IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE TOO MUCH FILTRATION?

[Mmathis]

Assuming you have a reasonalble fish-load.......

 

[sissy]

Not sure but guessing I am near the point of over filtering ,13 fish and the new filter at the end of the waterfall I have to rebuild will hold 50 gallons of water and plants and lava rock and the other filter is a 30 gallon filter with plants and seems my fish don't mind .But I do have 2 koi that are over 2 feet so that adds to the load of fish waste

 

[Mmathis]

Again, I was just curious, assuming all parameters are "normal," [reasonalbe fish load, reasonable pond maintainence, plants....]. The bacteria is going to reach an equilibrium state and will die back or increase as needed. I've wondered if I'm practicing over-kill with a 100 gal. SKIPPY.

Sissy, what kind of mechanical filtering [pre-filter?] do you use?

 

[koiguy1969]

i dont believe theres a such thing as overfiltration... at least in respect to causing a problem. you may have more than needed, but that shouldnt be an issue. i never heard anyone complain that their water was too healthy. better more than enough than not enough!!!.. altho size and number of fish has a bearing on filtration needs. IMO, the amount of food fed is the biggest factor, i would think 1 cup of food makes about the same amount of wastes, wether 1 or 3 fish eat it.

 

[sissy]

I have never used any and thats why I am getting the leaf basket and since my pumps can be external too it works .I found the leaf basket attachment at eastern koi for 49 dollars .Funny thing is checked my filters all summer and they never really seem to be dirty and plants in the filter tank help with that .I have water lettuce and water hyacinth and duck weed in them and this is the first year for them in the filters and they are growing like crazy .I did open the valve at the bottom of one of my filters and all that came out was clean water no gunk .That is after all summer not doing anything except cleaning the quilt batting once a week .

 

[sissy]

Very true koiguy and that could be some it ,since i only feed my fish 2 or 3 times a week .Forgot that .

 

[CometKeith]

If your water is too clean then some plants will not do well. Water Hyacinths and Water Lettuces need a healthy amount of nutrients to grow. If those are filtered out of the water then the plants will do poorly. Also large breeders prefer pea soup green water for their babies to grow fast. Certain fancy goldfish will not survive when they are young unless there is a high algae count in the water. How many time do you hear about people finding an unattended pond on their property with fish in the muck? I think very clean water satisfies us humans but is not needed for the plants or fish as long as ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are under control.

 

[Waterbug]

Doc Johnson's thoughts on over filtration starting at 7:00 mins in.

 

[koiguy1969]

comet... i gotta dissagree with you there... hyacinths and lettuce by design are able to pull nutrients from the water easier than most pond plants with their direct access to the water. especially moving water where the nutrients are constantly being brought to them. its true that some breeders prefer green water. i start mine out in green water. for the first few weeks then clear it up. and the final product of any bio filter is nitrates, no matter how big.. thats what feeds the plants. the more efficiently that its produced the more readily available it is for the plants.

 

[CometKeith]

That's true. We should probably distinguish mechanical filtration from bio-filtration. I'm sure you are right about bio-filters. I saw an example this year of a pond that was overly mechanically filtered and the water hyacinths did extremely poor as a result. In this case the pond owner literally hosed off and cleaned his mechanical filter every day so it would catch as many particulates as possible. The pond owner was really proud of his ultra-clean water but did not understand why his water hyacinths refused to grow. This is a link to the Blue Ridge Fish Hatchery's breeding pond webpage. it's interesting how green most of the ponds are if you look at the pictures. This is pretty typical for most large breeding operations. The algae provides a double benefit of abundant food and adding dissolved oxygen to the pond for the young fish. http://www.blueridge...pany/our-farms/ I guess my point is the water doesn't need to be totally clear for plants and fish to be happy and I think sometimes people overly focus on that.

 

[CometKeith]

Waterbug, I think the video is interesting, but i think it is more geared for a novice pond keeper. It's a simplification that 1" of fish per 10 gallons of water is good. That might be good advice for a rank beginner but there is much more that can come into play. So if I have 5 koi at 2 inches each then they should be okay in 100 gallons, right? Well the weight of those koi would be about 5 x 1.7 grams or 8.5 grams. A 10" koi would weigh about 197 grams or 23 times more. Obviously the 10 inch koi would not be okay in a 100 gallon pond and would probably need 1000 gallons for the same 10 inches of fish. He is providing broad generalizations for the viewing public which is fine and dandy but probably not the best resource for our discussions. I would like to think that our discussions are actually more "advanced" than this video. Also we should probably start off most of the conversations if we are talking about a watergarden with goldfish, plants, and other creatures that may live in it versus a pond that is just for Koi. I always want my watergarden with a little muck for the dragonflies, fish eggs, tadpoles, and other things to be nutured in it, and you probably want water a clear as possible to enjoy your Koi.

 

[Waterbug]

CometKeith, but what did you think if the part I referred to? The 7 min in deal that had to do with the OP's question? That part was pretty groovy.

 

[lovinglife]

Love the video! It worked up to that 7 minute mark well also. I watched from 5 minutes and it was great! Didn't know that about your favorite fish, but it makes sense.

 

[CometKeith]

okay waterbug, you win. you can never have enough filtration for a koi pond, but.................. for a watergarden there are some benefits by not having it overly filtered. Do we all agree?

 

[Waterbug]

I'm not debating and don't really have any opinion on the subject...just thought Doc's comment was interesting and was about what the OP asked about.