We had nice weather for January with a high of 68 today. So I used it as an excuse to install the multicyclone prefilter. I cut off the check valve and made another cut on the side plumbing.
There were no real directions to install the multicyclone but it wasn’t rocket science either. It comes with two union joints for inlet and outlet, as well as a union for the waste line. After gluing in the pre-filter I merely reversed the flow direction of the check valve and re-installed it and the original piping inline on the out flow side. this however led to several joints that were screwed in that leaked. I spent another 15 minutes twisting the piping and making the joints tighter. I may just redo the outflow circuit at a later date to simplify it. The image shows the pre-filter attached to my performance pro pump as well as all the plumbing going and coming from the pump area.
The system has been running for about 2 hours and there is a light layer of particles on the bottom of the filter’s clear base. I stirred the muck around the bottom drain and it went straight though to the filter. Some of the really light gunk still seems to flow back up and out but the larger pieces definitely fell to the bottom or swirled around a while. It may take days to notice a real difference in clarity of water. Especially since I keep finding more leaves and muck on the bottom of the pond. I wish I had plumbed an extra bulkhead for a pool vac.
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after 24 hours there is solid 1/8th layer of stuff on the bottom of the filter and I can just make out the white plumbing elbow on the bottom drain. First time in months.
On day 3 I can see the plumbing on the bottom a little clearer, muck is about 1/4 inch thick. We had some strong wind and rains so it probably blew some more leaves and stuff into the pond.
After 1 week I can definitely see an improvement. I can see the shape of a white stone on the bottom and the view of the 2 foot shelf is clear. The water is still brownish from leaf tannins. So I need to find a cheap filter I can use for a charcoal filter.
After two weeks the water is clear enough to see the bottom. There is about 1/2 inch of sediment in the multicyclone collector pot. The bog seems to be reducing the tannins as well, or at least not contributing to the dirt anymore. I can now whole heartedly recommend the Waterco multi-cyclone pre-filter to anyone with a pond. It is well worth the investment.