Filtration Materials

[Brovic]

I have constructed a filter system using 5 receptacles. Following local and gleaned advice, I have now obtained the following materials:
1. Bio Balls. 2. Activated Carbon. 3. Zeolite. 4. Gravel. 5. Medium large pebbles.

Is there a particular order that these materials should be placed into the main filter receptacle, please?
Also, I have read some differing ideas about the regularity of cleaning the filter system. The only common factor seems to be that it is important to clean with pond water and not fresh water.
Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

 

[Lisaebetten]

I wish someone would reply, I am wonder the same and may have an answer for you in one of my post. You could search "filter media" and find older posts.

 

[Brovic]

Thank you, Lisaebetten. I rather wish that, too. I've only just joined so maybe I'm in the wrong forum. However, I must admit to receiving a number of encouraging responses to my 'introduction'. However, I will search 'filter media' as you have suggested. I am indebted to you for taking the time to send me your message.

 

[dieselplower]

Need more infor about the entire pond system. Gallons? Fish? Gph pump? Size of filter? Why do you feel the need for 2 and 3?

 

[fishin4cars]

Answering the question is quite harder than it sounds. Honestly, I would not use the zeolite, or Carbon. Unless there is a specific use such as removing a medication,(Carbon) Or a emergency and you have an unexpected spike in ammonia (Then you could use the zeolite to help control) They are more useful in aquarium situations and are just to costly to be of much use in a constant running environment such as a pond. I would need to see the filter design to see how it would be best set up. Gravel is good if it's fine gravel for particle elimination, but it traps dirt and gunk and needs to be flushed fairly often. Bio balls, grow bacteria, but if they are also trapping gunk and build up they can also cause issues. Bioballs are best run in a chamber that most of the particles have already been removed and the balls have a good flow of heavily oxygenated water flowing over them, However they are well designed for showers, they are better designed for submersed chambers. Medium large pebbles, Put them in the stream or waterfall, they will be more effective there as they can also grow algae which will help decrease nitrates, and add bacteria surface area.
Now back to the filter design. Is the water flowing up from the bottom through the chambers, down through the chambers from the top and out the bottom. Is it a shower tray configuration? If so feather rock or lava rock would be a better choice than gravel, more surface area and more flow through the rock, not around it. Even a better choice would be a ceramic media. How or is the filter being pre-filtered. The better the pre-filter to remove the larger items, the better the Bio-mechanics of the filter can work. For a good inexpensive way to prefilter, in the skimmer net add a medium filter pad. This will trap most of the leaves, flower petals, bugs etc before they get to the primary filter. If a bio filter is kept debris free it can go quite a long time with any serious cleaning. But yes, if needing to clean it is far better to clean with pond water over tap water.

 

[Lisaebetten]

Thank you, Lisaebetten. I rather wish that, too. I've only just joined so maybe I'm in the wrong forum. However, I must admit to receiving a number of encouraging responses to my 'introduction'. However, I will search 'filter media' as you have suggested. I am indebted to you for taking the time to send me your message.

Answering the question is quite harder than it sounds. Honestly, I would not use the zeolite, or Carbon. Unless there is a specific use such as removing a medication,(Carbon) Or a emergency and you have an unexpected spike in ammonia (Then you could use the zeolite to help control) They are more useful in aquarium situations and are just to costly to be of much use in a constant running environment such as a pond. I would need to see the filter design to see how it would be best set up. Gravel is good if it's fine gravel for particle elimination, but it traps dirt and gunk and needs to be flushed fairly often. Bio balls, grow bacteria, but if they are also trapping gunk and build up they can also cause issues. Bioballs are best run in a chamber that most of the particles have already been removed and the balls have a good flow of heavily oxygenated water flowing over them, However they are well designed for showers, they are better designed for submersed chambers. Medium large pebbles, Put them in the stream or waterfall, they will be more effective there as they can also grow algae which will help decrease nitrates, and add bacteria surface area.
Now back to the filter design. Is the water flowing up from the bottom through the chambers, down through the chambers from the top and out the bottom. Is it a shower tray configuration? If so feather rock or lava rock would be a better choice than gravel, more surface area and more flow through the rock, not around it. Even a better choice would be a ceramic media. How or is the filter being pre-filtered. The better the pre-filter to remove the larger items, the better the Bio-mechanics of the filter can work. For a good inexpensive way to prefilter, in the skimmer net add a medium filter pad. This will trap most of the leaves, flower petals, bugs etc before they get to the primary filter. If a bio filter is kept debris free it can go quite a long time with any serious cleaning. But yes, if needing to clean it is far better to clean with pond water over tap water.

Thank you, I've been reading a lot about the DIY filter stuff but my set up is with a filter pad on the bottom of the falls box and the mesh bag of bio balls on top, water enters the falls box from the bottom also. I'm just wondering if that will be enough for my 1000-1500 pond or if I need to supplement. My skimmer traps the big stuff with a net and filter pad. I'm picking up other media ideas like, bottle caps, shower scrubbies and pot scrubber for the good bacteria to grow on. I think I will see what happens.

 

[fishin4cars]

In a filter falls unit pre-filtering the water as much as possible will help in several ways, it will extend the life of the pump, it will reduce the maintance of cleaning the filter fall media, and it will allow the bacteria to breakdown the organics in the water itself without adding the extra efforts to breakdown the muck. By removing the muck before it gets to the filter makes the filter fall plain and simply work better. Both of my ponds have similar set-ups. This is what I do. medium matala filter pad in my skimmer net. then the skimmer net itself, then again another course filter pad before the pump. I only clean one or the other of the matala pads every 5-10 days depending on how much is being caught. during heavy leaf droppings or flower petals I may even clean one or the other daily. In the filter fall I use the filter pad, two bags of bio-balls, then another filter pad. I do unplug my pump once every two weeks and backflush the filter. I also do a through cleaning of the filter fall late in the fall and early in the spring by taking a pump and hose and flushing the filter pads and balls with pond water and out the back flush.
It's really easy to tell if you have enough media and it's in a proper working environment for the fish load. Simply test the water weekly, if ammonia and nitrites stay at zero readings then the balance if correct, If you are getting any readings then more media might help, but more water changes and less feeding may be even more productive. One thing to keep in mind. Don't pack any media to tightly, you want a really good flow through of all media for best results. Also the more oxygen you can get to the bacteria, the more effective they can do their job as well. .

 

[JohnHuff]

1. Bio Balls. 2. Activated Carbon. 3. Zeolite. 4. Gravel. 5. Medium large pebbles.

Well, let's look at this logically.
- I would start off with 5 as that would take care of large debris.
- Next, I would go with 4 as that would take care of smaller debris. Now, you're left with mechanically filtered water from which all the smaller suspended material has been removed.
- Next, I would go with bioballs as that is bio filtration that does not get exhausted. And if you remove ammonia before it gets to the bioballs, then it would never get mature.
- Next, I would go with Zeolite which can be recharged. This would take care of any ammonia that escapes the bioballs.
- Lastly, I would go with the activated carbon. This cannot be recharged so, if it's full, you have to throw it away. This would be the last line of defense as you don't want to use it up quickly.

But I would go with what Larkin says. Why use activated carbon and Zeolite at all? If you fill the last 3 receptacles with bioballs or any other media, you wouldn't need the zeolite or activated carbon at all.

Here are 2 links:
http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/filters/a/Using-Zeolite-In-Aquariums.htm

http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/filtermedia/a/Activated-Carbon-In-The-Aquarium.htm

I don't know what kind of receptacles you're using, but if I were to start again, I'd make a moving bed reactor filter like this:

2 or 3 buckets with bioballs and an air pump and a settling tank either before or after the bioballs. This would be the best filter ever. Waste water treatment plants use this to clean water.

 

[Lisaebetten]

In a filter falls unit pre-filtering the water as much as possible will help in several ways, it will extend the life of the pump, it will reduce the maintance of cleaning the filter fall media, and it will allow the bacteria to breakdown the organics in the water itself without adding the extra efforts to breakdown the muck. By removing the muck before it gets to the filter makes the filter fall plain and simply work better. Both of my ponds have similar set-ups. This is what I do. medium matala filter pad in my skimmer net. then the skimmer net itself, then again another course filter pad before the pump. I only clean one or the other of the matala pads every 5-10 days depending on how much is being caught. during heavy leaf droppings or flower petals I may even clean one or the other daily. In the filter fall I use the filter pad, two bags of bio-balls, then another filter pad. I do unplug my pump once every two weeks and backflush the filter. I also do a through cleaning of the filter fall late in the fall and early in the spring by taking a pump and hose and flushing the filter pads and balls with pond water and out the back flush.
It's really easy to tell if you have enough media and it's in a proper working environment for the fish load. Simply test the water weekly, if ammonia and nitrites stay at zero readings then the balance if correct, If you are getting any readings then more media might help, but more water changes and less feeding may be even more productive. One thing to keep in mind. Don't pack any media to tightly, you want a really good flow through of all media for best results. Also the more oxygen you can get to the bacteria, the more effective they can do their job as well. .

Thanks, this does clear more up for me. I have a second netted bag of squiggly plastic strips that I got from the pond store to go with the bio balls. I didn't want to pack it tight so it has good water flow and I plan to put and air stone in as well. I like the idea of another filter pad on top of the netted bags. Thanks, I would be lost or making tons of mistakes if it wasn't for the help here!

 

[Brovic]

Please indulge me if I write a collective reply but, in so doing, may I thank you all for your help, encouragement and support? Some of my information has already been posted on my 'Introduction Post' and I must admit to some confusion between the two posts.
I have also been trying to ascertain the dimensions and capacity of my pond - both in new money and in old. The upshot is that I have calculated that the cubic area is 35 cubic feet (or 1 cubic meter - the water level stands at 1 foot) and the capacity is 262 gallons (or 992 litres). I have 2 pumps, one of which is sunken about a foot below the floor of the pond and which serves the waterfall. The other is floor mounted and used to be an ornamental fountain but now delivers the flow to the filter. I understand about the activated carbon and the zeolite and I have removed them. I may well have confused this with my next project which is to introduce a filtration system to our 10 meter deep well (which is our only water source and is fed by the water table and rainwater). Therefore, starting from the top I now have in my pond filter 1. Pebbles, 2. Pebbles, 3. Gravel, 4. Bio Balls, 5. Fine Sand - but I am still open to suggestions.\
I have constructed the filtration unit using what I would call a 'garbage bin'. There is a 1" outlet pipe at the bottom which feeds back into the pond. There is a ½" pipe inlet at the top (supplied by the aforementioned Fountain Pump) with a gate valve to control the water flow.
Inside the 'garbage bin' I have placed 5 large plastic bowls with approximately 15 ½" holes burnt into the bottom. Between each plastic bowl there is a plastic container similar to that of a cutlery draining rack - placed there in order to maintain a goodly space between the plastic bowls.
The water supply is from our well which is mainly rainwater. I have 3 holding tanks collecting the roof water which feeds the well, together with the natural water table. However, we don't drink that water.
That's about it, really. I suppose a lot of this is 'suck it and see', although my main concern was that I might have been doing something that might harm the fish.
Finally, I'll post one of the photos that I have already posted on the other post (not bad for a teacher of English!)