3000 1" bioball with 286.5 square feet???

[An Ly]

hello to all ,

wanted to know if anyone can please explain what the meaning of "square feet" and "surface area" means in terms of filter media. I never knew what it all means in terms of filtration capacity.

for example thinking of getting these 3000 bioball 1inch for $80, would this be enough filter media for a 2000gallon pond with about 12 koi about 12inch each.

thanks to all for all the input, can never really find a clear answer on this topics. hopefully someone can help. thanks again

An

[kntry]

I can't really answer your question about the bio balls but 2000 gallons is not enough water for 12 koi.

As SteveC says, it's a system. You can't isolate just the 3000 bio balls as your filtration and say it's enough.

I just bought 4000 1" bio balls to use in a shower but I have 12 cu ft of additional media in moving beds.

[dick benbow]

it's nice to see another Asagi used as an avatar....

[kntry]

Thanks, Dick. Do you recognize her?

[MCA]

An,

see slides 7-9

http://www.atlantakoiclub.org/calendar/2006/January%202006%20presentations/Nishikigoi%20Pond%20Filteration.pdf

[An Ly]

thanks MCA, that was great help, a lot of helpful slides. Very nice presentation.

An

[koiczar]

An

So, based on your title of this thread, do you mean that this is the amount of square footage of surface area for ALL the 3000 bioballs or is this per cubic foot?

If I'm not mistaken, this should be 286 square feet per cubic foot of media and the 3000 bioballs would be equal to roughly 3 cubic feet. Therefore you would have about 858 square feet of surface area for these bioballs. I don't know the specifics about how they arrive at the numbers they come up with but it has to do with the TOTAL surface area of each bioball. They then measure how many it takes to fill a one cubic foot container and measure out by math for the rest of the calculations.

So, basically, you back into the the amount of media needed by starting with your fish load as Mike's (MCA) chart shows. 100 lbs of fish load requires approx 1500 sq ft of media. If one cubic foot of media equals 286 sq ft then take 1500 divided by 286=5.25 cubic ft. So, if you order 6000 bioballs, you're looking good for 100 lbs of fish load and a pinch to grow on!LOL

Mike

[JasPR]

one small booboo there MCA -- or maybe * required further explanation----

Surface space/area is a basic measurement and often just marketing stats for competitive sales as the 'Bigger is Better' message sells a lot of product.
Surface space is the actual area of media surface in a given volume ( often expressed in surface area per cubic feet, cubic meters or cubic yards). Note: this turns out to NOT be the same thing as actual growing area.
Meaning, not all that space is actually 'available' for bacteria to grow and operate on when placed one on top of the other.
So we need to know what the USEABLE surface space is.

This is why things like stacking properties and void space is so very important when it comes to actually performance.
Some medias stack too tightly, in effect , closing off entire surfaces to colonization. Others rub against one another sheering off the biofilm. Still others trap detritus and produce low oxygen zones that do not make for uniform nitrification surfaces.

So do not be fooled by the ads that talk about match box sized filters that process pounds of fish waste per hour. That is just marketing.

In the end, KOI pond media is not aquarium media. It needs to have an entire set of properties all it's own for these specific and special koi pond conditions- and that goes well beyond ammonia removal considerations.
Non trapping, high surface, good void space media is best. Opposite this would be trapping media that has an excellent ( I mean really excellent) cleaning system built in to the bay or unit that houses the media.

In all applications of the media of choice, open system filters ( open to the atmosphere) tend to be better, as a group, that closed pressurized systems. - JR

[MCA]

Agreed Jim.

I was just showing how the different media types vary regarding square feet for the given cubic feet. Definitely a believer in open filter systems. I go pass that to say...if submerged...give me fluild beds. As for wet/dry....hope to have the bakki shower up and running soon.

[An Ly]

thanks all for the info. Cleared up a lot of things i was confuse about.

Mike, they advertise that 225 bioball cover about 1 gallon or equal to 21.5sf. So I figure that with 3000 bioball that they are selling at $80 it should have about 280sqft of media.

thnaks again everyone

An