Creating a bio filter

[Jon Nannen]

If my fiancee allows me, I'm looking to build this type of filter (I think she see's the pond as a money dump lol). I currently have a waterfall setup with a pump and barrel submersible filter (Not sure the GPH on the pump) and a pondmaster box + pump fountain setup on the other side of my pond that doesn't get much water movement. The pump on that is I believe, 700GPH.

My water for the entire time I've owned the pond, has been kind of pea soup green. It doesn't bother me a lot, and the fish don't seem to mind. I clean out leaves, grab the chunks of muck when they pop up to the surface, and clean out the filters regularly to ensure waterflow maintains at a strong rate.

I also have 3 water lillies in my pond, 6 water hyacinth, 2 water lettuce, and 1 rush (not sure what type).

I'm looking to build this type of filter, to see if I can get a system going to encourage the growth of the good bacteria, as I know cleaning out my filters destroys that, and I don't want to spend a ton of money on re-doing the pond set up.

My question, does anyone have a set up like this, and has it worked if so?

And if anyone watches the video, and how he builds it, any tips on how you would do it different? Also, what amount of GPH pump would something like that setup require?

Thanks for your time!

jon

 

[sissy]

Leave the top off grow plants in it and put a liner under it .If it leaks it runs back into the pond /my new filter

 

[sissy]

It really helps clean the pond

 

[Jon Nannen]

Thanks for the input. It doesn't look terribly hard, and seems relatively cheap compared to re-doing the entire setup for about... 500-5000 dollars depending on if I do it myself, the parts used, etc.

What GPH pump do you have powering it?

 

[Shdwdrgn]

For a biological filter, you want the water moving slowly. I think folks here have said you should only move the water through the filter about once every 2-3 minutes? So figuring 2.5 minutes, and lets say you have a 20-gallon filter...

60 min / 2.5 min = 24 cycles per hour
20 gal x 24 cycles = 480 gallons/hour

Working backwards from your 700gph pump, you would want to use a tub of about 30 gallons. Ideally you would want to push the water through any scrubbing filters first, so that only clean water enters the biofilter.

Hope that helps?

 

[sissy]

2 pumps 1 is 2900 gph and 1 is 2400 gph laguna's .My pond is over 3000 gallons .I have the hose split off and part goes in the filter and the rest goes in the pond .I have 2 filters .

 

[Jon Nannen]

That does help, thankyou. One pond "expert" here in town suggested a 800-1000GPH pump for building the bio filter.

Also when you say water move through it once every 2-3 minutes, do you mean just a slow circulation/movement of water, to where it's not pushing it out very quickly so the bacteria have time to find materials they want?

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Yes, a slow circulation. At 700gph, you are pushing 11.6 gallons a minute, so it takes about 2.5 minutes to fill a 30-gallon container. During continuous operation, this means that the water moves through the filter fairly slowly.

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Here's the thing.
Most people seem to equate clear water to good biological filtration, and this thread and the title of that video are titled biological filter. In the video the guy talks about how that old filter was incapable of keeping the water in his pond clean, and he even shows a short muti-frame clip of his pond with the original murky water and at 1 week, 2 weeks, and one month after installing his new biological filter. He then goes on to describe how he made this new biological filter.
The truth is that new filter he built had layers mechanical filtration to it , and in fact it is almost certainly these mechanical element of his new filter are what were responsible for clearing his pond water, not the bio balls or the plastic scrubbies. Likely the water would have cleared much faster had he eliminated the bio balls and scrubbies altogether and simple added more layers of mechanical filtration material.
So the whole premise of this thread and that video are misleading.
Biological filtration is needed in a pond to convert ammonia to nitrites, and nitrites to nitrates. The thing is you can have pond water that has high ammonia and nitrite levels and still have clear water, and yet that was not even mentioned in the video or this thread. Conversely you can have a pond with murky pond water where the ammonia levels and nitrite levels are just fine. Murky water is something that needs to be dealt with through mechanical filtration and seems to be the issue the guy in that video is dealing with, and that should probably be the title of this thread and that video.

 

[Jon Nannen]

I wasn't trying to mislead anyone with the title, but having the barrel filter and box filter in my pond, and the pond is still pea soup green. I was merely asking for input on how to clear it up, and if a bio filter like the skippy one, would assist in that, as well as making the water better for the fish with more good bacteria .

 

[Mucky_Waters]

Well "pea soup green" water is something entirely different. and mechanical filtration is not necessarily the solitary answer for that either. Even good mechanical filters have trouble clearing free floating algae, although a good mechanical filter in conjunction with a properly rated and installed UV light can clear a pond in a mater of a few days.
I didn't think you were intentionally trying to mislead anyone, I was just pointing out that that guy's video seemed to credit his biological filtration with clearing his pond water, and that just wasn't the case. It was his use of that quilt batting type material that filtered the fine murky particulates out of his water. Something that his old filter didn't utilize. I might add that his new filter didn't even clear up the water particularly efficiently. It took a whole month! I have a quilt batting mechanical filter in my pond and if I stir up the pond so it's dirtier looking than the water he initially had, my pond will clear up in a mater of hours, it won't take 30 days.
Let me state again just for the record, biological filters are NOT designed to clear up free floating (pea soup) algae.
An UV light can kill free floating algae, and will cause it to clump together so it can be mechanically filtered out. There are other condition that can develop in a pond that will kill free floating algae too, but generally speaking, adding biological filters and filtration to a pond is for nitrogen conversion, converting ammonia to nitrite, and nitrite to nitrate. Of course this is good because fish can handle higher levels of nitrate than they can ammonia or nitrite, and pond plants readily absorb nitrate as nitrogen fertilizer. But if you really want to clear up "pea soup" green water, think about getting an UV light and adding extra mechanical filtration, and forget about adding extra biological filtration, unless, you are measuring high ammonia and/or nitrite levels. And if you are measuring high ammonia and nitrite levels, there are much more effective, and attractive, ways to add biological filtration than one of those "Skippy" type filters.