Filter ? need some help

[Lisak1]

I"m not a koi expert, but this is from Koi Acres website: "The size of the pond, along with other factors like health, feeding, water temperature and water quality affect the speed of their growth. A Koi will keep growing until it has reached its genetically predetermined size." I've never heard of 20 year old koi that were still six inches in length, but like I said - not a koi expert.

You have some unique pond challenges it sounds like with water and plant restrictions. I wonder if your "rain tank dregs" brought algae along with it - algae will grow in pretty much any water. Hopefully you're right and you're getting it under control!

 

[GBBUDD]

Yes, would agree best to start over again in their case. Sounds like he did already when he emptied it and cleaned it “thoroughly”, which is not good because they got rid of the periphyton layer on the pond sides and bottom, so it is basically like starting over with a new pond.

Would also add if they do start over again, to save the filter media rinse it in pond water and use it to help lessen the length and severity of the cycling process.

By there own admission they said they never had blooms previously and the pond was loaded with plants. the pond was a living being at that time. it became over grown to the eye and they intervened. They removed the muck and all the plants that were keeping his pond balanced. When the apparent answer was to prune back and make some room for growth. They cleaned out the entire pond forcing it and themselves to start all over again.

Uv to me are a waste of money they are good for killing parasites and algae yes but then you have made food for others. and in a start over pond your first sign will be green algae then string algae . I did discover one way to help battle string algae , again it's a balancing act. well i happened to turn on my 12" air bladder and i left it on for three weeks as i went back to an assignment and low and behold by boosting the amount of air/ o2 to the pond the hair algae in the pond was all gone. i only have two small waterfalls so though i lessened the amount of air i also took the bladder out of the pond and i drooped it down into the clean out tube of my bog thus airating the bog and allowing the bacteria to have as much o2 as it could need. i often wonder if adding some light in the snorkel and centipede wouldn't help boost bacteria production as well.

 

[GBBUDD]

i would put money down that they have some fancy gold fish with color patterns like a koi , Actually here's a question to help decide. Do your fish have wiskers hanging down and if so how many and how many fins do they have

 

[Alice_Bee]

I'm going to give a real off the wall explanation I have found to be true, and then I should say goodnight, my grandkids are here.
Concrete ponds, limestone and mortar leach lime into the water, producing excess nutrient and alkalinity, either producing green water, or in the presence of UV, other forms of algae, or causing excessive plant growth if the plants can tolerate the high pH. The more you try to lower the pH, or the more fish are present giving off CO2, the faster the concrete leaches

What I do with concrete ponds is, drain em. Seal with aqueous silicone or drop a liner in, and put them back together. Generally no UV is needed after that process. I am aware that I am in the minority, but about 23 years ago a friend of mine bought a house with a concrete pond, and he came to my house to see my filter and pronounced that he could see my fish. (and so could I). We finally got his pond clear in 2009, after I sealed it in 2008. Took a while to find the right product. It's X3. I don't know if it's in Australia, but it did work. Nothing else was adequate. he had 5000 gallons (about 20,000 litres) of pea soup.

 

[Sailfish]

The water started going slightly brown indicating the algae bloom was beginning to die. After cleaning the filter, I began to see into it a very little bit better. I exchanged some of the water as we had a bit of excess after filling the rain holding tank. Then put a flocking agent in to help the dying algae get trapped in the filter. It is getting pretty good now. I can see the fish darting about, not crystal but that's not an important. So, I think the issue has just been all the stuff blowing in, disturbing the sediments to get excess stuff out and topping up with the rain water dregs. Possibly the original bulb may have blown, don't know for sure but the new one appears to be OK.

Thanks the the effort people.

 

[saandersNW]

Alice_Bee, thanks for your thoughts. But you know, some people simply want to improve water aeration in their ponds. And in my case, I was looking for the best pond filter that could have both mechanical and biological filtration systems as well. Something like small tetraPond waterfall filter.