A Huge Filter Project, Bad News and Good News

Hello there! This video is a bit of a sandwich. There's good news at the start, bad news in the middle, and then potentially excellent news at the end. Right then, let's start with the good news. Okay, believe it or not, this tragic mess underneath my cabin, which has just been cleaned out, is the good news. This gear under here is actually going to be made into a mega filter and it'll take in all of this area under here. That's actually a bunk bed that's going back into the cabin for the kids to sleep out in the cabin. But there we've got two big vortex units. We've got the stainless steel shower filter there. God man. We've actually got an Evolve shower filter which I'll do a separate video on. This was sent to me late last year and I haven't had time to do a proper video about it. I'm going to set that up in the next few weeks. This probably won't form part of the big filter Because it's got to go back. But that is a Kraken shower filter. I had that one at the show that I did last year and people were loving it. There we go, light on. It's a very, very good filter. So very, very soon I will do a video on that. I'll set it up on the pond and I'll show you exactly how it works. Even the big dirty aquarium and the little manky filter above it is going to be part of my big filter project. And if you notice that some of the glass is clear and some of it isn't, that's because of that. I bought that the other day. And what a beast of a tank cleaner that is. Look at the way it's ripping that algae off the glass. And that has been on for about 18 months, that algae. It's well stuck. There you are. That's actually the colour of my big pond because I've got a little pump in there that pumps out quarter of an hour on, quarter of an hour off. 24 hours a day. And it's actually pumping up to here. This is one of the little DIY shower filters that I made, or at least part of it. So we've got Bio-home and pumice and all sorts of stuff in there, as well as foams. So it's pumping into there. It goes into here. There we go. Now we've got mesh bags full of alpha grog. See the muck that's actually settled on there already. That's not bad. So the idea is to pump the water out of the pond. On a very small scale, through here, into there, and then it comes out and it goes into the tank. And in the tank, I'm going to be able to tell just exactly how dirty or how clear the pond is, because in time, this should clear. And the next time you see this tank, it should be a little bit clearer in the water and the sides will be immaculate. Water inside it might still be mucky a bit, but the sides will be very, very clear. If anybody's interested in this gigantic magnet, I'll put a link to it in the video description. If you've got a big tank, this is just an absolute belter. So basically for the filter, I'm not going to use this big pump that's pumping out here. That's actually pumping 40,000 litres an hour. And the pump that is going to be feeding the filter wants to go 24 hours a day. Can't afford to run that one 24 hours a day because it's 1.2 kilowatts. So that one comes on and off throughout the day as well, just to shift the water around and oxygenate it a bit for the trout. But here's a little bit of detail on the pump that I am going to be using for the filter. Now, a few weeks ago, I had contact from a guy from Interpet, who also owned Blagdon. And he said, I hear you're planning on putting a huge filter underneath your cabin to filter your big pond. Do you want to give one of our pumps a try? So I initially said, well, I've already got a pump. specifically for that purpose but when he told me what his pump did I was very interested and said I would take a look and then a few days later this fella arrived this is the new amphibious pump from Blagdon it's actually called amphibious IQ and IQ relates to its intelligence it is a very very advanced pump now I was already very familiar with the amphibious range of pumps that that Blagdon did. We sometimes had them in the shop And very, very often, when I was building a pond that involved taking an old pond out in order to put the new one in, there would be an amphibious pump in the pond. Sometimes it would be in there 10 years, 15 years. Quite often, the people didn't even know they had a pump, and it was sitting in this much hard-packed filth in the bottom of the pond. And I think every time, apart from once, when the cable had been absolutely savaged near the pump, Those pumps worked after sitting in the pond for years after being in really heavy filth so I know the original amphibious pumps were absolutely excellent. They were quite regularly used as the pump for an under gravel filter in a pond which would commonly be called a spider filter. You'd have like the arms of a spider going out and then you'd have a pipe feeding into a pump which would draw water through the pipes and the pipes would sit under gravel. It's quite an interesting system. If I can find a decent video, I'll put it in the video description. I'll put a link there. Spider filters. You don't hear of them now, but they did work very, very well. I've actually put a few in myself. I'll do a specific video on this pump, but I'll just quickly show you it here, and then I'll put Blagdon's video on. So if you don't want to watch Blagdon's video, just skip forward three or four minutes or something. But if you're interested in how this... Really modern pump works, then you'll probably be interested in watching their video because it's quite well presented. Certainly better than I could do. I do. I'm not the best at making videos. Okay, that goes to your main supply. This fixes onto a fence or underneath your handrail of your decking or something, which is probably where it's going to fit on here. Then there's a cable comes out and that goes to your pump. is in a two-part cage configuration with little shackles on the side so you just unclip those take it apart and clean it it's got pretty useful carrying handles on here um and it draws from all the way around as well i mean every surface will accept water so it's going to be a hell of a long time before this thing gets blocked so it's pretty well designed but here is the clever part from this you can adjust the flow From 12,000 litres an hour down to 6,000 litres an hour. And as you reduce the flow, it also reduces the wattage. So when it's pumping 12,000 litres an hour, it's only consuming 85 watts. When it's pumping 6,000 litres an hour, it's only consuming 40 watts. Now I saw other manufacturers' pumps that did a similar thing at a recent show late last year. Um... But as far as I can remember, I don't think any of them were as efficient as that. And considering the fact that a filter really needs to go 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, the running costs of a pump are absolutely paramount. You've got to have low running costs. There you go, it just comes apart like that. You just strip that off the back, get in, clean that, and get in, clean the front out, and that's going to hold a hell of a lot of muck. I'm not quite sure how I feel about those shackles on the side of there. It seems strong It's strong enough, but it's something that I've never seen on a pump before. Ordinarily you have little paddles that you press in or you have screws that you have to undo to get inside the cage. That's very fast access and I suppose for the amount of time that you're actually going to get into it, it's not as if you're going to be taking these apart 10,000 times you know, once or twice a year at the most. So that's the pump that's going to be pumping water into that filter and a lot of people might say well hold on 12,000 liters an hour that's nowhere near big enough but to me it is. I don't want water flying through that filter because Really, the whole filter is going to be one massive settlement chamber. So the water doesn't want to be going too fast. It just wants to be constantly fed in and constantly being cleaned. I'm hoping that this will do it very, very well and I'll give you updates on it. No one or two people will be hitting that dislike button in a rage because I've got a pump for nothing. Hold your horses. You can have one too. This is a 4,500 to 9,000 amphibious IQ pump, brand new. And one person is going to very shortly win that. Unfortunately, due to the weight, I'm only going to send this to the UK. But there's probably about 50% of my viewers are in the UK. So that's only alienating 50% of the people who watch this video. I'll do a standalone video which will be a giveaway. I've got some more stuff to give away as well. And I could send this worldwide. I think there's 10 packets of this. And this is Cloverleaf's version of those gel balls that I give away with all the Biohome filter media, but these ones are really big. Unfortunately, some of them have got broken in half, but... They'll seed your pond filter absolutely amazingly. They'll also seed an aquarium filter as well, although you'll probably have to cut the balls into quarters if you've just got like a canister or something. In a sump, just drop one of the balls in. They've got exactly the same bacteria as you'd find in a fresh water system, so it doesn't matter whether you use them on a pond or in an aquarium. And each of the three balls in here will seed a 20,000 litre pond. So that's going to really give your filters a hell of a kick start. As I say I'll do a separate video which will be a giveaway that will be coming up very soon so look out for that. Here is all the information on this particular pump from Blagdon. There's some parts that are intentionally left out. It does have a lot of features please watch this video. Energy saver pump pump for filters and waterfalls. 15 watt to 25 watt, 17 watt to 35 watt, 30 watt to 60 watt. 40 watt to 85 watt. Do you have a stagnant, lifeless pond? Have previous pumps blocked? Lost power? Or been too expensive to run? The solution is the Blagdon Amphibious IQ. With digital motor technology. A powerful, yet economical pond pump. To run a filter and or a waterfall. The flow of a conventional pump can be controlled with a valve. The power consumption remains constant, costing money. Amphibious IQ digital motors have an adjustable power and flow control, energy saving at your fingertips. The digital motor allows for adjustable power consumption and water flow. Easily select the correct size model for your pond as you can adjust the flow to suit your needs. Reduce power in the winter when less flow is needed. It'll save you money. The digital motor control offers a host of features. Run dry protection. The digital motor pauses when water is low. We'll restart when water is added. The digital motor protection system prevents damage if the impeller gets blocked. The digital display informs you of the problem and suggests the solution. The pump and motor cage are designed to handle dirty water, leaves and debris. Range of pumps to suit a variety of pond and waterfall sizes. This fella, 85 watts, if I have it on full power, that equates to about 85 to 90 English pounds for the year. You're never gonna notice that on your electric bill. Now I'll make a specific series of videos about this huge filter because it's going to take a good few weeks to do. But basically the water is going to come into these vortex units, spin around and then go out. Then it's going to come out into this big round one. It's going to go round and round and round in there. That's going to be like a vortex as well. But I'm actually going to put media inside trays like this, stack them all up in the round tub. And that media is probably going to be alpha grog, because it's going to be a very dirty environment in there. You don't really want a really high quality media, because it's just going to get clogged. Grog works really well in dirty conditions, and it helps to settle the muck out as well. So from that one, it'll go through into some other containers. Not quite sure what yet. probably bigger versions of that which will more than likely just be packed with brushes primarily the big filter is going to be about settlement i may even feed water into this this is a water butt i might make a big shower filter out of that probably incorporate that fella that lad isn't mine that's just been sent to me to make a video for so i'll probably incorporate that one and i'm not quite sure what i'm going to do with the rest of it But needless to say I've got plenty of area to go at under there and it's all going to be filter. Now every section of that big filter is going to have a bottom drain and that means every so often I'll just open a tap, no, first of all I'll attach a flexible pipe, I'll lead that down to somewhere else in the garden, open a tap, all the muck will drain out and it'll actually help to nourish the plants in my border. I'll possibly even drain that onto my lawn. It's just pure, really good, mulm which is like a really fine muck. Perfect for lawns, absolutely perfect. So in the future I'm gonna have like an inch and a half pipe and just be slashing it all over the lawn. My lawn should be really good. I'm not gonna have any UV because of the running costs. Imagine trying to get enough UV light to kill all the algae in this pond. It's just not going to happen, you know. You're going to need thousands and thousands of watts. And electric is expensive. But the area behind me here is possibly going to be for aquaponics. The last stage of the filtration may be some sort of reasonably high-tech vegetable growing units here. I haven't quite decided yet, but... I'm going to discuss with my mate Andy from Dramatic Aquatics or X-Dramatic Aquatics because he's done a lot of things like that where they fill up and then they're automatically empty and he had quite good success with that so I would like to give that a go. So there's definitely going to be a huge filter, more than likely some sort of aquaponics as well but the end goal is going to be clear water in that. You might think that's impossible but I'm going to give it a go. Just as a little bonus, here's a duck house that I made not so long ago. And I've actually put some perches on there for the kingfisher. There's willow up the side of it. And hopefully there'll be loads of roots come out there. And that'll be a real haven for fry. I can just imagine the kingfisher fishing off those perches. So I've put a game cam on there. Which hopefully should capture it landing, diving in and coming back up with fish. But time will tell. And now the bad news. The bad news is I'm going to be nowhere near as active in the YouTube comments, and that's because on any given day I can spend anywhere between two to four hours answering just the comments on YouTube. I think it's because I've got a hell of a lot of videos out there, well, just a hell of a lot of videos out there, but there's also a hell of a lot with quite good, or should I say quite bountiful... Educational content, and therefore it kind of stimulates people to ask a lot of questions. I feel compelled to answer those questions, and I, right since I started the YouTube channel, I've felt compelled to answer those questions. I must have answered tens of thousands and helped thousands and thousands of people all over the world. I'll still continue to do that, but I just can't do it as much. And the reasons why I can't do that as much are quite plentiful. The first of which is that YouTube to me is just a hobby. It's a hobby that I absolutely love, but it's increasingly becoming more impactful on my work and life and also on my family life just because of the devotion that I give to answering those comments, you know. I work from home seven days a week and I generally get up just before seven o'clock. Start work, I finish for a break at 4 when the kids come home from school. Normally start again at 6 till I fall asleep. Sometimes I fall asleep at half 7, sometimes I fall asleep at half 10. Other times I might be up till 1 o'clock in the morning. That's not ideal. It's not ideal mentally and it's not ideal physically. And the amount of time that I devote to the answering of comments on YouTube... Really impacts home life, and it also impacts my hobbies as well. I just did a quick tally the other day, and my last day off, that's a full day off, where I only did maybe two or three hours worth of emails and comment answering, was when I went on a metal detecting dig. And that was in February, and that was February 2017, which is just madness, you know. I've had a few short family holidays but even on them I still work four or five hours a day. They're not really a break. I haven't had a day off in years you know. Even though the river is not half a mile that way, last year I think I went fishing five, six times. I went out on my bike once. I think I went out mushrooming with Colin once for a couple of hours uh and that's pretty much it. I mean I can still fit a little bit of target shooting in because I just do it in my own garden. That's very convenient for me. But my hobbies have taken an absolute battering. So I'm hoping that if I can free up a little bit more time, I can do more of my hobbies. Including the bushcraft, the survival, the fishing, shooting, metal detecting. Oh God, I've got a lot of hobbies. I would just like more time to do them. Of course, I'll video them. And that should mean more variety on my channel. But I probably won't be able to answer as many comments as I used to. I've got over 90,000 subscribers now, I think. And most people give up answering comments when they get to like 5,000 or 10,000. So I think I've done pretty well. Okay, the potentially excellent news is that not only should I be able to get back in my hobbies and bring you more variety on the channel, but this Pimp Your Filter, sorry, Pimp My Filter series of videos that I'm doing on the aquatic side of things Is only a very, very tiny part of something massive that I'm working on. I can't give any details of the project that I'm working on. But it will help thousands of people all over the world. Primarily, my channel is to help people. I mean, you'll not get endless awful vlogs or vlogs or whatever the hell they're called. Nonsense. It's mostly educational stuff. I'm pretty passionate about wanting to help people. This big project I'm working on will absolutely help anybody who's into aquatics but it's probably going to take the best part of a year and I need to devote a lot of time to it or it just simply won't happen. I've also got a series of giveaways coming up as well. I've got all sorts of stuff to give away I'm just trying to search the best way to actually give the stuff away to people who would actually use the gear because I've got a load of bushcraft and survival gear, a load of aquarium There's just so much to give away so I'm working on ways to give that away as well. So that's pretty much the potentially good news. So enjoy the videos that I'm putting out and look out for that big project. I'm not going to let anything slip about it though because I really do want it just to drop and just for people to say bloody hell I can see why he hasn't been answering the comments you know. It is that big. Thanks very much for watching. Thanks to all the subscribers and on future videos if your comments don't get answered, just give me a ring. My contact details are generally in the video description. So just ring me. I can answer the phone when I'm doing something else. It doesn't hold me up. But all the comments and everything I need to be actually in front of a computer to answer them. I cannot do other things. So if you want to get a hold of me, just give me a call. I'm not the sort of person that wants to... Put myself up here and not be available. I want to always be available. Thanks very much for watching. I shall see you next time. I may as well give you the answer to the giveaway video which will be coming up shortly. The answer is Hardcore Henry. The question is going to be, what is my favourite action film? Please don't answer that now in any of the comments. Hardcore Henry is an absolutely amazing film. If you haven't seen that, you haven't lived. You love action films. You love Hardcore Henry. That's the answer to the question which will be coming up in a future video. Keep it to yourselves.