What should I put in my bio filter?

[koiguy1969]

You say you use a submersable pump....
Might i suggest A PREFILTER OR TWO. (mechanical) prefilters go in the pond, before the pump. using more than one plumbed in via pond hose allows you to draw water from different areas of the pond. this can eliminate "dead zones". they prevent any debris, fish wastes, etc... from reaching the pump and/or filter. preventing pump clogging, and when fish poop is drawn into the pump, the impellor purees it into poop soup. and this can coat your bio media. and the cleaner you can keep your biofilter the more efficient it will be.

 

[Catfishnut]

Mgmine,

I think of several possibilities for media in your tank. The first that came to mind was ladies hair curlers. The second was PVC pipe pieces (i.e. 1/2 PVC pipe cut into ~2 inch lengths).
No matter what media you place in here, you will have to build a "dog-house" to enclose it in to keep it dark. The sunlight will pass through that tank and harm the beneficial bacteria.
You must also provide some means of aeration as well since the bacteria (nitrosonomas and nitrobacter) will require oxygen to do their business.

If you go the route of using "scrubbies" or cleaning pads, I would change the design of the water flow through the tank. I would bring the water in from one end and exit the other in a horizontal flow path, not up/down vertically through the tank. Then, I would place coarser scrubbie pads on the entry end and progressively get finer (denser) towards the outlet end. I would also probably install a support grate in the bottom of the tank to elevate the scrubbie media off the bottom and install a bottom drain to purge the "yuck" water out below to help in cleaning.

Regardless of what media you finally opt for, I personally would change the flow to horizontal through the tank. I say this because the tank is longer than it is tall and that would give you more functional area/volume for the water to be in contact with and passing through the media.

Another option would be to convert the tank into an upflow sand filter, but use BRZ horse stall freshener (Sweet PDZ) instead of sand. That would take a little engineering on your part as you would have to backwash that media from time to time. It wouldn't be an actual bio-converter filter since it doesn't work with bacteria, but it would remove large amounts of ammonia because the Sweet PDZ is made from Zeolite which absorbs huge amounts of ammonia by volume. If you use this stuff, you would have to backwash it or pre-wash it quite a bit to get the "fines" out first. Otherwise, your pond will become cloudy with those fines and it will take a lot to remove them after the fact. Here you would not be able to flow the water horizontally as it would need to pass through the media in an upflow manner for best results. You could possibly flip the tank on end, but I don't know if the mechanical support of the tank would allow that.

I am not sure what would be the BEST thing to do here, but your tank does have some really nice potential and I just wanted to kick some ideas around for the purpose of the discussion. Just in case they tripped something you liked.

Would love to hear what you come up with and how well it works when you get it operational.

Catfishnut

 

[mgmine]

I am using a VANCS Tsurumi PN Pump 50PN2.4s pump which doesn't allow for an intake hose so pre-filtering won't work I will have to use a bio/mechanical filter combination. The helpful answers I have gotten so far have led me in another direction .To keep things on track I will start a new thread with my new idea.

 

[HTH]

Put the filter in a box. Put a bulkhead on the box and hook the prefilter to the bulkhead. Or make the box the prefilter and put the pump in the bottom under the media. Some have used laundry baskets with lava rock. To get more fines you can wrap the pump in quilt batting. Not exactly easy to maintain but better then messing with a clogged intake every day or two.

I am using a VANCS Tsurumi PN Pump 50PN2.4s pump which doesn't allow for an intake hose so pre-filtering won't work I will have to use a bio/mechanical filter combination. The helpful answers I have gotten so far have led me in another direction .To keep things on track I will start a new thread with my new idea.

 

[Catfishnut]

Mgmine,

Just to clarify....

You don't need to "prefilter" the water before the PUMP - at the pump inlet. What you need to do is prefilter the water prior to introducing it to your bio-filter.
You just don't want to send all the "muck" into the bio-filter because even small bits of scum and muck can clog the the bacteria cultures.
The water will flow through your media just fine, but too much fine debris, detritus and "fish poop" can hamper the microscopic colonies of bacteria living on your media.

You can send the output of your pump through a mechanical filter or a mechanical "separator" to reduce all that gunk before it gets to your bio-filter.
You do NOT need to prefilter it ahead of your Tsunami pump for this specific purpose, but it would be better if you could place your pump after the filtration system if possible.
I will explain that more in a moment.

A sieve filter or a radial flow filter are two really swell options which can be fabricated very inexpensively and without too much engineering - especially the radial flow.
But, there are other means that you could investigate as well, such as a vortex separator or a large settling tank. These latter two options require a LOT of space and a BIG tank.

If it were at all possible to feed your dirty pond water to your filter system via gravity flow, then any muck that goes through the system won't be minced and pureed by the impeller of your pump.
This makes it MUCH easier to separate the muck from the water because all the muck will be of larger particle size and thus heavier and precipitate / separate more readily. When you put the pump in between the pond and the filter system, you dice up the muck and make it more difficult to separate.

Hope that makes sense and you can determine a method to apply it.

Catfishnut

 

[Catfishnut]

Mgmine,

Howard offered some good advice while I was typing my reply. You don't have to have the ability to CONNECT a prefilter to the pump if you put the pump in a PREFILTER containment vessel.
The vessel offers the prefiltering mechanism and the pump just pulls the water through it. That's another possible strategy for you.

Catfishnut

PS: Hi Howard! Good to see you!

Gordy

 

[mgmine]

Okay so it sounds like I either need to connect another barrel or tank to make a pre-filter or put the pump in a container inside the pond is this right? I am pumping the water up a hill to a head of about 17 feet. From there the tank will overflow via a pipe and go into a cascading stream and waterfall. If I use another barrel as a separator then that barrel would overflow into the 200 gallon tank which would then overflow into the stream. It would seem that putting a tank of some sort in the pond and then the pump inside of that would be easier and less restrictive to the flow. So if I'm on the right track here are a few more questions.
1. What size tank would be best, something like a tote?
2. Would there be a filter media like a scrubby that I could place on top and would be easy to remove. Lave rocks were mentioned but I have read tat they are susceptible to clogging.
3. Would this 200 gallon tank that I already have be a Doc filter for bio only?
4. Doesn't a skippy filter both clean and serve as a bio filter?
Thanks for all the help.

 

[Tazz3]

I use shipping strapping with the side textured works great I have 3 bags stuffed in my 55 gallon drum.
On the bottom I have filters

 

[mgmine]

How much strapping is a bag? What I mean is that on Ebay they have 1500 foot spools 4,000 foot spools even or 17,000 foot spools. I not sure what size to buy.

 

[ShawnLimy]

gosh if you paint it you have the makings of a cow .Wish I could find a tank like that

:biggrin: LOL, you have a great imagination.