This homeowner was doing alot of pond maintenance each season on their 18,000 gallon pond to remove fish waste and was struggling with green water. I constructed this settling chamber and retro-fitted 2 bottom drain. The homeowner did the landscaping. The settling chamber is 5'x5'x4' deep, and has a drain which allows the homeowner to purge
the contents of the bottom of the chamber to the grass downhill. I constructed the bridge, and hide the pumphouse underneath the far side of the bridge.
The pump is a 4400gph sequence 1000. Since construction of this setup, the homeowners water has cleared up and maintenance is now very easy.
The home-owner drained the pond in preperation for the remodel. The koi are in the galvanized tanks in the
backgound. Notice the amount of loose gravel and muck that has accumulated at the bottom of the pond.
The area where the settling chamber is marked out using the bridge as a reference. The bridge is placed to line up as best
as possible with the homeowners origional walk path.
Shane and I dig the chamber. This was very hard solid clay ground. We had to use a pitchfork to loosen the soil, and dig in shallow layers.
Here I am using a rotating style post hole digger to trench out a hole for the bottom drain pipes. On later pond projects
I would use a power drill with a DIY bit made from various sized dirt anchors to drill holes.
The plumbing is roughed in to the pumphousee. The line on the left is the pump suction line. The line on the right
will be a bottom drain cleanout for the settling chamber itself.
The plumbing is done for the bottom drain. The 1 1/2" pipe is expanded to 3" pipe to make a bigger opening.
The plumbing is done for gravity feed lines which connect the settling chamber to the pond. There are two 4" pipes.
Padding material is placed over the soil to protect the liner from damage from rocks. Whe the homeowner had build the
origional pond, they had used no padding, and rocks had cut the liner in at least 1 spot, which had to be repaired.
I am using my pipe boot to connect the rubber in the settling chamber to the pipes
going to the bottom drains.
This photo shows the bottom drain bypass Tee's. During winter time, these tees can be opened up and the water will be pulled
from the surface instead of the bottom. This will allow the homeowner to run the pump all winter, and use the venturi on the pump
to keep a hole open in the ice.
This photo shows the installation and placement of the bottom drain pipes.
This photo shows the installation of the pumphouse. The pumphouse is hidden inside a special panel in the bridge. Can you
find it in the origional completed picture ? The pump is a Sequence 1000, 4400gph. The ball valve on the bottom is the drain
line for the settling chamber. This line exits the pumphouse and out onto the grass many feet downhill. This was a very
effective way to hide all of the valves.
Here we see the settling chamber as it fills with water. The two pipes comming from the bottom drains are visible just under
the bridge. Below that is the slotted intake pipe that the pumps draws water from. Ideally I like to have to bottom drain
lines lower in the installation, and the pump intake pipe above, but that was not possible for this installation.
The finished product
