What is your perfect Filtration System?

[bil]

I still reckon the simplest and best is screen > static K > TT > pond

[Akai-San]

Bil,

Can the screens (seives?) adequately take care of the heavies? I finally got a good look at how much koi doots is generated in a couple days with 6-8 medium sized koi in a friends 12000 gal. pond. WOW! Doots factory. And its not even summer time.

I like the idea of seives solely based on how much room you save for incorporating other equipment. But I have no experience or can find no one on the island (yet) that uses a seive separating system for me to go look at. Being the ultimate Newbie, I'm not sure if I want to be the first. Aloha.

Carl

[bil]

The better the diet, the less crap they produce.

I was thinking of a 1 sq metre bay to filter 8,000 gallons and 15 good size koi.

[MikeM]

Bil: I often see it stated that there will be less excreta using "proper" food, but I question how that could be noticeably true. It seems to me that foods that are observed to produce less waste are actually resulting in excreta that does not hold form once in the water. That is, the volume of waste would not be appreciably different, but whether it is solid enough to be captured in settlement chambers would differ. I'll grant you that to the extent a food is better metabolized, some greater degree of conversion to body tissue will occur, but I do not believe the difference would be visibly noticeable. It also seems to me that the foods generally considered to be "low waste" foods are ones that are less likely to bind in the fish's stool, like wheatgerm.

Some years ago I copied an experiment on the growth rate of aquarium plants when a certain combination of nutrients were added. What most stood out to me was that when the most luxuriant growth was dried to do dry-weight comparisons, the difference was too slight for me to measure with the scales I had available, but to the eye the difference in growth was obvious. ....Sometimes the eye is a reasonable tool for measurement, but not always.

[bil]

All I can say is that when I was feeding nobori and medicarp, which is, if my memory serves me well, both half wheatflour, that produced far more waste than when I switched to feeding paste and prawns.


Given that your water plants were 95% plus water, I find your results unsurprising.

[Akai-San]

Just bringing topic forward to address TT noise.

[Frosty]

As a new member, I thought it might be appropriate to describe a filtration system that has kept me clear of problems in (what was originally) a 1,000 gallon Koi pond for many years now. I use no external boxes at all, nor do I apply 'treatments'. All 7 Koi have been with me for some 15+ years, apart from the addition of a gorgeous 22" Showa last year, ranging from 16 - 24" and in good colour.

The staple diet for them has been whole wheat bread for many years, as I observed no enrichment to their well-being using high grade Koi pellets. When we're gardening, they get a weekend treat of chopped earth worms, and even snails, which they literally shake out of their shells by the head (Ugh)!

The main undergravel filtration system is aided by a header (vortex) pool of some 100 gallons, fed from a 1.5" pipe straight up from the filter bed (7' below), entering diagonally in order to create a vortex before returning to the main pond via a 6' falling stream laden with rockwork for optimum turbulence. This concept was based on an old Japanese Koi book I once read, which said in it; "for water to be clear and pure, it should fall at least 4' over stone!" All of the rockwork is either worn limestone or glacier boulders, so PH is on the highish side at 8+. The amount of sediment 'dropped' in the header pool is phenomenal, and provides Madam with great top-dressing for the garden .

Now to the filtration system (patent pending), which comprises a matrix of 1.5" pipe work under a bed of mixed grade coarse shingle and grit of between 4 - 6" deep. This arrives at an 'Oase' (Tm) 15000 pump (3K gallons per.hr.) via a fixed stand pipe up to the shallow area trough where the pump sits (for easy maintenance), and then up via a continuation of the stand pipe to the header pond. Operational time is 24,7,365 uninterrupted, and very low cost. Maintenance to the filter bed is absolute zero! The fish are absolute gluttons, but due to the volume of moving current from the waterfall(s), are all beautifully shaped due to the exercise they enjoy by swimming against the current.

I have now completed a total re-modelling of the pond, expanding its capacity to some 2,250 gallons. I have also added another (slower babbling type) water feature at the new north end, which is fed by an 'overflow' surface skimmer to the north west of the pond perimeter. This clears the surface of ANY debris inside 20 mins! Again, due to their reliability and power, this is driven by an 'Oase' (Tm) 15000 pump, which is attached to a smaller version of the main pond filter matrix (patent pending) under a similarly graded shingle bed. The re-modelled system was 'kick-started' with a proprietary 'sceptic tank enzyme starter powder', Nitrite levels dropped nicely after treatment, and have remained at zero throughout the closed season. During the Autumn and Winter months, there were few days when the Koi weren't actively waiting for me at the bridge edge for feeding!

I often feel that my comments on other forums regarding the closed 'natural' system aren't favourably received, but hey, it works 100%+.

[MikeM]

Derek: This is a nice modification of the gravel-bed filters of the 1980s. If it works for you, go for it! There is a prominent west coast hobbyist in the U.S. who continues to rely on a gravel filter with success. That you have kept your 7 koi for that period indicates you do what it takes. For the vast majority of koikeepers, however, their conditions would result in either a putrid mess or extraordinary amounts of work. Having spent the afternoon yesterday bent over cleaning leaves and muck out of a lily pond, my back aches still. I'd not have the energy or will power to take on a gravel filter in the koi pond. It is also a question of goals. You have created a beutiful garden setting highlighted by the koi. For those focused just on the koi, the desire for much more growth over that period of time would doom the venture.

There are lots of different ways to filter, and most will work fine if the pondkeeper does the work necessary to make it function properly. As I get older, I find less pleasure in the maintenance work.