Blimey i thought i may of seen some pond pictures by now come on guys
Steve its best to load the pictures onto photobucket and then all you do is open the picture you want to load then go to properties - highlight the link - then right click and copy the link - then come back to your page that you are posting on and paste it in the position and once you have done this just click on the button (9th one along) marked IMG just above where you are typing and they should do the job.
Many of us do have fairly big turnovers on our ponds so there is plenty of current in our ponds to help all the waste through and we have to remember for newbies looking in we need to explain this correctly so they do not get the wrong end of the stick and try to turn their ponds over to fast or get confused
OK so we would like to have a good turnover on our pond which means the amount of time it takes us to pass entire the water through our filter system or systems per hour. So is we have a 2,000 gallon system this will mean we would be looking at turning over 2,000 gallons per hour to do so and with this we have to take into account that its not just a simle case of installing a 2,000 gph pump as we have to look at pipe runs and the head of water (the head of water is the amount the pump will need to pump up if necessary).
One of the many things that are overlooked during pond builds and filter construction/installation is getting the correct flow through the filter to allow the water to have enough contact time with the chosen media within the filters. It does not matter what media you are using they will all have an area that bacteria will "stick" to but its the efficiency of the media that countws and this will contribute to the contact time needed with the passing water. Out of interest the bacteria that work to help reduce the Ammonia will work quicker that the bacteria that work to reduce the Nitrite. So as you can see its not just build the pond stick a filter on and pump it fast as all that will happen is you will end up with water clarity and quality issues and for sure the fish wont like it
There are two types of filtration to a filter and these both need to work hand in hand and efficiently to do the job required to give our fish the best environment we can and if either one of these is not functioning for any reason be it flow to fast or slow then our water quality will be poor which in turn can lead to health issues in the pond. As we know the fish are swimming in the water 24/7 and are basically swimming around in a closed system which can be full of pollutants if the filters are not functioning correctly or even the system is not looked after by the owner. So this is the bit where we come in with our filtration and looking after the filters keeping them clean and changing water and making sure we keep the pollutants to a minimum at all times to keep our fish happy,after all the fish are basically swimming round in their own toilet and if this doesn't get cleaned or has an incwrfient filter.........wel could you imagine being in a room with no windows or doors or fresh are and having a toilet in the corner
So what are the two types of filtration in our filters and how do they work :
1. Mechanical Filtration.
This to me is one of the most important parts of filtration as this can cause or be the cause of the start of all sorts of problems from nasty little critters that love a bit of waste and also can hamper the biological bacteria trying to do its good work on the media.
This is the first port of call for the water coming from the pond carrying the water into the first stage of you filtration system weather it be a vortex,brushes,bucket,
settlement chamber anything where the water enters the filter system this is where we need to be removing the waste (not fines). This is the bulk type waste which is coming from the pond as in the waste like fish poo or debris anything that is in the pond to be removed as we do not want any build up within the pond of waste or debris which could cause problems if it was to be left to build up. The mechanical stage is also there so any waste that does get pulled from the pond does not pass through to the biological stage where the "good bacteria" is trying to work away and remove the pollutants which are in the water that we can not see.
The removal of all the waste from the pond and before the biological stage of our filters is very important and a must if you want to have happy healthy fish
2. Biological Filtration
This is where all the "good bacteria" do their stuff working away day and night 24/7 365 days a year to make sure the water we pass through the filter media has a good colony of bacteria to do their thing so when we pump it back to the pond the fish are not getting any pollutants that we with the human eye can not see pumped back into the pond. The good bacteria are clever little guys and they have all been doing this for millions of years so we don't need to worry to much as if we give them a good enough environment they will love it and thrive its only when the environment is not so good will they not be able to function correctly and then we can have problems
I am sure we all know the Nitrogen Cycle this is where the bacteria convert all the water pollutants to the "good stuff" our fish require and this is the cycle that needs to happen in our biological filters all the time to convert the bad water to good within the system as the fish do not like the ammonia and nitrite that can be produced in the system. The first conversion is the ammonia and this is done by nitrosomonas bacteria who convert the ammonia polluted water into nitrite so we have gone from one nasty to another but within the nitrogen cycle there is another bacteria which then converts the nitrite into nitrate and that is nitrate as this is good for the fish and us as nitrate is not as toxic as the ammonia or nitrite happy days
Both of the above parts of the filtration need to be set up and looked after to make sure we keep them running spot on and in doing so keeping the water our fish need nice and free from pollutants. So when we set them up we have to make sure we are pulling all the waste from the pond and it is getting removed in the mechanical stages of the filter before passing to the biological stages of the filters and being converted to "good water"
Set up is the key and its not always easy to get it right first time and it can take time and tinkering to get things set up correctly but when you do and the system works and is removing all the waste and giving the quality of water the fish need you will find the fish will be happy in their environment and this can lead to less health issues in the future if maintained.
Well thats enough from me and this is only a very small amount on the subject we have all sorts of aspects on pond building and filtration so chip in and i will have a look for some pictures to post later on
Building Ponds & Filtration Questions ?????
