Hi all,

With our wonderful provider putting prices up 30% and more to come, what would be the smart way to build a low consumption, highly effective, low maintenance koi pond.

Anyone who is building now must have this somewhere in the back of there minds..

Maybe someone can assist with ideas around design, pump, chambers, media, air pumps and uv's?

Thanks,
Cameron

Quote :

With our wonderful provider putting prices up
30% and more to come, what would be the smart way to build a low
consumption, highly effective, low maintenance koi pond.

My system runs gravity fed, no sandfilter, water is pumped back to my pond after the filtration (settlement chamber and x 2 vortex) with a waterfall pump, Waterfall options PG 1200 (160w) PG 1500 (200w) PG 1800 (250w)

Thanks bobby!

Maybe some pics? And pricing for the vortexes?

What prices are attached to those pumps?

Herewith a link to some pictures taken by Koi Adventures
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I do not have a skimmer basket and the time of these pictures, excess food slipped through to the first vortex, problem now fixed
I purchase all my equipment from Cape Koi Aquarium.

Very nice, I like it a lot.

Dankie Jaco

Thanks for your reply bobby. What on average is the power consumption per month?

Hi cam0

I will leave the power calculations for the experts on this forum. I have too many power gadgets to provide you with a good answer.

What I can say is that after I stopped fiddling with the filter pipe work and allowed the pond and filtration to settle, I find the gravity system very effective and will use the same principal on my next pond. I prefer that the water pass through the pump after filtration has taken place.

My filtration system is also gravity fed and the water ends up in a sump at the end of the system. So my pumps take the water back to the head of the system. My pumps only pump clean water this way.

Hi Colyn,

Any pics you would like to share?

I'm really considering a chamber based low consumption system because my electricity bill has gone mad.

I'm thinking 4 chambers with bottom outlets.

1st settlement
2nd mechanical
3rd biological
4th clean water to pump from
5th area for external low consumption pump and uv light.

What media would the experts recommend in the settlement, mechanical and biological. I am going to make my new pond small by manageable. Around 7000 Litres.

What external low consumption pumps are available? Possibly around 200w?

Cheers,
Cameron

Hi Cam

People might kill me for saying this since I had some health problems in my pond but it is my own mistake since I fiddle around with my filter every 3months.

I use Matala as you should be aware by no. It works great for mechanical and Bio filtration and easy to clean. Expensive but should last a very long time.

Matala comes in different densities: Black, Green, blue and grey. I fitted a combination of black and green in my first chamber and since I push water from my settlement chamber, I ended up with all the crap in first chamber. I modified my settlement chamber and fitted 2 black sheets in that area. This I need to clean once a week but it is not a train smash since you shake the sheets and slide it back into chamber.( you can use 40 x 40mm electrical ducting as a ‘guide’ for sheets. Fit them on the side walls of the settlement chamber) While you clean the sheets, the stirred-up bits in chamber will settle and you can drain it from bottom.
I use an up flow system and this works good for me since most debri settle at bottom of each chamber and when you flush the chambers it ‘sucks’ out all the baddies from the bottom of sheets as well.
I did not clean any sheets in 3months and when I did I had almost no dirt in sheets at all

Things I would chance if I had to redo my pond it: (many people use different filter systems that is working well, but I can only comment on my system)

I would use a gravity fed chamber system with UV and pump at end of chamber.
I would use higher density sheets from the start since the black Matala is a waist in my first chamber – the settlement chamber sort out the most of the larger pieces. O yes, I almost forgot, I use a Metala Ezbio pre-filter in settlement chamber fitted on pump pipe. I use a coupling on pipe for easy cleaning of the pre-filter

The water is crystal clear in my pond and hopefully I will keep my hands away from my filter system now and leave it to mature in a proper way.

Maybe Bobby can give you more info about the PG 1500 he is using

So two chambers for mechanical (settlement and 1st) and 1 for biological?

Chamber 1: Settlement with black matala
Chamber 2: Green matala
Chamber 3: Blue and Grey
Chamber 4: Clean water sucking through a EZbio pre filter and passing through a UV.

Correct me if i'm wrong Marius but each sheet is: 1m x 1.2m x 0.04m

How many sheets did you use in each chamber and what did each sheet cost you? I know they are expensive, just not sure how expensive..

Are you upflowing on each chamber? Not up and under up and under?

Yes you are correct about the sheet sizes. You can cut it easily into smaller pieces to fit your system. They are from R850 to more than a R1000 a sheet but maybe less now with dollar at +-R8.

I think you will need about 6 sheets and I will not buy many black sheets. Rather use 1 black in settlement chamber (cut into smaller pieces) and then go for higher density after that. You won’t need the ezbio in your case since it is made from Green and blue sheets and it will have no benefic in last chamber, only as pre-filter if you pump to chamber.

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I like Jaco’s 70000L pond, it extends about ground level for easy viewing of Koi, and by building your pond that way you can have gravity fed drains in chambers. It they are below the ground you will need an external pump to drain filter chambers and it will be a pain to bend down to clean the sheets

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Is it better to place matala vertically? And not horizontally?

The green, blue and grey will all suffice as biological filtration? That should never need to be cleaned correct?

Does airation assist matala during biological filtration?

Matala say it is better to mount vertically especially when you combine different density sheets in the same chamber. If mounted horizontally the first sheet might block up and last sheet hardly ‘’trapping’’ anything.

The experts say the more aeration the better, but I found that with aeration in my setup, I stir up all the stuff that settled at the bottom.

Bacteria grow on any square centimeter of the pond and this includes the Matala, but since you are going to use the black purely for mechanical filtration, you can hose it down with tap water if you need to.

Surely you have to clean the sheets in the bio stage from time to time but maybe you can clean a few sheets at a time and a week or 2 later the rest. You don’t want to upset the system to much. This is where I made the mistake more than 1s. If you read some older posts you will notice that my system is basically a ‘new pond’ every 3months, but hopefully it will get some time to settle now except if I get a new surprise next time when I am home.

What did you partition with?

I guess airation in the bio stages can't mix up much..

Each sheet is 4cm wide. I can make my chambers relatively small then.

If I cut into 4, the sheet will be 250mm X 300mm X 40mm.

That may be two small. Cut into 2 will be 500mm X 600mm X 40mm.

i'm sure 1 of each colour will be enough if I cut them into 2..

I used 3.5mm stain less steel. I was lucky since the sheet I bought was just the right size to do all the chambers. I painted the metal sheets with a thick layer of 'waterblok' since it will rust where I grinded it down. Sealed them to the chamber walls with tile cement and painted with 'waterblok'.

The aeration in last chamber should work well.

black - R842
green - R950
blue - R950
grey - R1082

You can cut a 1.2m x 1m sheet into 4 pieces to give you 500 x 600mm sheets. Maybe you can use 2.5 brick lenghts to make filter 500mm wide (after plaster) and fit sheets in.Then the sheets will be 600mm high. Leave a gap of about 20 -30cm at bottom of chamber for settlement. If you don't keep to many fish 4 sheets might work but I will still use more grey in 3rd chamber to get rid of small particles. The black will do good in settlement chamber. Maybe 1 sheet black and then combo of green /blue in 2d chamber

If I don't make all my chambers flow upwards, is it really bad?