What do readers and contributors on this form think -

What percentage of your filtration system should be biological filtration and what percentage should be mechanical filtration?

Chris

Chris Neaves wrote:

What do readers and contributors on this form think -

What percentage of your filtration system should be biological filtration and what percentage should be mechanical filtration?

Chris

Hi

Just thinking out aloud here and could very well be wrong but surely that would depend on how efficient your filtration is.

For example if you have a very good mechanical filtration then surely with all excess food, waste etc being removed well and regularly, would result in less ammonia build up in the pond and thus needing less biological filtration, although that said you surely cant ever have too much bio filtration as the nitrifying bacteria will establish is self depending on its environment ?

Cheers
Lee

I can only give my opionion about K1 Kaldless which i use in two areated vortexes aswell as in a static form as a mechanical prefilter. Its the same media as used in the Eazypod and Nexus filter.

In todays time media types play a bigger role. In the past you had to take 1/3 of your pond and turn it into a filter....that was rule if i remember. The only time that filter size still matters is when you have static media where the water flows through the media - That is when you need huge surfaces areas cause as the water moves through the media, the media catches solids and areas in the static media becomes clogged and stagnant as water can no longer move through it....That in turn becomes a breeding spot for all the baddies.

With modern filtration its all about the media - Im now specificly talking about K1 and K3 Kaldness. The surface area of K1 combined with the constant aeration helps to keep the filter media clean aswell as to put oxygen in the water which in turn helps too give you a healthy bio converter.

With Arated K1 Kaldness its easy, the manufacturers have tested and proofed that with 50 liters of K1 you can feed 250g of food a day and it will maintain your water quality. I have 450 liters of K1 in a aerated form and another 50liters in a static filter for mechanical filtration. So in theory i can feed 2.375kg of food a day. I have fed a maximum of 1kg of high protein food in the past and tested my water...the water paramters does not move a bit. You have your normal ammonia spike usually around 3 hours after feeding but the filters sort that out quickly.

K1 can also be used in a static form as mechanical filter with limited bio conversion capabilities. When K1 Kaldness is used in a static form the amount food you can feed drops with about 3/4.

Cleaning the static K1 is also a breez, just aerate the chamber and drain....no wet hands, no dirty hands. I thought mine was easy to clean untill i saw the Eazy pod and Nexus in action at bobbys place. K1 and the Nexus filter is the ultmate filter system....really.

I also use some black matala in my first mechanical vortex to prevent the bigger solids like all the leaves to goto my 2nd prefilter chamber. Matala is a pain in the butt to clean but it does work....Sometimes i look at my matala sheet that i have to clean weekly and i think....What if i had a whole filter chamber of this stuff.....Its easy to clean actually but its so...last century. The fact that i have to get my hands dirty and wet todo it irritates me. You have to take it out and hose it off with a pressure hose.

Im really sold on the K1 Media with the aerated bed. At the momment there is no real alternative that i would try.

I do sometimes wonder how some companies comes up with their water figures that their filters can work as a bio converter? This empty container can work on a 12000 liter pond....but they dont even know what media goes inside.....i find that weird. Even if they specifiy the media surely bio converstion load should be based on fish load or food fed and not on water volume. Big diffirence between a 12000 liter pond with 2 kois in it and a 12 000 liter pond with 60 koi in it or a 12 000 liter pond with 5 koi get 1kg of food a day.