© Copyright 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 CJF. The contents of this entire site, including all photographs, pictures, text and subsequent local links are copyrighted. Unauthorized duplication or redistribution without the author's written or electronic permission is prohibited. Linking this page's address in other world-wide web pages is permissible and does not violate this copyright.
The pond operation--The water flows between the biological pond and the main pond from underground tubing. The water enters the pond from the waterfalls, then goes through the bottom drain and then through the three mechanical filter tubs. The last filter tub contains the four pumps. After going through the filter tubs, the water then travels 18 feet underground and spills into the small biological pond, via the waterfall in back of the biological pond. The water travels through the biological pond getting scrubbed by all the vegetation in it's path and goes through a drain at the end of this pond --it then travels back 18 ft underground and spills into the main pond from under the small wood dock in back of the main pond. The process then starts all over again. The pond is a bare bottom pond and the entire pond bottom is slightly slanted toward the bottom drain. The only thing that is rocked is the two beaches. These beaches are cleaned weekly by swishing and turning the rocks around while hosing them full force with the garden hose, the rocked shelves are cleaned by hosing them as well. More about pond maintenance below...
Wintertime Pond Dec. 2, 2002
This snowy pond shows the shape of the pond
including the small biological pond that's 18 feet away. The biological pond is the small patch of water to the upper right of the main pond.
The DYI mechanical filteration system works as follows:
The mechanical filters consist of three 35 gallon rubber maid type tubs, daisy chained together.
The first tub: In the first tub is a homemaid vortex unit made from a waste paper basket. This basket catches an unbelievably large amount of fish waste--this basket is emptied everyday. Behind the vortex basket is standard filter material to catch the heavy stuff. This filter material is several individual pieces of filter material rolled up and packed in behind the vortex tub. (At one time we used to use Dacron batting, but found it difficult to clean.) The clarity of our water determines the frequency of cleaning the filter material in this first tub. The cleaning ranges from every day in early spring to one to three times per week, later in the season. The clarity of our water governs this task.
The second tub: The second tub is divided into three seperate compartments. We cut the sides off of plastic crates and made three plastic sleeve. Each sleeve is wrapped one time with standard type filter material that we purchased at the pond store. This filter material is specifically for mechenical filteration and every pond supply store has it. This standard filter material is much easier to clean than the Dacron batting. These wrapped sleeves are standing upright in the tubs and are cleaned usually one to five times per week, again depending on the clarity of our water. This middle tub gets the most attention and is where we concentrate on doing the most cleaning.
The third tub: The third tub houses the four pumps and behind the pumps is a fine mesh pad that we purchased in an equiptment rental store for 10.00 dollars. (It is the pad that is placed lastly on a floor sander to finish the job. ) This pad is cleaned one to two times a week. Whatever makes it through the first two tubs gets finally caught in this last pad. Again the clarity of the water as well as the water flow in the last tub governs the frequency of cleaning. As soon as we see the water flow slow up in this last tub, we know the filter materials are getting clogged and need to be cleaned.
The beauty of this system is... as your pond and fish grow--so can your mechenical filteration system--just daisy chain another tub on. We started out with two tubs and as our pond grew and our Koi grew we added two more.
We have a lot of large koi and as you know Koi make a lot of waste. The maintenance routine I have described is our usual routine. Our pond is always clear, the clarity of our water always ranges from clear to cystal clear to gin clear. We have a uv light as well, but have only had to use it in early spring. Last season in 2002 we used the uv light for a total of 7 days for the entire pond season.
We attribute the health and clarity of our pond to two things, Firstly--The frequent water changes that are done each week by adding fresh water each day for five to ten minutes, thus resulting in a 25 to 30 % water change over a one week period. We never partially empty our pond and do a large water change at one time.
Secondly--The frequency in which are filters are cleaned. If you want to maintain a clean and healthy pond with cystal clear water, you have to keep on top of cleaning the filter pads.
Note, We never vacuum our pond or had to vacuum our pond. Our pond is bare bottom with the exception of our two pebbled beaches. During our daily water additions, we sometimes lay the water hose on the bottom of the pond to sweep all the mulm toward and into the bottom drain. We clean our beaches and shelves the same way, by using the hose to release the muck and mulm that gathers around and between the rocks. In the beaches we swish the rocks around and turn them over to release any waste or fish food that gathers in between and under the rocks.
One more fun tip: Every ponding year we have keep a 'pond journal.'
We write everything down about our pond and fish from pond maintenance to fish happenings. It is informative, interesting and a fun thing to do.
