40 Gallon - Filter media

[Berniemtl]

Hi folks,

A few years back I built one of the skippy filters, with approx. 100 green scrubbies (one on top of the other) as the main filtration media.

The problem I have each summer is the scrubbies get clogged with muck, and they have to be cleaned one at a time. This is a fairly regular process. Want to rebuild to get clearer water, and less work.

How do I avoid the muck, or is there a media which would be easier to clean?

The pond is about 1200 gallons, with 10 fish or so (probably 50 inches combined), pump is a 1200 GPH in the bottom of the pond which feed the filter, which then feeds the waterfall.

Pond is still frozen over, but never to early to plan.....

Thank you

 

[sissy]

welcome and I use lava rock

 

[JBtheExplorer]

welcome and I use lava rock

Sissy, I plan on building a filter myself this spring. Whats the deal with lava rock? does it need to be regularly cleaned, and is there anything else you use with it or just the rock?

 

[sissy]

I just use lava rock and put plants in my filters and make up a crate with quilt batting to take out any fine algae cells .I have a small pump in the bottom of my filter and it has a hose on the outlet and all i do is shut off my main pump squirt some peroxide in it wait a few minutes .I then turn on my hose and plug in the pump in the filter and start putting water in as I am pumping the old dirty water out .But plants in the filter suck up most of the stuff .I cleaned it only 1 time last year and that was in november .But i only feed my fish 3 or 4 times a week and I do have 2 koi .

 

[addy1]

I had a large container with lava rock for my filter in arizona. I put in a bottom drain, all I would do is shut off the main pump and back flush it with a hose.

 

[sissy]

I had a bottom drain to but forgot how rough retaining wall block is when you are trying to turn the valve .I even tried to cut notches in a piece of pvc pipe to turn the valve on and off .That broke after a couple of times

 

[addy1]

I had a bottom drain to but forgot how rough retaining wall block is when you are trying to turn the valve .I even tried to cut notches in a piece of pvc pipe to turn the valve on and off .That broke after a couple of times

I ran the pvc out of the container, buried in crushed granite, about 3 feet out. Made it easy to turn the drain handle. Had it hidden among some plants and rocks.

 

[sissy]

Problem with mine is that I have the liner around my tanks now so if the tanks leak it all goes down and back into the pond .So had to give up on bottom drain unless I put a hose on it .

 

[Dave's pond Indiana]

I still like doing things naturally on my pond and I use only Lava rock . In the wild when it rains I don't think it rains peroxide. To each his own. Whatever works for you.

 

[morewater]

Scrubby pads are a pain. I've used large media mats, that I've cut to fit exactly into the filter barrels. When they get grubby, I hose them off in behind the Japanese Maples, all that muck is a great garden soil additive.

 

[JohnHuff]

I'm a big advocate against static media. My recommendation is always moving media and a prefilter for the pump.

 

[haver79]

John, by moving media are you talking about bio balls or something of the like?

 

[JohnHuff]

John, by moving media are you talking about bio balls or something of the like?

I'm talking about K1 and such, which are small pieces of plastic like such:

They have a large surface area for bacterial growth and as they are always moving around in an air rich environment, the bacteria on them have good access to nutrients and air.

Static media can get clogged and when it does, the bacteria on them can turn into anaerobic bacteria because their access to air is blocked.

I think all the OP needs to do is to replace his scrubby pads with moving media and add mechanical filtration to his setup.

 

[Berniemtl]

I'm talking about K1 and such, which are small pieces of plastic like such:

They have a large surface area for bacterial growth and as they are always moving around in an air rich environment, the bacteria on them have good access to nutrients and air.

Static media can get clogged and when it does, the bacteria on them can turn into anaerobic bacteria because their access to air is blocked.

I think all the OP needs to do is to replace his scrubby pads with moving media and add mechanical filtration to his setup.

Hi John

To put these in a skippy, do you put a grate on top, on on the bottom and let them move around in between? How is the air added?

And last but not lease...what would you reccomend as mechanical filtration?

Thanks

 

[JohnHuff]

Hi John

To put these in a skippy, do you put a grate on top, on on the bottom and let them move around in between? How is the air added?

And last but not lease...what would you reccomend as mechanical filtration?

Thanks

May I present the Johnhuff filter!

My ideal set up would be to have the incoming water splash down at an angle to cause aeration and movement of the K2.

The outlet pipe would open at the bottom of the Skippy and go out near the top. The grate and filter would be above the inlet. There should also be a overflow above the top outlet in case the filters clog. I've drawn a simple picture. Hope this pic is clear enough.

You can also provide movement and aeration by buying a small airpump and putting the the airhose at the bottom but above the filter material.

But I've seen people do this many ways. On youtube, there is a guy who has a long filter tank, water comes in at one end, has filter pads, then two compartments with aerated K2, then another filter compartment before exiting.

If you don't want to change your set up much, just put a bunch of filter pads over the exit and secure them flat with grates.

But I still like moving media best because that's how commercial operations clean water. Just google moving bed reactor. I'm thinking that people could set that up in their septic tank system.