[Worldwide Koi Club] Filtration
I use a Bubble Bead filter which does both mechanical and biological filtration, and the UV filter downstream of that, then the outflow goes to a waterfall which aerates the water. In my experience you need all 4 steps for a healthy pond in which chemicals are unnecessary.
Edgar
On Jun 13, 2008, at 6:25 PM, Lorraine wrote:
> I’ve been in the pond hobby for just over 25 years and in the > beginning had great difficulty in keeping my pond water clear. I > used to use the upflow bio-filters which we made ourselves and > found that they worked quite well, at least for a little while. > After a while I found that my water would start to turn green again > and I couldn’t understand why. So, I was told to drain the filter > and remove the lava rock to see what was going on. What I found was > that about 1/3 of the lava rock was covered in sludge, at the > bottom of the filter. Backwashing did nothing to get rid of this > sludge, therefore, the good bacteria would continue to die as the > sludge crept higher and higher in the filter. > > I was then showed how to make a downflow bio-filter. The mechanical > part of this filter was at the top and I use a couple of layers of > window screening to trap debrus from the bottom of the pond. The > water then flows down the filter, through (plastic scrubbies) and > up a pipe bringing the water back to the top of the filter and out > to the pond. Now, my filtering medium (plastic scrubbies) never > gets dirty. They are always clean and loaded with good bacteria > which removes ammonia and nitrites from the water. My water is > always crystal clear and free of hair algae. I can clean the window > screening every few days or whenever it needs it and this doesn’t > hurt the good bacteria in the filter. > > Barley straw, chemicals, u.v. lights, etc., are quick fixes but > don’t address the real problem which is usually an unbalanced pond. > We used to have 14 ponds in our yard where we bred and imported > quality Koi and Goldfish and without this bio-filter, we would > never have been able to keep them all alive and healthy. > > I’ve been where many of you people have been. I had a green pond > for at least 10 years. I had tried anything available to me to > clear my pond water. I was told that my pond water would never > clear because I didn’t have 60% plant coverage but when your > dealing with Koi, all of you know what damage they can do to plants > and water conditions, so we ended up removing all our plants and > built a bigger bio-filter and ended up with just a Koi pond and our > water was always clear. Our lilies and other plants were in a pond > next to our big pond. > > I know that I certainly have gone on about filtration but it’s just > that I’m so passionate about the subject because of my difficulty > trying to clear our pond and want to help anyone who is having the > same trouble. > > Yours Koily, Lorraine > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > >
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Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
