rigsy
Tue Jun 03, 2008, 11:21 AM
This is my first post.
We Live in London, Ontario, Canada and have had our Koi pond for about six years. We have experimented with numerous types of filters and being the backyard inventor that I am believe we have come up with an effective - easy to use / maintain - easy to build and inexpensive system.
At one time we considered buying a "bio-filter" for over $ 1,000 but after looking at the design - realized that they were just filtering material that trap the sediment and their had to be a simpler material available that would be as effective. To our delight we found that pot scrubbers - the round nylon one's that look like a ball did the same thing and could be purchases almost any discount store.
We have about 25 - 30 koi some as large as 18" that have wintered in our pond for over 6 years. The volume of water in our pond is about 2,500 - 3,000 usg
The system does not us UV filtration or any chemical as I believe that the some chemicals & UV kill some of the useful bacteria that help the pond environment. It is just a simple gavity feed system that traps the algea and turbid material.
The system is made from 1 X 12 gal plastic barrel and 1 X 55 gal plasic barrel - both filled with round - not flat pot scrubbers. Although we have a high volume pump for our waterfalls we use a smaller 1/6 hp circulating pump for the filtering system. The small pump puts out about 1,500 usg / hr. The smaller 12 gal barrel is the pre-filter and in the cleaned Every 2 - 3 weeks the larger barrel is only cleaned once per season.
The principle is simple - feed dirty pond water into the pre-filer and from there to the larger filter and back to the pond. Gravity dose the work.
In the spring - we add barley pellets to the large barrel - they are very effective on alge.
Give me a shout if you want further information or your email.
Interested to hear other - homemade inovative ideas
Kevin Rigg
WSI
Ind Waste water and laundry speicalist
We Live in London, Ontario, Canada and have had our Koi pond for about six years. We have experimented with numerous types of filters and being the backyard inventor that I am believe we have come up with an effective - easy to use / maintain - easy to build and inexpensive system.
At one time we considered buying a "bio-filter" for over $ 1,000 but after looking at the design - realized that they were just filtering material that trap the sediment and their had to be a simpler material available that would be as effective. To our delight we found that pot scrubbers - the round nylon one's that look like a ball did the same thing and could be purchases almost any discount store.
We have about 25 - 30 koi some as large as 18" that have wintered in our pond for over 6 years. The volume of water in our pond is about 2,500 - 3,000 usg
The system does not us UV filtration or any chemical as I believe that the some chemicals & UV kill some of the useful bacteria that help the pond environment. It is just a simple gavity feed system that traps the algea and turbid material.
The system is made from 1 X 12 gal plastic barrel and 1 X 55 gal plasic barrel - both filled with round - not flat pot scrubbers. Although we have a high volume pump for our waterfalls we use a smaller 1/6 hp circulating pump for the filtering system. The small pump puts out about 1,500 usg / hr. The smaller 12 gal barrel is the pre-filter and in the cleaned Every 2 - 3 weeks the larger barrel is only cleaned once per season.
The principle is simple - feed dirty pond water into the pre-filer and from there to the larger filter and back to the pond. Gravity dose the work.
In the spring - we add barley pellets to the large barrel - they are very effective on alge.
Give me a shout if you want further information or your email.
Interested to hear other - homemade inovative ideas
Kevin Rigg
WSI
Ind Waste water and laundry speicalist