filters.

[sam51]

hi all. what do you think to changing filters.
if you wanted a new filter, with a new and different media, and the existing media in the old filter is of no use.
what is the best time of year to change.
would it be now,while the temps are high,there fore giving the new media a chance to kick in quick.
or do it in the winter time when everything is dormant.thanks sam,

[DaveB]

As no one has answered yet, pehaps I can give it a go and let you know how I did it a few years ago. Perhaps this will give you some ideas. I had 3 square vortexes containing jap matting and over a period of a couple of months I gradually changed this over to moving K1. This was achieved without subjecting the koi to any ammonia or nitrite. This was acieved by seeding the K1 outside the pond system, in a large container and mixed with some of the jap matting cut into pieces and airated to keep it all moving. The temperature of the this mixture was raised to 28Deg C with an aquarium heater and ammonia was added on a daily basis. Within about 3 weeks ammonia and nitrite readings were zero and nitrate was off the scale and with 10% of the water being changed daily ntrate was kept at a reasonable level. Once the above was acieved the temperature was allowed to drop to that of the pond which was 20 degs or so and then one chamber would be changed over. The above was carried out for each chamber and was carried out in the summer. Hope this helps and gives you an idea or two. I perchaced the ammonia from ebay, but this is not neaded if you can use a bit of imagination. Anyway good luck with it

[eds]

I agree with Dave, you ideally need an overlap of the media and gradually replace one with the other. when I switched from flocor to K1 I had the K1 maturing in a bag in the vortex for 4 weeks before using it which meant I got no problems at all when I switched.

What are you switching to and from?