Page 35 - Koi Net - On-Line Koi Magazine - Issue 53

It’s very important that ALL of our pond water passes
through ALL of the filtration system. Any water by-
passing any part of the system will dilute the effect
and efficiency of the filtration system. The entire pond
volume should pass through the filter system as
quickly as is practical and returned to the fish, i.e. the
Turnover rate of the pond volume should be high?
Though once all this rate of flow has passed through
the mechanical filtration, in our case drums, the
gravity water level can drop quite a few inches, which
is a good flow indicator. As we have two independent
bio-converter filters both having their own variable
pumps, so this splits the flow, but still maintains
A FASTER adequate Flowrate but not exceeding the bio-filters
maximum output capacity, as the conversion of
TURNOVER ammonia to nitrite to nitrate takes place immediately

RATE MOVES on contact with the nitrifying bacteria, you are also
feeding the ‘goody good guys’ with plenty of oxygen.
THE POND In the past, most of us have discussed retention
WATER periods (especially with K1), but again with the
introduction of variable pumps has allowed us to
THROUGH experiment to find that sweet spot especially when
THE FILTER the feeding regimes changes as we go through The corner of our dissolved oxygen faster and reduced the ambient
the growing season. Also having two independent
SYSTEM bio-lines means we can have slightly different speeds Filter House. ammonia levels as the nitrification process was
as one is a K1/Bakki combination and the other a happening more without having a torrent of water
FASTER K1 chamber. entering the pond! So, the system becomes more
efficient.
In summary, the faster the Turnover rate of the whole
system, the faster the pond water will be moved VARIABLE The books say you should turnover your pond volume
through the filter systems and therefore, the faster the on average around an hour or so, but if you’ve got a
impurities will be removed, so more oxygen will be PUMPS large pond, you just cannot achieve that and there is
dissolved into the water this should result in healthy CONTROL THE no need if you have low stocking levels. On the other
Koi. What’s your thoughts on this – does it work for hand, if you have a smaller pond like say our
you? Keep reading to see what we do! MOVEMENT quarantine tank which has a large bio capacity the
pond volume is turning over much quicker than an
As mentioned earlier, a few years back we changed OF THE POND hour and is very efficient.
the way we returned our filtered water after passing
through the mechanical and bio stages as we realised WATER So, getting back to our ponds as examples, we know
it just was not efficient enough having returns all over, our ponds are as efficient as we can make them due to
etc. What we did and what we found was by having all the way we have the design of the returning pipe work
our returns at one end of the pond (the pump house to allow the water to circulate turnover and go down
side) this dramatically reduced the friction loss the drains and as I’ve mentioned a few times now it’s
allowing the water to circulate through the whole pond the introduction and installation of variable pumps
quicker, thus, reducing heat loss, introducing which allows us to control the movement of the pond

35 37