizer or biological filter, which can improve performance. There are also larger variations of leaf catchers but they will not filter out the smaller solids.
Pre-filters need to be back washed/cleaned regularly so the debris does not breakdown. These systems have lots of valves for switching water flow direction to achieve this. Little water is required for back washing compared to dumping water from a large bio filter or back washing a packed bead filter. Pre-filters are designed as mechanical filters and should not be relied on for bio filtration.
SIMILAR:
Vortek-SS Prefilters
GC-Tek Aqua Sieve – More of a large leaf basket.
