Filter upgrade

[Russ Little Pond]

Afternoon

Its tinkering time again and I'm would like to increase or change my filter.

My pond is a circular 6ft x 3ft 550gallons, water is pulled from a 2" bottom drain using a superfish 8000 to a compact sieve into a large 3ft x 3ft circular chamber with 12" brushes suspended high in the chamber, then into a 3ft x 3ft circular moving K1 chamber back to pond.

the pond is over stocked 11 fish, high nitrate through some of the season with Ammonia, Nitrite not read on the chart, PH 8 and KH of 5 drops.

I was thinking of increasing the pump and flow through and over the K1, also adding more K1 or adding another/larger K1 chamber or getting a Bakki show.

Your thoughts are welcome.

Russ

[Manky Sanke]

Russ,

If your ammonia and nitrite levels are near zero then, unless you're looking for tiny reductions that can only be measured with a photometer, you can't increase your biofiltration to reduce them any further and an increase in ordinary conventional biofiltration won't do anything to alter the nitrate level, either up or down. You are also turning over the water about three times per hour. High nitrate levels are a result of the high rate of feeding due to overstocking and can be reduced by increased water changes.

I don't want to P on your fireworks but you asked for thoughts and mine are that I think many hobbyists would be quite happy with that.

That said, I'm also an inveterate tinkerer and I'm forever looking to make improvements if I see something that can be improved although sometimes I fiddle with things just for fun, so what are you aiming to achieve or are you just tinkering because you like doing stuff?

[Russ Little Pond]

Manky

Thanks for the words of support.

The filters work very well, the fish rarely need netting and heal well, You're right an upgrade or change is not required, I have not tinkered with the pond in almost 3 years and all is well, yes I know, leave well alone.

At the start of this season I held back feeding for 3 weeks and it solved the blanket weed issue I had at the start of the previous season. I have also this season reduced the amount I feed throughout. Due to work changes I am unable to take daily water reading which gives great insight to the water chemistry and a good spreadsheet, once a week testing now.

I like to build and tinker though its all on Sketchup now.

Thanks again Russ

[Manky Sanke]

I didn't want my comment to sound negative, I just wanted to establish what you want to achieve. I subscribe to the principle of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and your current filter arrangements certainly ain't broke but, as I said, I'm an inveterate tinkerer myself so I also subscribe to the idea of playing around with systems just for fun. Provided, of course, that you don't break something that's doing the job perfectly well.

If you like tinkering you could build a DIY shower, there are plenty of designs on the Internet that use inexpensive plant containers like these:




I bought four at a bargain price and I intend to replace an old DIY shower, with a new prettier one (as soon as I can squeeze the 25th hour into my already eight day week ) and I'll be re-using the old media so I won't be fixing something that ain't broke.

If you're canvassing for ideas, I'd suggest that you could do similar and you wouldn't even need a more powerful pump, you could send your current return over the shower instead of directly back to the pond. Hours of tinkering and the pleasure of seeing something new but without costing a fortune and, if you want to reduce your nitrate level, you could use a denitrifying media. BHM is reputed to be the best by those who have it but a cheaper alternative is pumice.