Green Water Instead of Bio FIlter

[HTH]

Goldfish breeders around the world have been doing this for years.

The idea is that suspended algae consumes the ammonia directly. Nitrites and nitrates are not created.

Traditionally the density of the algae is controlled by changing about 2/3 of the water when it get too dense. Changing more would get rid of too much algae.

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Personal note:

My water has 30 or 35PPM nitrates from the tap so I was lucky if I could get more then one day out of a water change. Sissy and or countryescape or one of the other ladies mentioned they were using quilt batting to filter out suspended algae. It worked so well that I had to bypass the batting so as to not take out too much algae. Tonight the reading are .3PPM ammonia and ..3PPM nitrite. Nitrate is the same as the tap 35PPM.

 

[crsublette]

Algae is an unbelieveably good bio-filter. Algae refugiums are used in some aquaculture farms and even some coral reef aqaurium enthusiasts use algae scrubbers.

When I first started my little pond, I was using the algae in my stream as my bio-filter. Every once and a while I would turn off the water to the stream for about 3 hours while oxidized my pond's resevoir to keep my resevoir clear of algae. I never registered any ammonia nor nitrates and the algae never collapsed on me. Supposedly, algae can collapse for "unkown" reasons. Now, since I am maintaining a much more acidic, soft pond, I would definitely not use algae as a bio-filter due to alkalinity concerns, but, back then, my water was like liquid rock (16dKH, 20dGH).

Kodama Koi Farm actually uses the suspended algae for their ponds bio-filtration as well. Check it out on this map. Zoom in and you'll notice how unbelievably green they are. The only problem I have heard of is that algae hides the fish from humans. So, when the fish gets purchased, they act extremely odd and sometimes quite eradicate, moreso than usual, since they are not familiar with humans.

 

[sissy]

yep happens to me .I have to cut back on the quilt batting at times .I have since tried putting my pumps in buckets in the pond filled with lava rock seems to help keep it normal better and added it keeps the pump from clogging up .Fish just love to rip roots loose from the plants and that would clog my pumps .I soaked the lava rock in peroxide for a month also .I put a tape line in the bucket I was soaking the lava rock in and put it in the basement so hopefully not as much evaporation .The bucket was a five gallon and after 1 month there was only a quart of liquid left .So figure that means the lava rock does absorb moisture ,Tape line was a waste of time put I really did not think it would absorb that much .I picked through the bags I had for the biggest and most opened pored rocks also .Going to see what happens now .

 

[sissy]

wouldn't you be scared when you see some strange person looking at you . :cheerful: h34r:

 

[HTH]

I think you misunderstood me sissy. The quilt batting is after the pump. The algae is consuming the ammonia, acting as the bio filter, so I had to remove the batting before it took out too much of the algae, that would cause the ammonia to rise. I just flipped the quilt batting out of the way. When the water starts getting too green I will flip it back down.

 

[dieselplower]

Lava rocks absorb water? Could be true but I've never heard that. Maybe the water evaporated? Can anyone confirm?

 

[crsublette]

Lava rocks absorb water? Could be true but I've never heard that. Maybe the water evaporated? Can anyone confirm?

More like ADsorption, rather than ABsorption.

In other words, the oxygen in the lava rock pores dissolves into the fluid allowing the fluid's water to fill the pores. I think the hydrogen peroxide likely speeds up the process due to the increased oxygen in the peroxide helping, through osmosis, to pull the oxygen out of the lava's pores. Then, when the bucket is emptied, the water is locked, through intermolecular forces, in the lava rock until heat, an organism, or other type of energy pulls the water out of the rock or takes its place. This is just me thinking out loud my best guess.

 

[crsublette]

yep happens to me .I have to cut back on the quilt batting at times .I have since tried putting my pumps in buckets in the pond filled with lava rock seems to help keep it normal better and added it keeps the pump from clogging up .Fish just love to rip roots loose from the plants and that would clog my pumps .I soaked the lava rock in peroxide for a month also .I put a tape line in the bucket I was soaking the lava rock in and put it in the basement so hopefully not as much evaporation .The bucket was a five gallon and after 1 month there was only a quart of liquid left .So figure that means the lava rock does absorb moisture ,Tape line was a waste of time put I really did not think it would absorb that much .I picked through the bags I had for the biggest and most opened pored rocks also .Going to see what happens now .

Very nice.

I used to do the same thing as my pre-filter except without the quilt battling.

 

[dieselplower]

More like ADsorption, rather than ABsorption.

In other words, the oxygen in the lava rock pores dissolves into the fluid allowing the fluid's water to fill the pores. I think the hydrogen peroxide likely speeds up the process due to the increased oxygen in the peroxide helping, through osmosis, to pull the oxygen out of the lava's pores. Then, when the bucket is emptied, the water is locked, through intermolecular forces, in the lava rock until heat, an organism, or other type of energy pulls the water out of the rock or takes its place. This is just me thinking out loud my best guess.

Wow cool thanks

 

[ChloeandClara]

yep happens to me .I have to cut back on the quilt batting at times .I have since tried putting my pumps in buckets in the pond filled with lava rock seems to help keep it normal better and added it keeps the pump from clogging up .Fish just love to rip roots loose from the plants and that would clog my pumps .I soaked the lava rock in peroxide for a month also .I put a tape line in the bucket I was soaking the lava rock in and put it in the basement so hopefully not as much evaporation .The bucket was a five gallon and after 1 month there was only a quart of liquid left .So figure that means the lava rock does absorb moisture ,Tape line was a waste of time put I really did not think it would absorb that much .I picked through the bags I had for the biggest and most opened pored rocks also .Going to see what happens now .

Sissy, I have 5,000 gallon pond, skimmer, waterfall filter. I took your awesome advice, and put in new quilt batting. I put in 3 thick pieces of it in the waterfall filter, so I have bioballs, 2 filter pads that were there before, and 3 thick quilt pieces. The green pond turned clear in 3 days. You had mentioned that you clean the batting with water and peroxide in another post. I see here that you soaked the lava rock for 1 month.

1. How long and how often do you clean the quilt batting?
2. Do you think 3 thick pieces is too much quilt batting?
3. I guess the only way to tell for sure is to do some water testing?

 

[crsublette]

I think you misunderstood me sissy. The quilt batting is after the pump. The algae is consuming the ammonia, acting as the bio filter, so I had to remove the batting before it took out too much of the algae, that would cause the ammonia to rise. I just flipped the quilt batting out of the way. When the water starts getting too green I will flip it back down.

Makes sense.

To increase the bacteria's growth rate in the trickle tower to sooner match the amount of ammonia being produced, then filtering out some of that algae would be good for the bacteria's growth rate, but, then, this would risk the health of the fish due to the increased ammonia presence to boost the growth rate, which portrays the less pretty side of jumpstarting a bio-filter with fish.

 

[HTH]

Makes sense.

To increase the bacteria's growth rate in the trickle tower to sooner match the amount of ammonia being produced, then filtering out some of that algae would be good for the bacteria's growth rate, but, then, this would risk the health of the fish due to the increased ammonia presence to boost the growth rate, which portrays the less pretty side of jumpstarting a bio-filter with fish.

Exactly. The beauty of the green water is that one has full protection from ammonia in days and the bio filter can take its time cycling. With the quilt batting we can control the density of the green water without water changes.

The one thing I am concerned about is people trying this with soft water. It may be possible for the algae to deplete the pond of minerals and crash but we understand this from working with pH. A partial water change would be enough to add minerals back in most cases which is what you would do to control the ammonia without the green water so it should not be a big problem.