Mattingly Filtration Project.... Zakki Sieve and Shower Installation

[Zac Penn]

I met Jim and Libby at the CFKS this year and they wanted me to come over and tear out their current system and have me install what they saw at the show. They were very impressed with the ease of maintenance that was associated with the Zakki Sieve and MC-50 combination, were fed up with the current filtration. The amount of work they were having to perform on a daily basis was just too much for anyone to have to deal with. Lets start off with their current system and then outline the changes that are to come...

The pond has a 3" bottom drain that goes into the bottom of a cone bottom vortex tank that had a WLim Vortex Micro-Screen filter inside. The Sequence 7200 self priming pump pushed water through a very undersized Ultima II bead filter.


The water then traveled through another cone bottom tank filled with plastic strapping to act as biological and fines filtration.



The water then exited the bio-filter and gravity fed through the 4" pipe around the waterfall and into the pond. Some of the water was diverted around the bio-filter and went into a waterfall box filled with more plastic strapping.


Jim was telling me that he was having to clean that nasty brown/black sludge out of the bio-filters daily or else the pond water would look really bad. He believed it was a mechanical filtration problem. I then had to explain to him that the reason for the sludge buildup was actually a biological filtration issue and not a mechanical one. There was not enough surface area in his biological filters to support the nitrogen load in his pond. This meant that bacteria had to colonize on top of each other creating those thick brown sludge patches. He needed to provide more surface area for the bacteria to colonize on so the sludge would not be visible anymore. The solution was to install a properly sized Zakki Shower to support his nitrogen load.

He also wanted to have the freedom of doing large water changes and still having the filtration system running. This was not possible with the VMS so a Zakki Sieve MC-50 filtration combination was used for the mechanical filtering portion. We chose to use an EVO55 for the UV clarifier due to the free flowing design and cost of replacement bulbs being so inexpensive.

Preliminary drawings were approved and the project was started.

[Joey S]

That will be a nice improvement. Jim and Libby are great koi people. Are you keeping the vortex tanks? and the bead filter?

[Zac Penn]

Yes they will be using it as a QT filter when they build that or they will try and sell it to other club members.

[Zac Penn]

To get things started I had to drain the water down so that I could walk inside the pond. I then stripped down to some tiny shorts and walked out to the bottom drain and inserted an inflatable plug to completely block off the 3" pipe from the pond. This way I could dig up the bottom drain pipe, cut it and not have water rushing out. Luckily/Unfortunately I did not get a picture of this process so you will just have to use your imagination.

Once I warmed up after my little water dance I started to dig out the plumbing...
This is the 3" bottom drain line that went into the vortex chamber, and the small 1 1/2" line is a direct suction line that Jim used for a vacuum system to remove the debris that settled in the corners of the pond. He wanted me to hook it back up into the Zakki Sieve circuit.



Installed a 3" check valve as low as I could on the bottom drain line and increased the direct suction line to 2"


I had to place the Zakki Sieve and pump onto the pad so I could figure out all the plumbing lines and glue them up.


Now I need to get the vortex dug up, removed and the backfilled so I could install the Zakki Shower.

[stevek]

[QUOTE=Zac Penn;2258192] I then stripped down to some tiny shorts and walked out to the bottom drain. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of this process so you will just have to use your imagination.


I think I will take your word for it...

[Zac Penn]

How does one determine the load the shower is capable of supporting?

Unfortunately there is not a good way to clump all showers into the same category because they are all designed differently, use very different media and water distribution methods. However based on my own personal testing on closed systems with controlled feeding and constant water tests, I am able to say the following...
1 Cu Ft of Cermedia used in a Zakki Shower can handle 1 LBS of 40% protein food per day

Based on Jim's fish load we calculated that in order to feed 3% of total fish body weight per day, the shower would need to process a little over 3 lbs of food per day. This was just based on fish length to weight calculators so there could be a big difference between calculated weight and actual weight, so I just recommended 4 cu ft inside the Zakki Shower to be safe. Besides if he decides to feed that much then he will realize how expensive that is going to get and will probably thin out his herd

Currently they only want to modify the bottom drain filtration circuit so we are limited to 4500 GPH due to the max flow rate of the Zakki Sieve. This means I needed to modify my standard Zakki Shower to hold 4 cu ft of media and still only flow 4500 gph. Instead of using the standard 24" x 20" x 20" half-sized Zakki Shower I made a custom shower 24" x 20" x 33" tall which allowed for a media bed that was twice as thick at 22.5". The reason I couldn't make the filter longer than 24" is due to the water distribution manifold. It has 40 holes per inch of manifold length so the longer the manifold the more holes it has. These holes need to be fed with equal amounts of water. But if there isnt enough water being supplied by the pump some of the holes will be starved for water which reduces the effectiveness of the shower. Every inch of manifold length requires at least 180 GPH of water to be supplied, so due to the 4500 GPH flow rate we could only use a manifold length of 24" without starving some of the holes.

But now you must be thinking that if he decides to upgrade the skimmer circuit and increases the flow then he will be out of luck, but that is not the case. My distribution manifolds are designed to handle a massive amount of water flow, so for every inch of manifold length you can provide as much as 370 GPH of water flow without overpowering the shower. If this happens I will just modify the manifold to accept an additional feed and he will be in business.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of the digging out of the vortex, but it was just a really deep hole After filling in the hole and compacting it very thoroughly I went on to digging out the 4" gravity feed line that will be connected to the shower...




Then the pipe needed to be back filled, compacted and leveled. Now it was time to start installing the Zakki Shower. The filter will be gravity feeding a waterfall box that has a spillway about 30" above grade at the shower location. This meant I needed to fabricate a shower stand that looked nice and would distribute the weight over a large surface. Then for safety I went ahead and used blocks under the shower stand to spread out the weight even more to keep the shower from settling. I didn't want to pour a concrete slab because if the skimmer circuit is modified in the future I will need to add another gravity return line and would prefer not to have it visible, and I wouldn't want to cut through a concrete pad either. Here are the pictures of the shower assembly...

[vipertom1970]

how big are those cermedia cubes ? they don't look like the typical 2"x2"

[Zac Penn]

Tom they are random sized pieces that i cut myself at the warehouse. I order my Cermedia in large blocks and cut it on my band saw so I can achieve a tighter pack inside the shower baskets. They are usually about 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 x 2 or something like that.

[Zac Penn]

The next task was to replace the waterfall basin with a longer weir so the water would splash right at the base of the rocks and not cascade down the entire rock face. He was having water leak behind the rocks and through the old liner so instead of tearing down the whole waterfall he just wanted to splash the water at the base. I was happy to do than and built it so that it could hold another 3 cu ft of Cermedia just because Jim wanted WAY more biological filtration than was necessary. Unfortunately the previous concrete work was not very straight so a lot of grinding and chipping had to be performed.





Once the concrete was cleaned up the basin slid right in and fit like a glove...





There is a media basket that holds an additional 3 cu ft of Cermedia. The media is elevated so the water swirls counter clockwise in the bottom of the chamber and then rises up through the media bed...






The top is formed with a slight radius so that when it rains the water will drain off of it instead of pooling...

[Joey S]

And all that with the fish still in the pond? I bet they'll be happy when you're done and gone. Oh, Jim and Libby, too.

[Zac Penn]

And all that with the fish still in the pond? I bet they'll be happy when you're done and gone. Oh, Jim and Libby, too.

Yeah the fish were not happy with me as I was grinding away the extra concrete. However they were slurping down the concrete dust like it was crack!!!!! I wasn't expecting that

[Zac Penn]

Well I guess the only things left to do was level out the dirt around the filter area, replace the concrete stepping stones and then fire the system up!



This is 960 individual streams of water showering down over the Cermedia...




I will take a picture of the water tomorrow from this same angle and hopefully see quite a difference in water clarity.

[Joey S]

I know this pond and that is a spectacular upgrade. Kudos for a job well done.

[jimfish98]

We need to see more of these before and after projects out of you.

[Joey S]

We need to see more of these before and after projects out of you.

Yes...what was the result of your QT project?

[Zac Penn]

Yes...what was the result of your QT project?

HAHAHA You had to bring that up didn't you!!!!! It has been sitting for a while due to other projects taking priority over it. I will get back to it as soon as I find the time

[stevek]

Zac- are you now using a new lid for the sieve ? Can't tell exactly from the picture, but it looks as if the top has a slope to it ( to deter rain water from pooling ? ) . Mine is flat, with the air valve on top.

[Zac Penn]

Yes Steve I was able to acquire a rather large convection oven that I am using to form the lids. They have a domed surface now to increase the strength and resist pooling on top of the sieve. There is nothing wrong with the original lids but if you prefer to swap out let me know and I can send one down to you at cost.

[mbrian1226]

Very nice work Zac. I assume you are using the original Sequence 7200 primer pump? I thought the MC-50 had a max flow?

[Mild Bill]

What is the brand name of those ball valves and are they available anywhere. Also, what is the cost of a 3" true union ball valve. I can only find the ones that are hundreds of dollars. I'm hoping there is a cheaper kind.