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Clear water !

Category: The adventures of ponding! | Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 7:35 pm

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I recently got a request to explain how I kept the water clear in my Koi pond! Well first of let me tell you this, it's really easy, and hard all at the same time. The basics to any ponding is filtration, mechanical which removes the particles and biological, which....in all honesty keeps those fishies alive, by converting the bad ammonia and nitrites into yummy food for bacteria that live in the filter media. The hard part is a good balance....Unfortunately :( I overstiocked my pond to begin with and no one told the fish, so they continued to reproduce, which leads to more and more poo! The easy part (for mr) is I realize this and ck. my water parameters ALOT, and I have no problem really staying on top of things....since it's an obsession for me. In time though, as they keep growing, it will get tougher and I will be needing to upsize...which coincidentally makes me smile really really big!!!! For alot of people, this is the hard part because they don't tend to their water garden each day and if parameters get a lil outa wack, you could have a fish kill over night :( which would make me very sad! The solution, filtration, and lots of it. Make sure you have a good pump that circulates the pond water volume every 1-2 hours. I use mechanical/bio bead media filter which is store bought, and I also have a UV sterilizer on this pond. On my first it was all DIY and to be honest I was more comfortable there because you understand everything about the system since it's yours. I added two items to this system in place now as reinforcement, and it just makes sence to me. First A DIY Skimmer/Inflow filter, with lava rock and mechanical filter media, and on the outflow I added a very large Whiskey barrel bio/veggie filter. The water trickles in from the top in a PVC, drops to the bottom allowing for oxygen, sedimant is allowed to settle at the bottom (put a drain in) then the water slowly seeps up through lava rock with pebbl;es on top, housing a bunch of water hycinth and canna roots....no dirt just bare root plants taking in all the Nitrates left in the water. Wala! This water sparkling clear travels back into the pond! I'll try and post a picture. I am totally convinced that the DIY portions of my filter system alone with my pump would be having as much sucess as the entire system. The UV probably is helping somewhat at this time of the year in Florida with algae blloms though. So there you have it...the basics of filteration in a pond. My only regret which will be corrected next pond....a bottom drain! More on that later!!! If you have any questions please feel free to ask! I'm just getting started at this so I'll do my best to ck back often! Thanks for the ear :) janine

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