Reader's submission: How is Sjaak S's pond doing now?
I have written about my pond twice (I believe) since 2013. I thought it would be nice to write again after five years how things are going with the pond. In short: great! I received many tips and learned a lot.
Last year I started to raise and widen the edge with boulders and this has become a nice whole. A few months ago I removed the four nozzles and now built in a small waterfall, but I'm not really happy with it yet.
Filtering
The best, however, is the filtering. Last year the water started to turn disturbingly green. Then I started looking diligently about filter systems that were not too expensive. Then I came across someone on YouTube who built filters out of various bins, like the plastic boxes with drawers that you can buy in any store here for a few baht. I followed the instructions, bought filter material and now the water has been very clear for over 8 months. I have more or less made two filters, each of which sucks water from the pond through its own pump. That water runs through a first filter layer: a coarse filter mat and a fine filter layer (a piece of white filter wool). Do the same for the second container and then fill the third and fourth container with lava stones. On top of that also a piece of the white filter wool. I did this with both filters.
After two weeks and often changing the white filters, the water started to clear. Now I only have to change a layer once a month and rinse out the coarse filter mats. The water remains beautifully clear.
My waterfall ends in two low containers, in which I have plants growing and guppies swimming. There are filamentous algae in it. The owner of the aquarium shop said that this is not a problem, but actually a sign that the water was healthy.
My big tank has no problem with it. The fish probably eat most of the algae.
Swimming pool
I think this filter system is so good that I want to use it at the small swimming pool that I will soon start building.
At least it's cheap enough that I can easily replace it, should it not work. I would like to have my pool with just fresh water, without the addition of chlorine or salt.
Solar powered pumps
I've also talked about solar energy in another piece. The filters of the pool do not have to run 24 hours a day, but as long as there is sunlight. So I'm thinking of four panels that can supply about 1200 watts and an inverter that can convert the received power into usable power.
If there are people here who use small solar systems, I am of course also looking forward to tips. The four panels will be the start of a series of panels that I want to distribute over the roofs of my house and outbuildings, so that I get to about 5000 watts. You can already get a 325 Watt solar panel for less than 5000 Baht, so that is not a cost point either.
From what I saw on the internet so far, this should be enough. The batteries to store power will also be added, but that is a concern for later. Here, too, there are choices and solutions that change and are improved every year.
Do not understand what you are getting into with the solar panels, for 5000 watts the investment is already more than 75.000 baht, you also need cabling and an inverter, which is already more than the amount that costs 15.000 kW of electricity in Thailand, we are not talking about it yet the enormous cost of the batteries, without a battery of these you cannot even run your air conditioning at night, supplying the surplus to the network during the day is not included here, so what do you use during the day
No. a solar panel costs less than 5000 Baht. So 4 pieces is 20.000 baht. The inverter for this is also not too expensive. Maybe I'll end up with less too. I'm not going to generate solar energy here on a large scale right away.
As I wrote, for now I want to use the solar panels during the day and expand it bit by bit. My reason for this is that I ultimately want to be independent of the net. I already pay a lot every month for little use. This is because we have a connection here, where I pay more than double the usual amount and a direct connection to the power grid will cost me at least 60.000 Baht. I have to buy power cables, poles and a box myself (probably also some kind of inverter), because I live in the countryside too far from the mains. Now I have a so-called temporary solution, where I really pay a lot more. So every solar panel I buy for 5000 Baht can help me lower my electricity costs.
Amorn sells pumps that you can connect directly to solar panels. You don't need an inverter, charger or batteries.
An excellent solution for your application in the swimming pool.
I have a lot of experience with solar panels for generating electricity. Don't do it to save money. I did it because we have regular blackouts and brownouts. I have an AVR that helps against brownouts (to a certain extent) When it can't keep up I switch to my own electricity. Because of course I also generate electricity in case of no blackout, and when the batteries are full I throw this away, I also switch to my own “factory” when the batteries reach a voltage of 26.9 Volt. If the voltage drops below 25 volts, I switch back to the grid. That 25 Volt is enough to bridge a blackout of about 24 hours.
Arjen.
This is very interesting, I hope you will answer the following questions…
How many kWh do you use on a monthly basis and how much has the bill dropped?
What kind of batteries do you use, what kind and how many?
We use an average of 20kWh per day, mainly 2 air conditioners. (1 during the day, 2 at night.)
In addition, a refrigerator, washing machine and some small consumers.
Fortunately, we hardly watch TV.
Average below 1kW, but peaks of perhaps 4kW.
Do you have insight into that, in your situation?
Assuming 4kW peak, at least a 5kW inverter would be needed, I estimate.
With 10 panels a 300W we should come an end to refill the batteries during the day.
I roughly assume an investment of 200.000 thb.
You won't get that done in 1 year, but it should be possible in about 5 years, right?
Provided energy prices don't drop too much 🙂
Thank you in advance for any information you can share.
Arjen, how many watts do you have? The way you describe it is exactly what I want to do. The batteries will come later. I know these are expensive, but prices are steadily dropping. And if I indicated as I indicated in my answer to Leen, a connection to the fixed power grid costs me a pretty penny. Then the costs for solar energy are just 15000 to 20.000 Baht higher, which I then easily save again, because my fixed electricity costs go down considerably.
But I do it mainly because we have a lot of sun in Thailand, free clean energy, and because of the strong power fluctuations that can also mean an early death of your equipment.
After being fired on this blog last time by a real expert, I no longer dare to give numbers.
My installation was expensive, very expensive. You can buy a very nice new MUX7… Power fluctuations are very easy and cheap to solve with an AVR.
Remember that the efficiency of solar panels decreases by approximately 0.5% per degree of warming. My panels reach temperatures of 70 degrees Celsius.
In NL the sun has a capacity of about 400 Watt/m2. In Thailand almost 1.000 Watt/M2. Yet comparable panels in the Netherlands produce more electricity than in Thailand. Especially in winter!!
I have a very good understanding of all my numbers. You can ask me via PM. I'm not going to repeat it here for the aforementioned reasons.
Arjen.
Estimates don't work. You have to calculate and measure. My system is controlled by a PLC. Every 2 seconds I measure all parameters. This gives very interesting information.
Arjen.
Don't forget to include a contact option, such as an email address. The editors have not passed on it for quite some time now.
Nice to hear, seems even better with film of the pond
Dear scarf
Congratulations on your clear water,
Could you send me some photos of your filter installation?
MVG
[email protected]
Jean, thanks, I'll do that tomorrow.
Dear scarf
I do not read in your story whether you have a UV lamp in your system. This prevents and kills bacteria and algae.
Not a big investment.
For enthusiasts on the internet there are many examples of self-built filter installations.
I did some calculations and eventually came to the conclusion that buying a complete set is cheaper than manufacturing something yourself.
I bought a pressure filter for a 300 Euro including UV, Pom, Bin, Materials etc. At van de Cranenbroek for a 25.000 liter pond.
Rori, I didn't have a UV Lamp built in, I had it in the beginning. This didn't help much and broke quickly. I do have an aereator or whatever such machine is called, so an air pump, with which I aerate the water at the beginning of the water circulation in the pond. This also helps immensely.
My filter installation may cost a total of 50 euros? I also looked at many systems, but found this system very interesting. Instead of boxes I used drawers, with smaller boxes, but two. This has the advantage that I can clean one (change and rinse media) while the other is still running and it will not easily happen that both pumps become clogged or stop working at the same time, so that I can leave for a few days and filtered further.
As for power consumption…I had the pumps running 12 hours a day at first. However, the owner of the aquarium store said it would be better to do it 24/7. I hardly notice it either.
Here is an example of such a “drip” filter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eyoDB91Ps4
No, I certainly won't have spent 300 euros for it.
By the way, my pond is in Thailand, so Cranenbroek won't deliver anything here…;)
The water is so clean that I myself go in between the fish a few times a week to cool off.
In Holland I had a 30 m3 pond with two drains on the bottom with very large koi's (which is a huge burden on your water and therefore filter), because they eat and shit like pigs). First had a 5 chamber filter, had to clean it daily then built a so-called vortex of considerable size for it. The vortex can be cleaned, all the poop out (fortunately I lived on a strong canal that I could discharge into) to the happiness of all the small and larger fish I fed with it. Afterwards I put down the vortex first, then a pressure filter as used in swimming pools, then a large UV lamp and finally the water was filtered with a heavy pump and added a lot of oxygen back into the water. On two sides of the pond a planter with plants placed on lava stones with a separate pump. Result glass of clear water that I regularly swam in during the summer was just under 3 meters deep, along with my carp. I hope you find this information useful! Further success.
in every store where fish for the pond is sold they have anti green white with green and yellow jar 150 bath in 2 days crystal clear also thread algae
Jan, I think it would be better without chemistry… with that stuff you throw something into the water that can later be bad for something else. I stick to good filtration and as I wrote, I have crystal clear water, the fish reproduce and even have frogs that feel comfortable there..
Yuundai, thanks for your explanation… that's one of the reasons why I don't want to have Koi for a while. I do have three little ones, but mainly tropical fish, the kind you encounter in aquariums: suma tears, algae eater (chinese, they are already quite large), cichlids, spotted Scat (I only know the English name), guppies and swordtails… and a few fish whose names I don't know. I'm not a fish connoisseur, but it's nice to see them swimming!