Filtering pond water.....

[Kamakiri]

Thought maybe someone here may know this

One of the guys at work wants to fill his swimming pool out of his pond, because his well can't handle that kind of volume. Bearing in mind that this will not be potable water and will be shocked/chlorinated for the pool, anyone know a way to filter out most of the crap to be able to use the pond water?

 

[opt80]

use a colander? I strained my back lifting one of those off of a shelf

 

[merrylander]

Having once had a koi pond (until the blue heron showed up) I can imagine that if he were to use one of those whole house water filters he had better buy a lot of cartridges.

 

[usedto]

It ain't gonna work. It will cost him forever to undo the damage that he does if he fills it with pond water.

Hire a water truck. If he can't afford that, he'd better fill the pool with dirt and forget it.

 

[fotno]

Depends on how nasty that water is Tim. Getting the big chunks out is pretty easy, try a 2 stage system with the second filter having the same inlet/outlet size as the pipe being used (and a washable filter that isn't too tight micron size), and let fly, cleaning the filter as needed. Build a filter box of some sort at the foot of the pump (something homemade with a fine screened wire should work) to catch leaves and whatnot where the pipe enters the pond, then that inline filter somewhere along the run to further filter it.

I'd anticipate a lot of post fill sediment in the bottom of the pool. It won't be all that obvious going in, but in a few hours it will settle and need to be vacuumed out, probably multiple times. Hope this helps a little.

 

[soundmotor]

It ain't gonna work. It will cost him forever to undo the damage that he does if he fills it with pond water.

Why not; details?

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

Thought maybe someone here may know this

One of the guys at work wants to fill his swimming pool out of his pond, because his well can't handle that kind of volume. Bearing in mind that this will not be potable water and will be shocked/chlorinated for the pool, anyone know a way to filter out most of the crap to be able to use the pond water?

Now, Timmy, what about the damage to the environment and the creatures that depend upon that pond? Your best advice to your co-worker is to have an environmental impact study done first. Otherwise, the cost could be a lot higher than the water truck.

Doc

 

[Kamakiri]

It's a really big pond.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

It's a really big pond.

I thought you were concerned with all creatures, great and small.

Tell him to swim in the pond.

Doc

 

[mhardy6647]

Maybe try a diatomaceous earth type pool filter, sans the DE to get the big stuff out.
Polish it with a DE filter used with the DE filtering aid (as it was intended) once it's in the pool.

 

[usedto]

Why not; details?

We filled a small pool once with clear water that had been used on a construction site, right out of the fire hydrant. Filled the pool about 4:00 in the afternoon, and by the next morning it was so green you couldn't see the bottom(30"). Put in the shock, and the green all fell to the bottom. Took three days to clean out that crappy little pool. From then on, just straight well water.

Also, in California you better not get caught pumping water out of any river, stream, lake, or pond without the proper permits. Doc nailed it. I don't know about NY.

 

[Tuco]

...(until the blue heron showed up)...

that cracked me up

 

[KFCrosby]

It's going to take a huge commercial filter to do this properly and the media can be selected depending on how much polishing they want or need to do.

http://www.pepfilters.com/products/media/smf2-fg.htm

 

[tentoze]

So, the ice has melted already?

 

[AlleyKat]

Our volunteer fire departments (for a small donation and a bunch of beer) used to fill pools with their water trucks. He should see if they might still do this in his area.

 

[dokblues]

Hire a water truck. Cheaper and much less headaches in the long run. Pond water will take forever to settle and even if you filter it the cost of all the chemicals and labor to vacumn out mutiple times to get it to the point of being able to use it let alone swim in it will be cost prohibitive.

 

[soundmotor]

We filled a small pool once with clear water that had been used on a construction site, right out of the fire hydrant. Filled the pool about 4:00 in the afternoon, and by the next morning it was so green you couldn't see the bottom(30"). Put in the shock, and the green all fell to the bottom. Took three days to clean out that crappy little pool. From then on, just straight well water.

Also, in California you better not get caught pumping water out of any river, stream, lake, or pond without the proper permits. Doc nailed it. I don't know about NY.

It seems if you used a course bag filter on the pump intake and a fine one on the end of your outflow pipe you'd get the major bio & particulate matter out first. Then shock for any of the bios small enough to get through that. The pool filter & chlorine would take care of the rest.

As far as permits for pond draining go, Feh!

 

[Fisherdude]

Hire a water truck. Cheaper and much less headaches in the long run. Pond water will take forever to settle and even if you filter it the cost of all the chemicals and labor to vacumn out mutiple times to get it to the point of being able to use it let alone swim in it will be cost prohibitive.

:thmbsp: Not to mention clogged filters.

He has his own well? How big of a hurry is he in? When will it be warm enough to swim in Buffalo? Middle of June?

If the well doesn't have the capacity for a pump to run continuously without pulling the level down too far, just pump from the well for a few hours a day. He'll be able to fill the pool in plenty of time for swimming weather.

Otherwise, call a truck.

 

[Hokieman]

To do it right for suspended solids removal, he would need to use a screen first (for the big stuff) followed by a multi-media sand filter. He could fabricate a couple of these from some steel drums with removable lids, but understand that they would have to be backwashed periodically to clear out the accumulated particulates. Backwashing needs a high flow rate to "expand" the sand bed to flush the junk, so this quickly becomes a bit of an engineering project.

The simpler way is to simply pay a tanker truck (say for milk) to haul a load or two of water from a nearby town. Faster, probably cheaper, definitely safer. (This is your potable water engineer talking here - I design and build the treatment systems for Pepsi plants)

 

[Sam Cogley]

My parents have their own well. Their fairly large in-ground swimming pool is in need of some repair right now, but when it's up and running, they fill it with a garden hose directly connected to the well head. It takes a couple of days to fill, but that's not really a big deal.