koiguy1969
GIGGETY-GIGGETY!!
no.. dont use steel .. plastic only!!!
building a 55 gal biological filter
- Thread starter DrCase
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2009
- Messages
- 86
- Reaction score
- 0
Got the filter going! Unwittingly enough for me, the koi's appetites seem to have improved!!! but they seem to prefer the sinking pellets as compared to the floating ones. 
Give it time, I think they will eventually prefer the floating ones. For sinking food, try steamed rice, mine love it. you can't get a cheaper treat for them.
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2009
- Messages
- 86
- Reaction score
- 0
DrDave said:
Will do. Anyway I feed them both floating and sinking pellets, but they really scramble for the sinking ones. I'll try your rice suggestion. It's not only cheap here; it's abundant!! :icon_smile:
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2009
- Messages
- 86
- Reaction score
- 0
Julius Leonid Maestral said:
You were right on DDave!! My crazy koi's are now scrambling for both the sinking and the floating pellets!! The only different thing I did was install the damn filter......
DIY filters all the way for me (from now on).
My Bioforce 1000 is useless even in my 130G tank for 12" kohaku under QT. It works.. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0... I'm not even over feeding the guy. Water goes cloudy after 5 days. I even rigged the system with 3 gallons with of bioballs inside the tank with 3G water cooler bottle, attached to the outlet. So I don't even know if this filter that is supposedly rated up to 1000G can do job on its own with nitrogen cycle. Going to build smaller barrel filter for this system soon.
My Bioforce 1000 is useless even in my 130G tank for 12" kohaku under QT. It works.. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0... I'm not even over feeding the guy. Water goes cloudy after 5 days. I even rigged the system with 3 gallons with of bioballs inside the tank with 3G water cooler bottle, attached to the outlet. So I don't even know if this filter that is supposedly rated up to 1000G can do job on its own with nitrogen cycle. Going to build smaller barrel filter for this system soon.
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2009
- Messages
- 86
- Reaction score
- 0
I never bought a commercial filter. But the DIY I made based on the info I got in this forum, worked out quite well!! In the preceding pages I was even raving on how it improved the diminishing appetites of my kois!
Alright. I'm going to upgrade my 130QT filter soon (currently using the deemed useless Bioforce 1000 - I think it works (not sure due to 3G of bio balls add-on but water turns cloudy in under 1 week).
The parts: 30G garbage plastic can, 25 bags of scrub pads, some bulkheads that I seem to have misplaced at home. All I need now is a 2" pipe and a few fittings and I'm good to go.
I'll keep the bioforce hooked up as a mechanical filter but it really blows. It gets dirty in 2 weeks. I can't imagine how that dang thing can be used for a small outdoor pond even without fish. Worse $200 I'd ever spent on fish products and I could have bought a Tetrapond 4000 for the same amount, not knowing another place had a major sale on them. :-(
The parts: 30G garbage plastic can, 25 bags of scrub pads, some bulkheads that I seem to have misplaced at home. All I need now is a 2" pipe and a few fittings and I'm good to go.
I'll keep the bioforce hooked up as a mechanical filter but it really blows. It gets dirty in 2 weeks. I can't imagine how that dang thing can be used for a small outdoor pond even without fish. Worse $200 I'd ever spent on fish products and I could have bought a Tetrapond 4000 for the same amount, not knowing another place had a major sale on them. :-(
bergzy said:
I heard of poeple usig lava rock and one have and info on that?
I read that lava rock works, but it clogs easy.
I'm personally using scrub pads and like it.
I'm personally using scrub pads and like it.
koiguy1969
GIGGETY-GIGGETY!!
not to mention if something comes up and you have to move the filter, or even just disassemble it, i would imagine scrubbies would be alittle easier to handle.
Oh yeah... Bag the scrubbies with those dollar store tote bags too.
Sorry, you scrubbie guys...
Irrigation tubing, light, easier to clean, cheap and better than scrubbies. Plastic strap material works as good as the tubes. Every flush is like a new filter beginning without the loss of anerobic bacteria. Both superior to scrubbies for the previously mentioned reasons. There are actually several others I would use before scrubbies but you get the picture.
Scrubbies work, they are just way down on my first choices. The big koi breeders don't even use them. My friend who has 80,000 Koi in 30 ponds uses plastic as well. he only cleans his once a year, but his is the size of a big truck.
Irrigation tubing, light, easier to clean, cheap and better than scrubbies. Plastic strap material works as good as the tubes. Every flush is like a new filter beginning without the loss of anerobic bacteria. Both superior to scrubbies for the previously mentioned reasons. There are actually several others I would use before scrubbies but you get the picture.
Scrubbies work, they are just way down on my first choices. The big koi breeders don't even use them. My friend who has 80,000 Koi in 30 ponds uses plastic as well. he only cleans his once a year, but his is the size of a big truck.
koiguy1969
GIGGETY-GIGGETY!!
scrubbies are plastic, perform well..mine have been in use over a year never cleaned flushed or anything else and still work as good as day one. and yes i said NEVER been cleaned and dont appear even slightly clogged...so no need for apologies!!!