| hi mike!
you and your quotes! i like w.c. fields myself, for example..." I love little children...mostly fried".
when it comes to bugs, i've bought my share over the years. when adding to a new pond it usually takes 6 weeks to establish.( gee that's funny....that's how long it takes to allow it to start up itself! )I like the idea of stealing a piece of filter from an establsihed colony from another of your ponds. Did you know that the pond itself has filter bacteria all through-out.
I think filter colonies build and establish colonies according to conditions and other factors in your pond. you can introduce species but that doesn't mean they will win the war on becoming the dominant species or even survive. a filter is not a stable situation but rather it's viable and changes to meet conditions. another valid point to consider is different conditions,
media and exposure to light help to encourage certain kinds of helpful bacteria. you might want to consider exposing some filters to light while others are kept dark. one thing they all share in common is that it helps to have lots of air to encourage more of the right strains.
for new pond keepers, pls develop the mentality that your filter is the heart of your operation. the last thing you want to do is kill it with meds so that it has to start over. treat your sick koi outside of thier home environment. design your ponds so that a filter can be by passed. money is not wasted to over build your filtration over what you think you might need. better to error on the more than you need side. do you know where
to put your UV light? are you certain you need one? barrel filters are still very popular. cheap to build, serviceable. down flow filters tend to colonise
on the top and up flow design on the bottom. that's cause the biggest amount of food and air is introduced there. always re-introduce air if you have two filters in series or the second one will be devoid of the life you want to nuture. trickle filters work great because of the thorough mixing of food and air. I could ramble on for pages, bottom line is learn all you can about filters and how to keep them healthy, so that once you have them uop and running you can keep them that way! |