Bio Filter

[hammer1320]

Hi, I am new to this site and sort of new to ponds. I have one question that might be a little noobish..... I have been researching bio filters on the web and on youtube on how to build your own. The construction part of it is all fine and dandy and I am more than able to handel it, but, I keep hearing about jump starting the bio filter with pre-primed media. Im a little lost on where the media starts from.

I understand tap water must be treated before putting fish into the water and that the older the water, the better due to bacteria and such that the fish need. And im thinking that its the same concept with the bio filter media?? My question is what is the best way to start collecting that media?

I have 2 pump/filters running in a 85gal plastic liner pond now and I am planning on going bigger either over the summer, or come next spring. Should I start cleanning out the filters now into a bucket and soak the material in it?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Sweet Lew]

Hammer-Time....

Welcome to the forums! Check out the DIY section on how to make your own biofilter:

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/sticky-doc-bio-filter-t4685.html

You would need to size down for your current setup. Or, depending on how big you are expanding, you might be OK with the 55gal.

As for priming the media, you can use the Microbe-Lift gel:

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=5163+5187+14218&pcatid=14218

As for cleaning the media, make sure you rinse the filter media in a bucket of pond water. NOT tap water. That will kill off the bacteria on the media. Not sure if you have a wee little skimmer or not, but I usually rinse mine when the water level in the pump chamber is lower than the pre-filter chamber. That pretty much means the media is clogging...

Good luck!

Lew

 

[jason081180]

i think what your talking about is called seeding your bio media. the way you do this is to take the media from an established pond and squeeze all the crap and junk in that filter into your pond. yes it will make your pond dirty but all that is full of the good bacteria that you need and it will then get filtered out by your filter. now the good bacteria can only live about 4 hours (if i remember right) without flowing water. so squeezing your filters from an aquarium now will not do any good. you do all this once your pond is all set up and running for a day or so. some precautions to this are if there is a sickness in the pond you get the squeezings from now its in yours as well so be careful where you get it. its all discused in this video.

[ame]

 

[hammer1320]

Thanks so much for the help. I am thinking I wanna go bigger this year, but, I kinda want to take it slow with the little one for a while so I dont get overthrown by the pond. I started it last summer with no fish, cleaned it out the first nice day of spring and added the fish 2 weeks ago. All is well so far, they at least look happy!

 

[digginponds]

bigger is better