What is your perfect Filtration System?

[estanque_koi]

Hello,
have you read this excellent, interesting review?

Recirculating Aquaculture Tank Production Systems
A Review of Component Options
USDA Southern Regional Aquaculture Center, Publication no. 453, April 1999

You can get it in PDF format at
http://aquanic.org/publicat/usda_rac/efs/srac/453fs.pdf

Hope you find it useful. All the best,

D. Jordano
Cordoba, Spain
A.E.K. Web site http://www.elkoi.com
pers. Web site http://es.geocities.com/estanqueskois/
E-mail:djordano@wanadoo.es

[B.Scott]

Nice read Diego, Thanks!

[aquitori]

To me, I have seen people with ponds bigger than what they can handle and expect it to maintain itself. Everyone says bigger is better, deeper is better and a bigger filter is bigger. The bigger the filter I would agree with. To me if the pond is around 5-6ft deep it's good enough for me. 9,000-10,000 gals is perfect too. The filter? hhhmmm.....hard one....I think simple is best I know the size of my filter would 40% of the size of the pond. Bakki Shower System? Would be nice, but I would be doin a 10% to 15% water change everyday to make the system run great. Well, will I find this under the tree this year? Too big, but I do have an empty pool in the backyard....hhhhmmm...

[Bancherd]

Thank you Diego. A very nice summary of individual parts.

I believe the trick is to combine these parts such that the whole is greater than the sum.

[dick benbow]

The trouble with a perfect filtration system it's always under revisement!

My koi kichi just came back from waddington's kick off of his #2 book. While there he looked at cliff neils' Bakki tower set up for 17,000 UK gallons. 4 stacks of 5 shelvers full of bacteria house media. Pond 10 feet deep. He has growth charts over the years showing equal results as grow ponds in japan.

hey what fun would it be to have a static hobby where once you climbed to the top of the heap you'd "made it". This way they change heaps when your half way up! Keeps ya climbing!

[Arthur]

There is no perfect filtration system, period! There can only be a system (complete design and filtration) adpated to the circumstances at hand.

One can only design to the best of his/her knowledge and then improve on this design based on scientific measurements and facts.

There are basic design rules (as determined best from experienced by many in the hobby) that can be used as an initial effort, but specific circumstances and local climate must be taken into consideration.

Basic rules include: pond shape for debris extraction, filtration elementary, oxygenation, etc.

Additional consideration include: nitrates extraction (especially when water changes are expensive), and so on ...

Ther is no perfect design and one will always find improvements based on experienced (and neasured) water quality.

[Akai-San]

Arthur,

Surely there must be an ideal starting point for establishing a CORRECT pond set-up. Of course there are different levels of Koi Hobbiest as well. This will be the deciding factor on how good or how bad a filtration system must be. At the time I posted this thread, I was just looking for other hobbiest input on thier successes. Still a newbie, I like to compare notes and take advantage of lessons learned. Just want to do it right the first time.

I guess looking at the parts, heavy solids separation, secondary fines separation, biological filtration, oxygenation and polishing of water come to mind. While looking at power consumption, what would be the system you would like to have/incorporate. Unless you have success with other processes and or systems. Aloha.

[B.Scott]

But perfect is a relative understanding Akai-San. Many roads lead to Rome but not all are Better or worse than others. I think you (as a beginner) can best strive for an adequate system and try to improve your general koi keeping skills in the mean time. Keeping Koi isn't just a matter of filtration. That is just one of the many aspects of the hobby.

As in any hobby there are loads of things one can do to make improvements but the question is how far are you willing to go and how much money are you prepared to spend to get there?

As I said you can build an adequate pond and do quite well providing your other skills are honed to a sufficient degree as well. But to go from a adequate/good pond to the ultimate pond you start getting into a pretty rarified atmosphere. There are so many little (and often expensive) thing you can do that will shave just a little bit off the top and bring you a bit closer to the summit but every step is increasingly heavy and the effort grows ever more strenuous. You don't need to go to the summit of Everest to be better than 90% of the people with Koi. You reach that at base-camp1
B.Scott

[bil]

Depressing thought.


Mind you, a half decent filtration system with bottom drains, adequate w/c and heating is already at base camp I reckon.

To me, the important thing is the removal of as much waste as possible, as fast as possible.

[koi4all]

I would go for big settlement . lots of K1, lots of jap matting lots of air than through a fluidbed or a trickle tower of b/h .

rick