Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi,
I have a mate interested in AP.
She has an inground swimming pool. "Great!" says I, however:

She is reluctant to drain it, as water is VERY scarce where she is, and she has no town water.
It's FULL of weed, lillies, and other detritus.

Due to some fish and her frog population, she doesn't want to remove this weed with a rake or something.

So, here comes the question:

what would be the best way to filter the inlet for the pump, such that it did not get all gunked up.
We both understand the pool will clear, we'd just like it to happen slowly naturally and progressively.

A mate has smaller pool like you describe and he has a vertical pipe right to the bottom with 6 mm holes all round it and its wrapped in onion bags or 4 layers of shade cloth so the water seeps through and falls to the bottom where the pump inlet is his pond is always clear and he has never cleaned the filter in 20 years

For ornamental ponds, I like a skimmer box for the pump but one needs to clean the inlet screen and net daily until things clear up. Problem with skimmer box is that you don't suck fish poo off the bottom of the pond but in lightly stocked ornamental ponds, that isn't a big deal.

For whatever method chosen, the pump intake will need to be cleaned very often (perhaps twice a day) at least for a while.

Going to use the skimmer box once I fill back up. Then drop a 1000lpr pump into it for a couple of the gb's. Was thinking of an airlift PVC pipe in front of the skimmer to move solids from the bottom so the skimmer can get them. I run air into the pool anyway so it only requires some PVC. Then if you use the pool pump for time to time filtering and surface cleaning it will still get some of the solids as well.

You could also try floating the foot valve under a suitable size floatation device.
The foot valve can be wrapped in a mesh to prevent large matter and it can be pulled into the side of the pool for cleaning.
Don't know, it works in farm dams for pumping irrigation etc.

HTH

When I say 'FULL' I mean there is solid vegetable matter from 20mm below the surface, to the bottom of the pool.
Flotation devices wont work. Skimmer box is interesting, but I imagine it will clog within 10 minutes or so (I really need to take a pic to demonstrate properly)

F&F had an interesting idea.
So how many onion bags? how much surface area would you suggest the valve have on it?

The more the better but they need to be loose may bee 2 layers of that open weave gutter Gard first

May I suggest the following.

I'm more of a fan of Fudd, but I really don't understand how it would help.

You drink one to keep your mind off how long its going to take you to manually scoop all the crap out of the pool.

Ahhh,
well as previously noted, the crap is removable, but atm this is not the goal.
Crap is good atm, as it is full of eggs, tadpoles and fish.
We just want to keep the pump from clogging.

KP Cat,
You need to make a strainer which you can use to restrict the undesirable matter from clogging your pump.
Fire brigades sometimes use a wicker basket on the suction lines when pumping from dams or streams.
You could get a plastic laundry basket and wrap it in shade cloth, put a brick and the pump in the bottom and suspend it in the pool, so the clogging material does not go over the top of the basket.
Providing your flow is relatively low, the water will keep flowing thru the shade cloth. leaving most of that material outside.

To clean it, just pull it out of the pool and use some of the filtered water to "back flush" the material from the shade cloth, or unwrap it and let it dry out before removing it mechanically (shaking, sweeping, etc)

I hope this helps,
Tony

I think between you and F&F we may have a solution. I will see her again today, so we'll have a chat.

what about this?
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/newinventors/txt/s1509846.htm

They don't tell you much Jaymie
and being that it's on their site, I assume it's not yet in production