[DannyBoy]

Hi all,

My pond is about 15ft x 9ft x 2ft deep which has about 10,000 ltrs. I have a variety of gold fish, orfe and 3 small Koi.

I have an existing pump fed filter system but my pond has never really got to the clear status i would like.
Im finding that i have to clean the filters out every few weeks which i find a little excessive!!
Does anybody have a similar size pond with a successful filtration system or know of a good system i can use which cuts down the regularity of my cleaning (i hate cleaning) and improves the clarity of my pond???

Help me please, this has been a pain in the backside for a while now!!

[angler]

hi... my pond is 21ft long 61/2ft wide and around 31/2 ft deep. the water is gin clear, i also clean out my filters at least once a week, i have several large koi (about 2 1/2 ft long) 3 large golden orfs and a large diamond back sturgoen as well as several more smaller koi and gold fish. my pond is 3000 gallons, with no weeds worth mentioning, as the carp eat them. i'm running 2 different filter systems. the first set up is a hozelock titan 5500 pump going into a saturn booster, then through a uv then into a trinamic 12500 filter box. the second filter is also run by a titan 5500 pump into a hozelock ecomax 9000 with uv, i also run an air pump with 6 air stones, my pond is in full sun from midday to around 5.o clock, when it goes behind the trees at the back of my garden, i don't feed them anything special, and only feed sparingly twice a day, you don't mention how you clean out your filters, but i clean mine with pond water and i don't clean them right out. are you filtering enough water? you need to have all your water going through your filter at least every 1-2 hours. i know i'm a bit of a saddo, but i've read up on how the bacteria works in the filters. if you feed to much you are putting in too much proteins in to the water. which in turn is putting too much strain on the whole system, have you tested the water?
good luck....mick

[DannyBoy]

Hi mick,

I havn't tested my water and i clean my filters with pond water to. You say you dont clean them right out, why is this? I tend to clean them thoroughly so i dont have to clean them that often yet it doesnt make much difference.

I only feed twice a day and my pond has the sun mid AM till about mid PM. Im not sure how much water is passing through the filter per hour but i think i have enough going through. I have heard of the saturn booster and hear it is fairly good, how much are these and how long have you had it??

[steve]

Hi DannyBoy, Have read your post with interest and agree with the comments made by Angler Mick with special emphasis on the Saturn Booster. I think your query is centred around cutting the amount of time you use in maintaining your filters and also improving the clarity overall. I have experienced similar problems and this Spring I installed a Saturn Booster as it seemed to answer my requirements. I had researched the effectiveness of the Booster and it seemed to work well and also reduce maintenance regularity of the main filters. I must emphasize that to date it has performed very well. I drain the waste from the Booster weekly, which takes 30 seconds and this seems to have significantly reduced the amount of waste being passed to my main filters. This ofcourse means that I have not had to spend the time previously utilsed in tending to my Main Filters which can now function more in the biological area. I would highly recommend the Saturn Booster as a Pre Filter. I too enjoy Gin clear water at present, in fact my fish need sunglasses it has become so clear !!!!!. Needless to say all other variables such as flow rates etc need to be maintained. Hope this helps DannyBoy

[angler]

hi dannyboy......i've had the saturn booster for just over a year now, it cost a couple of hundred quid but it's well worth it, to clean it out you just pull up a lever, i do mine every other day for about 15 seconds. the reason you don;t want to clean the filter right out is you are also removing the bacteria which is the main stay for decent pond water, the easiest way to calculate how much water is being pumped is to get a decent size bucket and capture the water as it goes back into your pond for exactly 6 seconds,measure this amount then multiply this by 10 which will tell you how much is being pumped per minute then multiply that amount by 60 to get how much is going through your system per hour. it seems as though you are'nt doing anything wrong, but you may need to increase the through put in your filter. you dont mention what type of filter system you have, i did have a pressurised system before i got the filters i have now and to be honest they were a pain in the neck to clean. all i do with the ones i've go now is just dunk them in a bucket of pond water and squeeze them out and put them back. good luck.
mick

[DannyBoy]

I have the Bioforce 12000 filter with a titan 12000 pump! this is more than enough to cope with my pond but i will do the little measuring excersise to see how much is flowing through!!

By all accounts (yourself and steve) the saturn booster is the way forward. i will look into purchasing one and adding it to my current system. With the risk of sounding like a lazy pond keeper, if it as simple as pulling a lever thats the kind of cleaning i like!!
I would like my pond to be crystal clear and as low maintanence as possible.

We can all dream!!

[angler]

hi dannyboy......the filter you have is the same design as my old ones, they seem to clog up quicker and involve a lot of messing around to clean them, if like me you bought it to run a waterfall, then it serves it's purpose, like you i got fed up with all the hassle of cleaning them, i also found that the waterfalls constantly got clogged with blanket weed, so i've done away both of my waterfalls and the blanket weed is no longer a major problem, but i can't seem to shift it from around the edge of my pond, it is only about an inch long but it' there. the trinamic filter has a 'pop' up valve which let's you know when it need's cleaning, there are 6 upright filter sponges on plastic posts and they are quick and simple to access and takes no more than 5 minutes to clean,
persevere and your pond will soon be as you want it.
mick

[DannyBoy]

Great, i'll give it a go, now all i need is the money!!!

By the way angler, have you looked in the lighting section on here, i posted a little thing on there you may be able to help me with??

[angler]

hi dannyboy.......yes i've read your post about lighting and i have to say i agree with lefty, i've got lights situated in my pond under water and he is spot on with the algae growth on the lenses, but to be fair i just rub my finger over the lens and they are easy to clean, i think there are fors and againsts with this topic, i prefer mine under water as it gives a new dimension to see the effect you get from the air stones, and you get to see the whole of your pond, and the fish seem unaware of them and just go about their business, in the daylight my fish seem to gather if im standing near the pond waiting to be fed, but with the lights on in the evening they seem to act more natural. and seem unaware of my presence. i also have lights around the edge of my pond, but i found if you point the light at the water it reflects off the surface and from certain angles if you walk past it's like somone's trying to blind you, so i have mine directed at the ground to light up the shrubs, my own preference is to see the glow from the light rather than the light it's self, but this is an individual thing, my pond is slightly raised and as its a rectangle i've used decking boards along the top and i've got a line of decking boards set on there sides which covers the edge of the liner, so my lights are screwed these and are angled slightly downwards in the water which lights up the entire pond.i also never used the coloured filters you get with these lights, but again that's a personal thing, i bought 2 sets of 2 lights, and had them wired in with an out door on off switch at each end of my pond. (it helps to have an electrician as a brother-in-law,i'm sure if i'd wired them in i would have electrocuted every thing in sight). i think you need to weigh up the pro's and cons, and decide what is right for you,
hope this helps
regards mick