Fish pond filter biomedia choice for a homemade pond filter has a major impact on pond vitality
Pond filter biomedia choice inside a fish pond filter is critically important. A fish pond filter purifies pond water at the interface with the biomedia. This is where the bacteria colonies reside and do their bio filter work. The better the biomedia the smaller the diy pond filter needs to be. Building a pond filter is easy.
SSA (specific surface area) in sq.m. per litre of different pond filter biomedia for a home made pond filter is shown below. A high number is best! If an SSA is 1 then theoretically an SSA of 8 will provide surface to hold 8 times as many bacteria inside a pond filter. The same relationship applies to gallons of biomedia.
Pond filter biomedia
All biomedia in fish pond filters or bio filters of any type can be classified according to its specific surface area (SSA). The higher the SSA the more probable is it that the biomedia will be more effective in a fish pond filter. SSA refers to how much surface area per unit volume of a type of media is available for colonisation by bacteria inside fish pond filters. You can now see how you can easily choose biomedia for your diy pond filter.
For products like simple plastic tubes inside a diy pond filter SSA can be calculated easily because it is a smooth surface and a simple shape. In fact if you do the calculation the SSA is about 1 sq metre per litre of biomedia. In other words if a fish pond filter is filled with plastic tubes then for every litre used about 1 sq. metre of surface is provided for colonisation by the bacteria.
Alfagrog Ceramic Rings Lava Rock Plastic Foam Plastic Coils 45 8 8 2.5 1Pond filter biomedia - bacterial considerations
For any fish pond the amount of bacteria required to keep water clean and healthy is determined by: The amount of ammonia released within the pond due to amount of fish food fed (also a function of fish stocking and feeding rate).
The availability of oxygen in sufficient quantity for the bacteria to do their job efficiently and The number of bacteria in the fish pond filter which is related to the SSA.
Therefore for any pond lots of SSA inside a home made pond filter must be better. I hope you agree. This has a practical and significant cost implication. It is the biomedia SSA used together with flow rates and oxygen concentrations that determines the size of a pond filter or biofilter box or boxes and NOT the size of the pond. Few retailers really knows this let alone use the principle do not be misled by the size of the box. This has little significance when you understand what you are doing.
All retailers sell big pond filter boxes for big ponds and small pond filter boxes for small ponds.
Even so called "koi experts" talk about the size of a pond filter in terms of pond size or even its surface area as I saw in one "expert" publication recently. This is nonsense and has caused so many people to build totally inappropriate fish pond filters over the years.
Pond filter biomedia and home made filter design In practice a small fish pond filter box is perfectly adequate for a big pond so long as the biomedia is selected carefully and the outlet from the box is big enough to allow the water to flow out at the rate at which it is pumped into the pond filter box. This well kept “secret” is discussed in far greater detail and the secrets disclosed in my book that can be downloaded right now by clicking the link in the right hand column. This knowledge can save you many $ and even if you have spent your money already it will give your existing homemade pondfilters or any other fish pond filter or bio filter a big boost in performance. The media I recommend is very low cost and is perfect. I have used and sold it for use in all types of fish pond filters many years.
If you are stuck for space or are having problems hiding your diy pond filter then you need this biofilter or pond filter secret right away.
Some people refer to uv pond filters. You should note that the term uv pond filters or uv filters for water gardens refers to items NOT designed to purify water but to remove the pea soup appearance of pond water. uv filters for water gardens are covered in a different web site - see the ultra violet links. Pond filters with uv are however commonplace and can save a lot of hassle since it is normally simpler to install combined pond filters with uv than the two seperate components.
Cyprio pond filters like most other types can be improved by selection of good pond filter media and changing existing pond media or supplementing it with high efficiency pond media like Alfagrog.
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Best pondkeeping book on the web
copyright: 2002, this website and many others to do with water gardening and use of water in the home was created by Tony Roocroft who lives in Johannesburg South Africa