Page 72 - Koi Net - On-Line Koi Magazine - Issue 36
P. 72

You don’t buy these kinds of filters and pumps for                                  your filter every half hour, the concentration of ammonia
                             1 year so the amounts can add up quite a bit over time.                             in the pond will simply decrease faster than if you let
                             So it soon pays to really look at your design for your                              the water pass through your filter every 3 hours. If you
                             pond and filter for construction. Can it also be done                               start to calculate the ammonia content in a Koi pond,
                             with a little less or no head height? With an airlift you                           then you are going to see that on average taken at once
                             can’t bridge the head height, but with a few air pumps                              an hour it will actually always go well. I would like to
                             of 40 watts in 110mm airlifts, quite a bit of water is                              state that this is true if you provide feed according to
                             already being moved. There are also purchase prices to                              the amount recommended in the NVN app and divided
                             be considered because a 2 metre 315mm pipe that is                                  over multiple portions per day. Because that’s what I
                             often used as a collector is not cheap. However, the          THE SIZE OF           hoped to make clear in the articles on nitrogen.
                             alternative 110mm pumps designed to reliably move a           THE PUMP
                             lot of water without head height with ever lower watts                              The size of the pump and its connections to pond and
                             are also becoming more and more common. In                    AND ITS               filter is so important as I’ve explained in this article.
                             addition, a trickle filter also has the advantage that the                          If there’s a narrow part somewhere in the system
                             water is also provided with a lot of fresh oxygen             CONNECTIONS           reducing the flow, it just doesn’t work optimally. Are you
                             because the water falls. So which type of filter you                                aware? And think before you build a pond about what
                                                                                           TO POND AND  you want? How do you want it? And how can it work
                             choose is part of a choice with several factors.
                                                                                           FILTER IS             properly? Discuss this planned construction with Koi
       IT PAYS TO            Well, we’ve almost had the basics. The most important         IMPORTANT             professionals, members of Koi associations and
                             aspect is that you strive to pump the water around
                                                                                                                 renowned Koi dealers. Don’t save on your filter, pump
       REALLY LOOK           once over your filter every hour. This is a directive,                              and pipes, because that’s the basics that should
       AT THE                because you can do this every 15 minutes, or every                                  be right.
                             3 hours. There is a balance in this that is very
       DESIGN OF             important. If you let your entire pond content pass
       YOUR POND             through your filter every 5 minutes, you have a few
                             options. Either you have a pond of 1m³ and a filter of
       BEFORE                5m³ with also a large pump on it, or vice versa but then
       STARTING              the water will flow through at a high velocity using a
                             huge pump creating like a vortex through your pond
       THE WORK              and pipes. Both are not real and desired for Koi. There
                             is a lot of discussion about the current in the pond and
                             whether you need to have a lot or little current. I
                             personally believe that a little flow is fine, but that there
                             should also be places in the pond with a slightly less
                             strong current because the Koi should also be able to
                             rest. If they have to swim hard permanently, it creates
                             too much stress for them, and they use energy that
                             they can’t use for growth. If the water is too still, all the
                             dirt quickly settles on the pond bottom again and it
                             does not reach your bottom drains and is too slowly
                             drained to your filter. Here comes the most important
                             point that appeals to my articles about nitrogen. The
                             Koi produce ammonia. If you let the water pass through




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