You skippy filter people, what do you use as a prefilter before your
pump?

You skippy filter people, what do you use as a prefilter before your
pump?


I have my pump sitting on a piece of light grate a couple inches
off the bottom of a 5 gallon paint bucket. Lava rocks fill the area around
the pump up to just below the top. I have drilled the top full of
1/2" holes to let the water in.
Every couple of years I pull it out and pour the muck off and
put it back to work.
My water is crystal clear all the way to the bottom 4 feet deep.

Ron


--
Ron Lawrence, kc4yoy
(Curmudgeon in training)

POBox 3015
Matthews, NC 28106-3015
704-289-1166 (home)
kc4yoy(at)carolina.rr.com

Radio Collection Web Page,
http://www.radioheaven.homestead.com

Thanks for the reply
I actually have an external filter, anyone have this setup?
Ron Lawrence KC4YOY wrote:
You skippy filter people, what do you use as a prefilter before
your
pump?


I have my pump sitting on a piece of light grate a couple inches
off the bottom of a 5 gallon paint bucket. Lava rocks fill the area
around
the pump up to just below the top. I have drilled the top full of
1/2" holes to let the water in.
Every couple of years I pull it out and pour the muck off and
put it back to work.
My water is crystal clear all the way to the bottom 4 feet deep.

Ron


--
Ron Lawrence, kc4yoy
(Curmudgeon in training)

POBox 3015
Matthews, NC 28106-3015
704-289-1166 (home)
kc4yoy(at)carolina.rr.com

Radio Collection Web Page,
http://www.radioheaven.homestead.com

In article .com,
wrote:

Thanks for the reply
I actually have an external filter, anyone have this setup?

I have a small homemade skippy for a 500 gallon that is overstocked.

My pump has no prefilter. The submersible pump is strong and chews up
most heavy objects. I bought a plastic bowl and cut it up so that it
acted like a siphon head. The pump sits in the top of the plastic bowl,
so it is about 3" off the bottom. I cut the lip of the upside down bowl
in a scallop pattern so it allows debris through, except big stuff...
This method seems to suck a lot of loose crud off the bottom of my
pond...

But, I clean my skippy every couple of weeks. Like I said I think my
situation is due to overstocking / small pond and too small filter.

Ultimately I have plants in the water that help the biological portion
of the pond, so I think that the skippy is more of a particulate
scrubber than anything else.

As for a bit of trivia. I put all my sponges in a net laundry bag. To
clean the filters I just pull out the bag and there it is... You can
run the bag through a washing machine, I just throw the spunges on the
driveway and hose them down.

Carl

--
--
http://www.cobaltbluefilms.com

As for a bit of trivia. I put all my sponges in a net laundry bag. To
clean the filters I just pull out the bag and there it is... You can
run the bag through a washing machine, I just throw the spunges on the
driveway and hose them down.
Hi Carl - I clean mine much the same way, only I leave them in the bag and
hose them down on my driveway at the season end. A couple of times a season,
I just stick the garden hose in the top of my barrel and back flush some of
the crud out the inlet fitting at the bottom of my barrel as I slosh the
bags around inside - about 10 min total - I also don't use sponge, I use
scotch brite type pads
Gale :~)

The only prefilter I use is a primer basket attached to my sequence
pump. I clean it about 1 every other month (once a month in the
summer).

-ikiru

*enjoy the sauce*


wrote:
You skippy filter people, what do you use as a prefilter before your
pump?

In article ,
"Gale Pearce" wrote:


As for a bit of trivia. I put all my sponges in a net laundry bag. To
clean the filters I just pull out the bag and there it is... You can
run the bag through a washing machine, I just throw the spunges on the
driveway and hose them down.
Hi Carl - I clean mine much the same way, only I leave them in the bag and
hose them down on my driveway at the season end. A couple of times a season,
I just stick the garden hose in the top of my barrel and back flush some of
the crud out the inlet fitting at the bottom of my barrel as I slosh the
bags around inside - about 10 min total - I also don't use sponge, I use
scotch brite type pads
Gale :~)

Yeah... Cool... I have the scotchbright as well, along with some
floorpolishing disks.. No sponges... Everything is a sponge to me so
that was that wording....

I am wondering if I over clean the filters. But man, they are gross
after a couple of weeks... And then the water slows down... But I may
be overdoing it...

Also I am in socal so seasons are hot and warm...

Carl

--
--
http://www.cobaltbluefilms.com

"Carl Beyer" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Gale Pearce" wrote:


As for a bit of trivia. I put all my sponges in a net laundry bag. To
clean the filters I just pull out the bag and there it is... You can
run the bag through a washing machine, I just throw the spunges on the
driveway and hose them down.
Hi Carl - I clean mine much the same way, only I leave them in the bag
and
hose them down on my driveway at the season end. A couple of times a
season,
I just stick the garden hose in the top of my barrel and back flush some
of
the crud out the inlet fitting at the bottom of my barrel as I slosh the
bags around inside - about 10 min total - I also don't use sponge, I use
scotch brite type pads
Gale :~)

Yeah... Cool... I have the scotchbright as well, along with some
floorpolishing disks.. No sponges... Everything is a sponge to me so
that was that wording....

I am wondering if I over clean the filters. But man, they are gross
after a couple of weeks... And then the water slows down... But I may
be overdoing it...

Also I am in socal so seasons are hot and warm...

Carl
--
http://www.cobaltbluefilms.com

What I learned right off in this room was to not clean filters with anything
but pond water. Any type of filter also acts to some degree as a bio filter
and you don't want to kill off the bacteria on the filter that breaks down
the fish waste. For mechanical filters you want the water to be able to
flow through them but you don't want to wash them off to the point of them
being 'sparkling clean'.

How big is your pond?
Ive heard that leaf catchers can clog easily
I too have an external pump like you, maybe I hsould go that route
wrote:
The only prefilter I use is a primer basket attached to my sequence
pump. I clean it about 1 every other month (once a month in the
summer).

-ikiru

*enjoy the sauce*


wrote:
You skippy filter people, what do you use as a prefilter before
your
pump?

What I learned right off in this room was to not clean filters with
anything
but pond water. Any type of filter also acts to some degree as a bio
filter
and you don't want to kill off the bacteria on the filter that breaks down
the fish waste. For mechanical filters you want the water to be able to
flow through them but you don't want to wash them off to the point of them
being 'sparkling clean'.

Yeah - I keep reading that here as well, but I've been cleaning my media
with my garden hose for 10 yrs and have never had a problem (chlorine, not
chloramine in my water) the pads Carl and I are using are almost impossible
to completely clean and some bacteria must be left behind and the filter
never skips a beat - no green water, so I guess the filter recovers before a
problem happens - I just started mine yesterday -(Wed) looked like a swamp
:~( and can see down 12" today - I know I will see bottom by Sunday -
Also it is an upflow type and also works as a mechanical filter
Gale :~)

Gale Pearce wrote:

As for a bit of trivia. I put all my sponges in a net laundry bag. To
clean the filters I just pull out the bag and there it is... You can
run the bag through a washing machine, I just throw the spunges on the
driveway and hose them down.


Hi Carl - I clean mine much the same way, only I leave them in the bag and
hose them down on my driveway at the season end. A couple of times a season,
I just stick the garden hose in the top of my barrel and back flush some of
the crud out the inlet fitting at the bottom of my barrel as I slosh the
bags around inside - about 10 min total - I also don't use sponge, I use
scotch brite type pads
Gale :~)




I use floor scrubber pad (cut up) for my bio-mechanical. I did a
"skippy" type and it just did not work for me. Guess I was/am not
'mechanical' enough. The water just barely tirckled into the filter and
it was so ugly! I come in from the bottom of my Rubbermaid stock tanks
using the existing hole. Working just fine now.

W. Dale
Wilmdale Pond - http://home.pcisys.net/~muaddib

Gale Pearce wrote:
What I learned right off in this room was to not clean filters with

anything

but pond water. Any type of filter also acts to some degree as a bio

filter

and you don't want to kill off the bacteria on the filter that breaks down
the fish waste. For mechanical filters you want the water to be able to
flow through them but you don't want to wash them off to the point of them
being 'sparkling clean'.


Yeah - I keep reading that here as well, but I've been cleaning my media
with my garden hose for 10 yrs and have never had a problem (chlorine, not
chloramine in my water) the pads Carl and I are using are almost impossible
to completely clean and some bacteria must be left behind and the filter
never skips a beat - no green water, so I guess the filter recovers before a
problem happens - I just started mine yesterday -(Wed) looked like a swamp
:~( and can see down 12" today - I know I will see bottom by Sunday -
Also it is an upflow type and also works as a mechanical filter
Gale :~)

Chloramine doesn't kill filter bacteria either. I've been cleaning
fishtank filters in tapwater for years in my choraminated (is that a
word?) water. I've never seen a hint of ammonia or nitrite afterwards.
I think you'd need to soak the filter media in chlorine/chloramine for
quite a while to actually kill off the bacteria.

--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com