Evolve Filters

My Very Last Koi Pond Build
Part Five Not much has happened on the pond since the blockwork went up two weeks ago, other work commitments have restricted the time I can spend on it. The two pond windows have now been ordered and will take about four weeks to be made and delivered. The main window measures 2460 mm long x 700 mm tall and the smaller side window measures 1580 mm long and also 700 mm tall. Due to the length the glass has to be 33 mm thick triple laminated, toughe...ned and heat soaked (whatever that is) I also opted for Optiwhite glass which is clearer than normal glass. Now this is where the build cost really starts to mount up; Main window £1000 Main window frame £300 Side window £745 Side frame £250 Prices include vat and delivery This puts the cost of the two windows and frames at £2,295 I know some of you are going to say you can get cheaper glass and frames and are perfectly free to do so on your own pond but this is my build. Allan Gavin of EZ-Ponds will be glassing the pond then fitting the windows as soon as they are ready, this is another £1,400 bill to add to the build. So, windows and glassing are £3,695 and if we ad this to the £6,120 we have now reached £9,815 or £1.96 per gallon based on my 5000-gallon estimate. This week I will also be working out roughly how many hours I have spent on the build so far and putting a labour cost to that as several people have commented that its not a fair cost base without a labour rate or contractors costs added.
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MY VERY LAST KOI POND BUILD PART FOUR
We are now on day 15 of the pond build.
Once the base had been cast, the return pipework all connected and my sump in place it was time to get some blockwork laid. I have laid thousands of blocks on pond builds before but again due to my left knee that I’m waiting for a total replacement for I decided to take the easy way out and get some professional bricklayers to build it for me. I wanted the blocks laid on their side giving me a 9-inc...h-thick solid wall. I worked out it would require 6 packs of 4-inch-thick solid concrete blocks (450 blocks in total), two ton of red building sand ad 15 bags of cement. The following day the materials arrived on site so my wife and I set about carrying them up our steep drive and stacking them by the pond. This took a very hard 3 days. On day 20 two bricklayers arrived on site at 7.30 am minus a labourer, due to family issues he couldn’t work that day so I became the nominated guy. After strict instructions on exactly how they wanted their cement mixing they just said keep it coming. For the next 8 hours blocks were flying. The drawing I gave the guys called for one 2.5-meter infinity window on the main long section of pond wall, but as the guys neared ground level my wife pulled me to one side and asked would it be possible to have another one on the end of the pond in front of a seating area already in place. Of course, wanting the peaceful life, I agreed even though it probably just added another £1000 to the cost. The guys agreed to the change and work continued. I also added a rock ledge to the other end of the pond to try and blend the pond into the garden a little better. By 4pm the lads had gone and I was left with a massive site clean-up. Costs for this section of the build were £400 for blocks, £70 for sand, £70 cement, £600 for the bricklayers and £5 for coffee and milk, making £1,145 to construct the walls and making my total spend so far £6,120.
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MY VERY LAST KOI POND BUILD PART THREE
Once I had a solid base to work from I had to address the massive problem I have in this property of groundwater, the clay is just over 6 inches below the surface and according to my local geological survey extends down 30 meters. During prolonged rainy periods the lawn constantly has standing water for days on end. My plan was to use the pond excavation as a central point and lead several small perforated drainage pipes from the key flo...od points throughout the garden to it. Just off the base and behind the pond wall I excavated a two-foot square hole another 18 inches below the pond base. I then welded up a two-foot x two-foot x two-foot square sump with a square access pipe leading up to the surface. Over 300 5 mm holes were drilled in the main section of the sump to allow water to enter. The access pipe would allow me to lower a sump pump into the sump to keep the excavation dry. It comes in handy being able to do your own Polypropylene fabrication as there didn’t seem to be much on the market to fit my bill. Anyone suffering from the same problem and wanting a custom sump drop me a line. Once built it was lowered into the hole and back filled with 10 mm stone chippings to allow free water passage. The plan is to backfill behind the pond walls with this stone to create a French drain leading to my sump. Once the sump was in place I began plumbing together the various lines to and from the pond. Now I have sort of done this the wrong way around but two years ago during the construction of my workshop I decided to build the filter room at one end of the workshop in the warm. All the drain lines and return feeds were laid in a trench from the proposed pond location below a flower bed and beneath the workshop footings under a concrete lintel. They were the clipped along the walls and into the filter room. The rest of the room was then constructed concealing the plumbing. Certain shut off valves are accessed by sliding out a cupboard. The pipework, valves and fittings from the pond drains to the door of the plant room cost a total of £2,475. The sump and a reliable sump pump cost approximately £500 bringing the build so far to £4,975 and not a single block has been laid yet. If we divide the £4,975 by the estimated 5000 gallons and we are looking at a cost of £0.99 pence per gallon so far. But please bear in mind there is no labour charge on this pond because I am doing it all myself.
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MY VERY LAST KOI POND BUILD PART TWO Work commenced in mid-July this year.
The excavation was 4.5 meters long x 2.5 meters wide by 1.3 meters deep. Luckily, I have a farmer across the road from me, his grandson runs a groundworks company and he agreed to do the excavation for me and remove the spoils, this first of many bills came to £500. Forty tons of heavy clay were removed and taken away by two grab wagons at £150 each load. The excavation took just 5 hours and a near pe...rfect hole was left. The rest of the day was spent cleaning up. On day two I laid two sheets of 6mm steel rebar on the base supported by house bricks. I also hammered wooden level pegs all over the base to give me a 6-inch-thick slab of concrete. On day three Spotmix arrived and poured 2 cubic meters of concrete into the hole forming my first base, this was bill three and cost £250. When building “PROPER” Koi ponds I always err on the side of caution, I over engineer everything and cast two bases, base one is always six inches thick and gives me a sound platform on which to lay my drains. Base two is also six inches thick to encase the drains and associated pipework. This combined 12 inches thick base will easily support the weight of the blockwork and water. Speaking of weight, the estimated 450 solid concrete blocks will weigh 8 tons, add a further 2 ton of sand and cement and we have 10 tons without water. 5000 gallons of water is 23 cubic meters of water and a cubic meter of water weighs 1 ton. So, the water in the pond will weigh 23 tons making a total weight on that concrete base of 33 tons or 30 average family cars. Hence my caution. On day four I placed two Spindrifter drains with three-inch pressure pipe work on the base and cemented them in place The following morning on day six my wife and I went out to look at things and almost instantly both said it visually looks too narrow but the concrete was in and set rock solid. Within the hour I made the decision to excavate a further meter on the width making it 4 meters x 3 meters internally. On day seven of the build the excavators came back and removed a further 20 tons of clay at a cost of £200 plus £150 for the grab wagon. Once I had a clean extended excavation again I drilled 10 mm holes along the side of the first base and inserted steel rebar rods to tie the two bases together and also laid further steel mesh reinforcing sheets within the new slab extension. This would hopefully tie both slabs together as one and stop any uneven settlement of either slab. On day 10 Spotmix returned and poured another 2.5 cubic meters of concrete forming a single 12-inch-thick slab on the extension and a second slab of 6-inches thick to encase my drains at a cost of £300. This brought the total cost of excavation, spoil removal and concrete to £1,700, add in the cost of two Spindrifter drains with three inch pressure pipe and we are already at an even £2000 just for the base.
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My Very Last Koi Pond Build Over the years I have built several Koi ponds for myself and numerous rather special koi ponds for clients. Three years ago, my wife and I moved from the Liverpool area to a beautiful quiet village right on the North Wales coast. Most of my Koi I left in the pond I had in Liverpool but two are very kindly being looked after by Tony Morris of Draco Drum also in North Wales. However, after three years I think the hospitality is probably wearing a bit... thin and its about time I built a new pond. I’m now 62 years old and after a very hard-working life certain body parts are starting to limit my workload so this will be my very last koi pond and it will be built at a leisurely pace shall we say. The garden is not massive so I am aiming for a modest 5,000 gallons or so and it has to be in scale with the garden. The actual pond is the last part of my garden build and the whole garden has been laid out over the last three years around the space dedicated to the pond. The pond I had in mind was rectangular measuring 4m L x 2m W x 1.7m Deep. 1 meter of the pond is to be in ground and 700 mm above ground. I personally am not a great fan of pond windows but her who must be obeyed wanted her say in the design so an infinity window measuring 2.5 m x 700 mm is to be included. We have planted lots of small to medium sized trees to attract birds so two surface skimmers are to be installed to cope with the Autumn leaf fall. A 4-meter-long base requires two bottom drains to ensure proper cleaning but the total water volume of only 5000 gallons doesn’t require a massive flow through each drain so I decided to go for three-inch pressure pipe rather than the usual 4 inches. At the slower flow rate debris would settle in the 4-inch pipe, going down to 3-inches speeds up the flow through the pipe and deters debris from settling. For those interested in the costs involved I will post all costs incurred as we progress and at the end of the build you should be able to divide the total cost by the water volume to give you a quite accurate figure of the cost per gallon of this pond. As an educated guess I will say in the region of £4 to £5 per gallon. But please bear in mind this is with me doing all the plumbing, filtration and electrical work myself. If you are paying a contractor to carry out all this work I think you are looking at an additional £1 per gallon making it about £6 per gallon or £30,000 for this modest pond build. Work commenced in mid-July this year.
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EVOLVE 6000 BIOLOGICAL UNITS Two biological units ordered built and delivered last week. The first unit was ordered to cope with a 6000-gallon pond and specified to use my compressed Jap matting as the media of choice. The three lift out cartridges are heavily aerated from below as seen in the pictures. This unit is now on its way to my new dealer in Denmark Lars Lynkilde owner of Edo Koi. For everything Evolve related in the Denmark area Lars can be contacted via his website at www.edokoi.dk or direct email at Edokoi@edokoi.dk.
The second Evolve 6000 was specified to house moving bed K1, so one of my lift out stainless-steel baskets was fitted this can house up to 150 litres of K1. This unit was purchased by Robert Smith of Cotswold Koi in Oxfordshire for one of his custoers.

Another Custom Filter. An Evolve 300L with Draco Origin 25. The customer wanted three bottom drains and one skimmer fed into this unit. Up to 300 Litres of moving bed K1 for the biological side.This unit is on its way to Harvey Nevitt of M2 Koi

Need a quarantine tank well here's your chance to win one of the ez-pond 500qt and all proceeds going to a charity close to Allan' s heart
Please post your no. Requests on the ez-pond page

All Packaged ready for transport. They are now in the hands of the shipping gods. I just hope they know what fragile and do not stack mean.

BIOLOGICAL UNITS With the ever-increasing number of drum units available now I am getting asked more and more for custom biological units, and I must say the preferred media seems to be making a swing back to Japanese matting as the bio media rather than moving bed. Well aerated matting matures much faster than any form of moving bed media and once it is mature I have found it’s virtually bomb proof with regard to being adversely affected by medicating the pond. Back in the d...ay I had 3 Infiltration Vortex units with fabricated matting cartridges in and I hosed them down monthly without adverse effects. This week I have an Evolve 8000 bio unit going to Denmark to be fitted after a Filtreau drum.
Recently I sent an Evolve 6000 bio unit to Sweeden to be fitted after a Profi Drum.
Units can be fabricated any size with any media.
Evolve Filters Ltd
You can email me for a quote at Evolvefilters@btinternet.com Website, Evolvefilters.co.uk Mobile: 07910-216699
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It's not very often I comment on Peter Waddington's posts but this time I feel i must. Towards the end of his little video he states that horizontal flow filters are 85% efficient, meaning his Eric and my Evolve are 85% efficient. He goes on to add downward flow showers are 35% efficient. This means that my Evolve units with built in shower are running a 120% efficiency. I recently built an Evolve 300L filter for James French of Park Farm Fisheries. The main biological chambe...r houses 8 full sheets of genuine jap matting 2m x 1.5 m fabricated into four cartridges, the additional shower in the top chamber alone houses 30 Kilo of BHM, the second chamber houses three sacks of Alfagrog and I believe the third chamber will house a further 30 kilo of BHM. Up to now this is the largest biological capacity filter I have made. The matting cut up on the bench all went in to the one filter.
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A very happy customer here

A superb compact installation by Jim Pff French of Park Farm Fisheries. The plumbing on this one would challenge the best, well done jim.

Showers Galore Delivered the 2 meter shower this morning here are a few pictures of it in position and the pond its going to be running. Also pictures of a 1.3 meter shower delivered last week and installed by Harvey Nevitt of M2 Koi.

2 Meter Shower. Another one off custom build. I was asked last week to build a 4 tier shower 2 meters long with a 4 inch piped outlet. The shower was to have a 4 inch spray bar. Not your run of the mill shower but here it is ready to be delivered in the morning. Another 3 am start and a 620 mile round trip.

A BIG BOYS FILTER I was recently asked to design and build a very large drum combo filter by James French of Park Farm Fisheries in Dunstable, Bedfordshire. The filter was for his own stunning private high specification Koi pond that he had been working on for several months. The pond is to house his own high-grade collection along with his very best sale Koi. The specification called for two four-inch inlets, an Origin 25 drum and for the biological side all matting and a bu...ilt in double shower large enough to hold 50 to 60 kilo of shower media. The filter houses four double size matting cartridges, my standard cartridges use one full 2m x 1m sheet of my specially compressed Japanese matting and are rated and proven to be good for 2000 gallons each. The new mega cartridges hold two full 2m x 1m sheets and will handle 4000 gallons each. That gives the filter a biological capacity of 16,000 UK gallons. I also had to design and build a new shape of shower to fit on top of the filter, it’s measurements are 600 mm long by 650 mm wide x 1000 mm tall and is fitted with a triple spray bar. The shower will be fed via a 30,000 LPH pump fitted below the drum. This high-speed turnover doesn’t add to the total flow through the drum because its just circulating water within the filter and not increasing the flow through the bio unit. So, the biological side is run at the drums maximum speed of 25,000 LPH and the shower run at 30,000 LPH. James will be installing the unit over the next few days and will hopefully post some more pictures. On the same trip we delivered another bespoke Evolve 4000 with leaf basket and a standard Evolve 4000 both with eager customers waiting. Not quite sure how it all fitted in the van but it did.
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MORE CUSTOM WORK Another two custom designed and built units delivered. A 250 Litre bio unit with twin 6 inch inlets and twin 3 inch outlets. The second item is a three tier shower with piped outlets. The shower is to be placed out of sight and the eight two inch pipes run back to the pond at various locations. Built for Brian Fitzsimmons of Fitz Fish Ponds in New Jersey. The units were packaged and collected on Wednesday morning and flown out of Heathrow. They arrived this morning and are being installed as we speak.

Custom Evolve 4000 This particular filter was designed and built because of space restrictions, the owner only had a 1400 mm long space in which to put the filter and the filter itself is 1300 mm long. It was decided to turn the drum around 90 degrees putting the inlets on the side, this was also done with the outlet. Depth was not a problem so an extra deep filter 1770 mm was built. The bio chamber measures 500 mm long x 530 mm wide x 1770 mm deep giving us 469 litres by volume at 60% density well over 200 litres of K1 can be used. Once again the hand built bespoke filter saves the day.

My Evolve filter was custom made for 2x bottom drains + middle water in put and just to do 50% of pond. The main body is a 6000 unit that holds 88 gallon of water, + A Draco 25 Drum At 3500 gallons and the Bio side Jap Mats will cover up to 5.500 gallons. with 60ltr air line in Bio side. My system now after all the alterations allows me to drop the bottom drains together or separately via my new sump box and then auto pumped to waste, All in All great bit of kit