Do I need to keep all of my filters on 24/7? Please see the pictures!

[mrsclem]

Nick2021- I have koi and while yours are small now, they can grow to over 3 feet! With 15 koi, you need to keep any filtration running until you can get a bog set up. The skimmer can be turned off, just make sure you are nto getting a lot of leaves falling in the pond. How deep is the pond?
Are you sure all the fish are koi?
Guessing you just bought the house, any chance the previous owner can help with your questions about the equipment?

 

[brokensword]

I see mrsclem started the actual conversation that should be taking place; the GENERAL rule of thumb is 1000 gallons for ONE koi and 250-500 gallons for EACH ADDITIONAL fish. At 15'x9', figuring 3' deep minimum, that gives you 3000 gallons. You'll HAVE to figure out if my 3' depth is actually true. So, IF 3000 gallons, safe fish load would be in the area of 9 adult koi. You can see how you're going to need a LOT of filtration if all the numbers are correct. Any less depth and you're further across that line. If 4' depth, that gives you an additional 1000 gallons and possibly 4 more fish. So, you're right at that line. Hence, filtration is important in your case. I'd NOT shut anything down until you either build a bog (correctly sized at 30% pond volume) or accept you're going to need everything you currently have and YES, you'll need to run it 24/7. The good bacteria will die if you don't and this is what's keeping your water life-sustaining.

Again, read about bogs, make sure you're comfortable and understand exactly how they work. As addy noted, it can be relatively inexpensive or you can go the aquablox route and it'll now get pricey. I did a hybrid, sorta, of the two. The idea here is you will only need ONE pump an not have to clean anything. All you'll do is periodically thin out the plants, which will be at the top of your bog, pulling out nitrates while the pea gravel serves as your biofilter and converts the ammonia into nitrite and then into nitrate.

 

[GBBUDD]

Im guessing that you do not have any problems with your pond as it is . the creator of the system seems to have gone all out . from my research in the past the nexus seemed to be a very good piece of equipment . very efficient at removing particle matter from the water column. The bead filter is a decent bacterial filter particularly when it is not being allowed to clog and yours has a great prefilter the skimmer and nexus. I think your set up may even beat a bog over all. As the bog does nothing to remove partials from the water column . But what it does do is trap the partials and allows bugs microbes and bacteria a chance to do there thing. While my water is always crystal clear you can see a penny on the bottom of the pond at 6 feet down and you could tell if it's head or tails. My water will never be polished Like the nexus can do.
But to your question weather to shut down or not i would have to say that i would not shut your system down. but what i would do is place the nexus and the bead filter into some plastic huts. Now i'm assuming yes you get below 32 degree weather but that it is not sub zero for weeks on end . the spray heads you have i imagine can fail very easily if not shut down and drained and stored property . and the bead filter can certainly crack if not drained and once you do that you loose your bio load. placing them both into plastic huts does more then you may think. particularly if you have lots of sun. we have a member who runs her ponds up in Canada and she runs them all year and does plastic huts and has done so for years

 

[yorkshire pudding]

hi @Nick2021, im a bit late to the party here but would agree you have a nice set up there, i use a nexus and they are great bits of kit, i dont have a drop in draco though and again they are very good pieces of equipment as is the bead and the sieve, as has been said previously you do need most of the equipment left on all the time and yes it is getting pricey now especially with the prospect of energy price rises going up in the region of 100% this year if you wanted to go down the bog root as have lots of members on here with fantastic results the outlay for pipes and gravel and liner would easily be recovered with the sale of all your equipment even used they would all sell very well and quickly. someone obviously took a lot of time and money to put together a nice pond, and im sure you will have some quality fish in there aswell. hope this helps, cheers mark.

 

[Nick2021]

hi @Nick2021, im a bit late to the party here but would agree you have a nice set up there, i use a nexus and they are great bits of kit, i dont have a drop in draco though and again they are very good pieces of equipment as is the bead and the sieve, as has been said previously you do need most of the equipment left on all the time and yes it is getting pricey now especially with the prospect of energy price rises going up in the region of 100% this year if you wanted to go down the bog root as have lots of members on here with fantastic results the outlay for pipes and gravel and liner would easily be recovered with the sale of all your equipment even used they would all sell very well and quickly. someone obviously took a lot of time and money to put together a nice pond, and im sure you will have some quality fish in there aswell. hope this helps, cheers mark.

Hi Mark,

Thanks. I have 16 Koi standard fish- not very expensive. Do you have Koi? They are different.

What if I go only with the Bead filter (Auqa on the picture)? Good bacteria is produced by Nexus?

Any idea how much I can sell all of these equipments?

Cheers
Nick

 

[Nick2021]

Im guessing that you do not have any problems with your pond as it is . the creator of the system seems to have gone all out . from my research in the past the nexus seemed to be a very good piece of equipment . very efficient at removing particle matter from the water column. The bead filter is a decent bacterial filter particularly when it is not being allowed to clog and yours has a great prefilter the skimmer and nexus. I think your set up may even beat a bog over all. As the bog does nothing to remove partials from the water column . But what it does do is trap the partials and allows bugs microbes and bacteria a chance to do there thing. While my water is always crystal clear you can see a penny on the bottom of the pond at 6 feet down and you could tell if it's head or tails. My water will never be polished Like the nexus can do.
But to your question weather to shut down or not i would have to say that i would not shut your system down. but what i would do is place the nexus and the bead filter into some plastic huts. Now i'm assuming yes you get below 32 degree weather but that it is not sub zero for weeks on end . the spray heads you have i imagine can fail very easily if not shut down and drained and stored property . and the bead filter can certainly crack if not drained and once you do that you loose your bio load. placing them both into plastic huts does more then you may think. particularly if you have lots of sun. we have a member who runs her ponds up in Canada and she runs them all year and does plastic huts and has done so for years

I need to learn about the system. I want to turn only the essential one on. The weather is almost okay not too much sun/ cold.

 

[Nick2021]

Nick2021- I have koi and while yours are small now, they can grow to over 3 feet! With 15 koi, you need to keep any filtration running until you can get a bog set up. The skimmer can be turned off, just make sure you are nto getting a lot of leaves falling in the pond. How deep is the pond?
Are you sure all the fish are koi?
Guessing you just bought the house, any chance the previous owner can help with your questions about the equipment?

The previous guy is not responding! They are koi.

What system do you have? Do I need both Bead filter and Nexus2010? What if I only run below water air and Bead filter (Aqua)?

 

[Nick2021]

The picture is of a rotary drum filter. Its function is to remove gunk and any debris from the water.

Are you testing your water parameters with liquid tests? If so, what are the levels for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and KH?

Eliminating any of your filtration can cause an increase in ammonia and nitrite, either of which can be deadly to the fish. So please be careful with that. If you turn anything off, please test the water frequently to make sure the parameters are staying safe.

Depending on their size and the size of your pond, 15 koi can be an overwhelming number for a pond, requiring a great deal of filtration to keep the water and the fish healthy.

To me the whole set up seems piecemeal and the owner may have kept increasing the filtration in bits and pieces to keep up with the waste production increase as the fish grew. Just a guess, but I don't see how anyone would have designed it originally as it is now.

If your bead filter is large enough, it can filter the entire pond. But since there is so much additional filtration, I have to think that the single bead filter is not adequate.

Can you contact the previous owners and ask them for more information?

I don't know how to test the water! Bead filter is large.

 

[yorkshire pudding]

Hi Mark,

Thanks. I have 16 Koi standard fish- not very expensive. Do you have Koi? They are different.

What if I go only with the Bead filter (Auqa on the picture)? Good bacteria is produced by Nexus?

Any idea how much I can sell all of these equipments?

Cheers
Nick

hi @Nick2021,yes i have koi, i think with your set up reducing anything that has been working for sometime will have a detrimental affect you might not notice anything for a while then things will go down hill rapidly, if its possible i would leave be till spring then look at what you want to do, as for value of equipment its what any one will pay but i would say £1000-1500. do you have a pic of your overall pond as that would be nice to see. cheers mark

 

[yorkshire pudding]

hi @Nick2021, have you tried a search to see if there are any koi clubs in your area and ask someone to come and have a look and advise you on site and talk you through how each piece works that way you would be more informed and be able to decide whats best for you and what you want from your pond. i cant really comment on the drum,bead,sieve as i dont use them i use a pump fed nexus and that works for me at the moment but that will change as the fish get bigger cheers mark

 

[Nick2021]

Some pictures!

 

[GBBUDD]

The previous guy is not responding! They are koi.

What system do you have? Do I need both Bead filter and Nexus2010? What if I only run below water air and Bead filter (Aqua)?

Yes nexus is a mechanical filter meaning it takes out dirt/ debris from the water. It does nothing to biological control nutrients in the water that's where the bio beads come in . You have a decent set up . I would get familiar with what you have now before you put additions on .

 

[GBBUDD]

For some reason over in the UK mechanical filters and beads or sieves far out weigh bog maybe it's something in the water.

 

[WaterGardener]

I am a proponent of testing the pond water to be sure everything is going well. For that you need liquid tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH (probably high range), and KH. Most pet stores carry those. Please don't get the strip tests as they don't seem to be very accurate.

If you choose to build a bog, you will need to keep running the system you have until the bog is completed. Your fish need constant filtration to deal with the waste they produce. Otherwise they would be living in a polluted environment, and probably not for long.

I'm curious as to why you feel koi are so different. They are in the same family as goldish and have the same needs, as most fish do. As far as I know, koi just grow larger and produce more waste so they need more filtration.

Your pond looks very nice and the water seems to be very clear. Shutting down any of that equipment could jeopardize the look and health of your pond.

 

[yorkshire pudding]

Yes nexus is a mechanical filter meaning it takes out dirt/ debris from the water. It does nothing to biological control nutrients in the water that's where the bio beads come in . You have a decent set up . I would get familiar with what you have now before you put additions on .

hi @GBBUDD the nexus does provide biological filtration the water goes through the inner chamber and removes dirt/debris and into the outer chamber which is full of k1 media providing biological filtration, the outer chamber can hold between 50 and 150 litres of k1 media depending on stock levels, i have a 100 litres in mine