In addition to the fish pond, there is a cascade. Water in the large (50 gallon) pool at the bottom is pumped to the top pan (5 gallon) and cascades down the 3 cascade pan to the bottom. The pump for this set is about 150 G/H and sucks in a lot of stuff. After replacing the pump because of jams a couple of times, I came up with a filter system that seems to work. I used a plastic basket that you may be able to find in the same area of the store where the pumps are sold. The baskets were originally intended to hold the roots of water-plants together when they must be removed to clean the pond. I used the a square piece of plastic (cut from the bottom of a cat litter pan) to make a bottom. The bottom is loosely retained with a couple of rings made with wire, twisted to close them. The hose of the pump is punched through a hole cut in the bottom (now the top) of the basket. The trash filter on the pump acts as the final defense but the plant-basket filter provides a large area screen that is fairly fine. The only problem I have had is if it goes more than a week, the suction on the clogged basket filter flattens the basket. Regular maintenance is essential.
Pump exposed
I usually just leave this pump running when cleaning. Lift the pump and filter out of the pond. Detach the hose from the pump to free the basket-filter. Use a hose or brush to clean the filter. Use a hose or brush to clean the trash filter on the pump. Put the hose back through the hole in the basket and insert the pump outlet in the hose. Close the white lid, lower into the water and check the flow. Put the brick back on the basket-filter to keep the lid closed.
On our lot in a subdivision, I have 4 small artificial garden ponds. My wife likes the sound of falling water so 3 of the ponds have a pump to create a fountain or waterfall. As the water circulates, the stuff that falls in the pond eventually ends up trying to go through the pump.
I have spent a bundle of money over the years replacing pumps that have become clogged or jammed. In an attempt to avoid this, I have put filters on each of the pumps. The pump filters need periodic maintenance. I have discovered that during the spring, summer and fall, the right period is once per week. If weather does not permit doing it each Saturday, it can go one more week but no more. By the end of the second week, the filters are so filled with stuff that the pump is straining with reduced flow and there is the possiblility of jamming on something that would normally wash through.
The largest pond has a few goldfish. They winter over as it is warm enough here that the pond does not stay iced over. As the main problem with the filter and pump on this pond is brown algae, cleaning once a month is frequent enough in the winter.
Pump and filter components
This set up was purchased as a unit with a filter box, a pump, tube, assortment of fountain heads, coarse filter media, fine filter media, and something called bio-filter balls. I believe these are intended to provide a place where beneficial organisms can attach and aid with the chemical balance in the water. Since the garden pond is large and replenished with rain water, I have never been too concerned about the chemistry of the water. Except that if I do have to add significant amounts of tap water, I use a conditioner to control chlorine.
The spray head makes an a spray which is too large in height (it blows away) and size (lands outside the pond) if unregulated. There is an adjustment that allows some water to bypass the spray head to control the size of the fountain plume.
To maintain this pump, first turn off the power. The circuit has a switch at the deck.
Next lift the filter box out of the pond. Wire bails have been added to help with the lifting.
Wire Bails for lifting.
First remove the fountain pipe at the joint in the middle of the pipe just below the regulating valve. Gentle twisting may be required to get the valve to separate from the lower pipe.
Removing Filter Cover
Next remove the filter cover. A tab at each end of the filter cover keep the cover on the filter box. These need to be lifted slightly away from the box to release the cover. Inside you will find the coarse filter media (brown). Remove this layer. Use a hose sprayer set to “Spray” to wash all of the algae and leaf material out of the coarse filter. Wring the media to get the water out once or twice and rinse until the water runs clear. Repeat for the fine (green).
Underneath the fine filter media are the bio-filter balls.
Bio-filter Balls
Remove each of the balls and rinse it with the hose spray.
The spray fountain needs to have the top cover removed from the bottom part. This is done by gently unscrewing (top counterclockwise) until they separate. Inside you will see a labyrinth in the bottom to distribute the water and the holes in the top. Both of these tend to catch debris and need to be thoroughly cleaned. Make sure that all holes are clear. Poke them out with a toothpick if required. Re-assemble by screwing the top back on the bottom. Take extra care not to cross-thread. There is no need to screw it on tight, a bit more than a full turn is enough.
Fountain Head Detail
The pump is held into the filter box with suction cups. For weekly maintenance, you can just leave it in place. Rinse the box with the spray and empty the dirty water out. About once a month you will need to remove the pump from the box and clean it thoroughly. To clean the pump, insert and gently twist a screw driver in the vertical case split on the bottom on the end away from the intake and outlet. Gently slide the case apart to reveal the pump impeller. Clean any material from this area. There is normally no need to remove the impeller retainer.
If there is debris in thhttp://www.brafetishpage.com/blog/e pump impeller area, first, make sure the power is off. Then rotate the impeller retainer counter clockwise until the tabs that retain it at the edges are clear of the case. It may be necessary to pry it lightly to separate it from the bearing plate. plate. The bearing plate has an o-ring around the edge. Grasp the post in the center by the pump inlet and lift. Help it with a screwdriver if required. The pump impeller, shaft with a bearing at each end, and ferro-ceramic magnet can now be lifted out. Clean everything. Put the shaft of the magnet back in the motor. Replaces the shaft retainer, taking care to center the bearing. Do not force. Slight pressure should re-seat the o-ring. Replace the cover plate and rotate the tabs into the grooves in the case.
When the pump is clean, replace the cover and slide it to the stop.
Reverse the disassembly to assemble the pump and filter. Bio-balls, 4 in one end, 6 in the the other, fine filter, coarse filter, cover, bails. Re-insert the fountain pipe. Place the filter box on the bricks in the bottom of the pond and ensure that it is stable. Turn the power back on and check the fountain is flowing properly and that the plume is falling back into the pond.
I read with interest this blog post. I got there from a link on Groklaw, one of my addictions. My thought on reading the excerpt quoted at Groklaw and again on reading the full text of the lecture at Columbia was that things have changed for better and for worse.
For years, I was bombarded with folks trying to get me to subscribe to magazines. I loved and still love paper magazines. But they take up space or you must discard them. Both of these activities give me discomfort. So my request to the solicitor was “Can you send that to me on color microfiche?” The response was invariably “What did you say?” What I wanted was the ability to (re-)locate an article I had read or that was referenced in a current article and (re-)read it for background or recollection.
Today, many magazines offer the entire collection of back issues on CD-ROM for what is more money than I have to devote to back issues, but on the other hand, not an unaffordable fortune. Wooden Boat is one magazine I would consider getting the CD, (now a memory stick) for.
But the pages are pictures of pages and who knows weather you can cut an paste the text or the illustrations.
With the paper version, I can put it on the scanner and get either without a problem, at least for issues I have not yet lost or discarded.
Getting back to the quoted article by Steven Berlin Johnson, the Wall Street Journal has had a corner of the op-ed page labeled “Notable and Quotable” for as long as I have been reading it (I still miss Vermont Royster). With the un-selectable glass box version, does this mean that the Noted but Unquotable version gets forgotten because it cannot be passed on, tweeted, facebooked, e-mailed.
Authors, retain the right to distribute your version and indicate that it is the basis of the published article. Then when someone searches for the quote, they find your version, if you have made it available.
Patents give an inventor the Constitutionally protected exclusive right to a particular process for altering material or to a device for a specific purpose. The US Patent office has managed to extended this to software. Most of the software patents I have read fail to alter material or fail to be a device.
If I ran the zoo, I would permit any software patent given two conditions: 1) It alters something tangible. A general purpose computer does not count. The software needs to turn on a light, roll a bar of steel, catch a mouse. Not tell a broker when to buy. Not bounce a virtual ball screen. Not make a 2-D movie appear 3-D. 2) All of the source code related to the patent must be published as part of the patent grant. It can be secret up to the moment of grant but after that it is public information just as the patent law specifies that the patent enable the reproduction of the process or art at the expiration of the patent. Only the processes included in the published source code are protected. Different code that accomplishes the same end is not infringing.
We will have to wait a little bit to find out what the Supremes have to say about Bilski.
The other night, my wife went to shut the Player off. And it would not go off. The push-on-push-off switch that has served faithfully for 25 years was stuck. She got it off by unplugging it. When I plugged it back in the next day, it did not seem to come on.
The Player is Radio Shack ™ Realistic ™ STA-2500 Digital Synthesized AM/FM Stereo Receiver. The advantage of this particular device is the variety of stuff and internal switching that it has. Enough connections for dual cassette tape, 6-channel mixer, Karoke center-channel suppression, phono turntable, CD player, computer audio feed, upstairs and downstairs speakers. It’s in there. All media, all the time. When the Player is down, it is…well, quiet.
I recorded a diagram of the colors and connections of the cables to all of the above then pulled the plugs.
I found the circuit diagram with the other documents. They were too small to read. I scanned them and blew them up to 4 times the size.
I then took off he covers. This thing is like an onion. 4 screws for the particle-board walnut-look end panels. 3 screws for the back edge of the top cover. 6 more screws for the aluminum front panel. 6 snap clips release the front panel lable layer. Then I can get to the 2 screws for the power switch. I get the switch assembly out. I cycle it a couple of times. I plug in the power cord being careful not to touch anything electric. Get radio over the headphones. Switch on. Switch off. Put it all back together. Don’t you just hate when you didn’t do anything but now it works.
A tweet about a WSJ article authored by Penn Jillette that I read Saturday. The article led to an out-loud laugh when I read what it would take for Hummer to meet the fuel economy standard President Obama proposes. Mr. Jillette – this one’s for you.
While there were no U.S. mine fatalities in 2009, this year’s toll is already too large. The various states agencies and the federal government provide inspections and enforcement of regulations. But death and injury still continue to occur in mines. May I suggest a regulation that requires the CEO of the mining company to personally inspect each mine at least once per quarter and the next tier of management at least once per month. By inspection, I am not talking about a photo-op, above-ground visit. What I had in mind was a trip to the mine face, up-close and personal. It is possible that this would bring additional focus on the safety and conditions in the mine.
While shelling a peanut, I had a flashback to a previous time in my grandparent’s yard. Grandma lived to be 102. Grandpa did not live as long. But my memory is of an earlier time in the yard in Clearwater, Florida. There was a chest-high chain link fence around the entire yard. But you could not see the fence except at the gates for the ivy that covered the fence. The fence was there for Granddaddy’s chickens. He had Plymouth Rock, Rhode Island Red, and Banties that I remember, and from what my mother said, the Banties, bantam hens and a fancy bantam rooster, were his favorites.
Granddaddy had peanuts in a brown paper sack. A rotating sprinkler watered the lawn, spinning in the morning, Florida sun, making the coarse, Florida grass sparkle. A crate that had once been used to ship an upright piano had been made into a playhouse by cutting a kid-size door in one end and a North-facing window in one wall. The crate had been there for long before I got there. The wood was the color of driftwood from weather. Setting it on cement blocks had protected it from termites and and tar-paper roofing and siding kept it from wet.
Perhaps if the packers of today’s wide-screen T.V.’s and such would print play suggestions on the sides of the boxes then kids could take advantage of the play value of the packing material before it went to recycling or landfill…
Objection! Liability. Granted. Strike that testimony.
I have just returned from Asheville, NC where I saw a most amazing play. PLUTO V. ERIS. A play to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of the publication of Galileo’s The Starry Messenger.
Full disclosure, I probably would not have heard about this play if my daughter did not play a part.
A classic play in the sense that it’s form and presentation model a Greek classic play. Or perhaps a modern civil trial.
A number of gods and goddesses from myth and legend are gathered for a Council of Celestial Beings. Eris, goddess of Discord, is accused by Pluto, god of the Underworld, of treason and general mayhem. Testimony proceeds through dialog and deposition. The costumes of the gods and goddess are outstanding from the Polynesian and Hawaiian god and goddess that open the show to the giant planet giants that join in the testimony. The cut paper figures in the shadow puppet deposition video are worth the visit in themselves. Classic shapes. Classic themes. Great action.
As the play unfolds, the interaction of myth and earth reality are explored. In the end, there are choices to be made.
The Vance Elementary School in Asheville Planetorium is the near-perfect performance space for this play. The semi-circular stadium is reminiscent of the Greek and Roman theaters of ancient times. More so because the ceiling of the Planetorium is hung with models of the planets with Earth the size of a basketball and the others to match.
Just one more performance in this round on the March 27, 2010 at 8:00 PM. A great show and worth the trip. A website for more info. Contributions benefit the Vance Elementary NASA program. A website for more info. Contributions benefit the Vance Elementary NASA program.
