I read this on
www.skippysstuff.com . I was curious as to what everone here thinks. I have used this type of filter effectively in the past..but I did clean it regularly. Opinions from the pro's please!!! I added a picture of their filter for reference.
DO NOT EVER CLEAN THIS FILTER! Wow, did we really say ever = never = not at all = let it alone, etc.
WE SURE DID. Here is the story.... Skippy's Beautiful Ponds & Gardens is a small mom and pop operation in Taylor, Michigan. We got into ponding when someone said "hey this looks like a nice place for a pond" and someone else ran for a shovel. That's all we knew about ponds, the rest is history, basically we made all the mistakes and therefore now call ourselves
experts. Right, but anyway here is the story we want to tell. After a bunch of mistakes and through trial and mostly error we came up with this design and all seemed to go well, i.e.: clean and clear water. That was what we wanted so we just let well enough alone. A season went by and we got busy or in truth ignored the filter, therefore did not clean it. One season ran into the next and after 7 years of not so much as touching the filter we maintained clean and clear water. Then one day some knucklehead said
anybody clean that there filter contraption lately? Real brainer here... when everything was going just fine we decide to break the Cardinal Rule "If it is not broke do not fix it." Off we go... The filter media was a nasty, slimly, gunky, yuky... get the picture? BUT after removing the media
(click here for the best media to use) Guess what we found in the bottom of the tank? If you answered Jimmy Hoffa you were wrong. What we found was a fine layer of sand about 1/2 inch thick. What was happing is the filter was doing exactly what it was designed to do. That being (short version) the media was trapping the organic matter, holding it long enough for the beneficial bacteria
(click here for the best bacteria to use) to decompose it back down to mineral matter i.e. (the sand) and then releasing it to begin the biological process all over again. 4 Keys to making this filter work and it really does work... the dirtier the better!