Where can I buy or make these?

[secuono]

18 K and filter pads. Compared to the wetland bog.
This is why Bogs are taking off and why it is so hard to find those who HAVE HAD ONE and did not get the results that are very satisfying. With a bog is the water polished like t nexus filter that had a fine micron mesh and maybe a ozonizer. No it is not is the water so clear that you can find a dime at the bottom of a pond that has dime sized multicolored river rock at a 6 foot depth , absolutely. Mother nature is by far the most amazing filter there is and a bog is trying to condense this into a small area. the micro organisms that grow in the bog all need food . and thats what you give them with a pond and fish 1. your giving them the space to grow and attach them selves or move around to the next food source . but there are also soooooooooooo many organisms that call this area home. and what they don't attack , the plants will and they create a matting sooooooo much thicker then a matala pad and what they also do that matala pads do is to absorb chemicals and minerals in the water like ammonia phosphates and nitrates the two latter being steroids in a sense for plants everyone wins . The bog is very similar to your skippy but it is ALIVE and hungry but it takes time and patience

I already have plants in the pond itself.

You want the filter and plants together, I have them separated, nothing wrong with it.

 

[GBBUDD]

I said it before, wish you luck . yeah never know you might stumble on the next THING

 

[Sunshine]

When I started ponding about 20 years ago, I got online and researched different filtrations for ponds. I'm a lazy pond keeper so I wanted the least maintenance filter. Some people have very extravagant filtrations and some have very little. I only have 2 Koi and the rest are comets. I went with a bio and a bog. That is what works for me. Everybody is different when it comes to their pond. Go with what you think will work best for you. Cause in the end, you are the one that is taking care of it. As for the filter pads, you get what you pay for. I would rather pay more now and have them for decades than to buy lesser quality and buying them again later on. That's just my thinking. I would check Amazon and Ebay to see what they have and compare prices on whatever you decide on getting.

 

[brokensword]

I started with a bog but didn't realize it was too small for my ever-growing fish load and as year 4 started, the plants had overgrown and channeling happened. Thinking I'd sent too much pond bottom debris into the bog, I set up a mechanical bog prefilter which would be an equivalent to pads and started rinsing daily. The first filter 'pad' I used caught so many fines and the material was so effective, it was taking me 45 minutes to spray clean. Did this for a month as I ordered and waited on new/different padding, something much easier to just hose off. With variable mesh/micron padding, my maintenance went down to about 5 minutes a day. I did this for a whole summer and a half, before deciding the bog could handle it all. So, what I'm saying is, a HUGE reason for going 'bog/natural wetland/upflow filtration' is so you can do LESS cleaning and MORE enjoying. Cleaning was only 5 minutes every other day but now, it's never. Just being more proactive at thinning out the plants.

What GB is saying is a bog works; period. If yours is not, the design has to be checked out for performance and efficacy. Then too, some peeps just LIKE to mess around cleaning pads and such. I'm not one of them. I got lucky and glommed onto a bog before ever I knew it was the least work of all filtration, not to mention very effective.

YMMV

 

[secuono]

When I started ponding about 20 years ago, I got online and researched different filtrations for ponds. I'm a lazy pond keeper so I wanted the least maintenance filter. Some people have very extravagant filtrations and some have very little. I only have 2 Koi and the rest are comets. I went with a bio and a bog. That is what works for me. Everybody is different when it comes to their pond. Go with what you think will work best for you. Cause in the end, you are the one that is taking care of it. As for the filter pads, you get what you pay for. I would rather pay more now and have them for decades than to buy lesser quality and buying them again later on. That's just my thinking. I would check Amazon and Ebay to see what they have and compare prices on whatever you decide on getting.

My setup has been working for 10 years so far. Power can, and has, gone out for 10 days one year and I didn't loose any fish, no stressed fish either. I see so many posts about dead or sickly fish after just a few hours without power...I'm clearly doing something right if my fish are happy, growing, not having issues w/o power, so on. The only difference I'll be making is giving them a lot more room to spread their fins & explore. I won't change what I know works & has proven to work for me.

As for pads, I'm not finding much info on heavy use for many years. If they really do last 10 plus years without degrading by the sun & usage, then they would be worth the price.
I found someone with a bunch a little cheaper, if shipping isn't a fortune, I'll get those.

 

[Sunshine]

If they really do last 10 plus years without degrading by the sun & usage, then they would be worth the price.

Mine are in my bio filter. So it's covered. I have 3 blue matala pads on top of a mesh bag of bio balls. I only clean them 2-3 times a year in the spring/summer/fall. It's all trial and error. I've changed the way I filter the pond a few times when I first started. The shipping shouldn't be too crazy expensive, pads are pretty lightweight.