eddie244
Koi Lover
May 11, 2007, 10:13 PM
Post #7 of 31
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Re: [Abangk] Green to Clear...
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hello..
well, the filter is design to be maintenance-less. what's inside the filter is actually rectangle kitchen scrubbing pads, the ones you use to scrub your dishes with. it's not even pack, i just throw it all inside.. its very loosely pack, and i dont think clogging will be an issue.. well, maintenance-less, it only require to be drain, around 5-10sec every "forgetful" days. which means it only have to be drain once you remember.. :) you dont even have to be drain it until empty. actually, im quite surprise for my friend's pond to
clear up so quickly as my pond took 4weeks to clear. a few things as i assume speed up the clearing prosess. im not going to
explain that in detail here..
im no expert in this filter but im quite and very please of how it works. i have 2 of this filters running aready. (and im yet to find
another green pond to be clear up, anyone wants me to experiment his/her green pond?). the 1st filter is use in my pond (running
since sept06) all readings is 0-0-0. which is good and the fishes are so happy..
about my friend's pond it got all the readings in
dangerous level when its green. 1st day is ammonia, nitrite & nitrate is off the chart. im even surprise that the fishes still survive
to this day..
2nd day i was working, i only get to measure on the 3th day, where i can see a major improvement already, i can see
the 2 giant kaloi and the water is clear brown with a few suspended things in the water BUT no green color anymore. i took a
reading ammonia-5mg/l, nitrite-20mg/l and nitrate-40mg/l.
then i came again on the 5th day, well.. it clear up. my friend was so
happy, even the whole family was happy to see the pond become alive again. i took a reading and all readings was
0-0-0. its sad to see the equipments that was left, as his dad previous attempt to clear the pond fail. i see a eheim canister filter,
pond boxes, UV light. well, i still recommend and insist them to use the existing filter as a supplement to the DIY filter.
there is no
harm of overfiltering..
let me explain this as simple as i can so new ppl into ponding understand how water cycle works. here goes, we all know fish eat.
when they eat, they produce waste. part of this waste is ammonia. ammonia is deadly to fishes. in nature, ammonia is either
diluted to a safe level by rain. another thing is some bacteria eats up this ammonia and its turns it into nitrite, (lets call this
ammonia eating bacteria, ammo). nitrite is also deadly to fish. so now, ammonia is no.1 deadly, nitrite is 2nd deadly. no, need to
know how much ammonia/nitrite level is deadly, just keep in mind these 2 will stress out and kill your fish. so this nitrite which
is deadly is also eaten up by another bacteria and convert this to a lesser harmful waste call nitrate. (lets call this nitrite eating
bacteria, nitri.) keep this in mind, ammo & nitri are aerobic bacteria, which means it needs oxygen to eats/convert the wastes.
hope, the new guys reading this gain new knowledge... lets continue, the next waste which is nitrate. nitrate is harmful, i dont say
deadly, it only get deadly with a more higher level, where you can smell your water. Nitrate is food for plants. let me ask you a
question, what is the most common problem in you get in an outside fish pond? you run the filter, then place fishes in, feed them.
after a while boom, GREEN WATER. what is green water? in simple words, algae. and what is algae?? algae is plants. see where
im getting now.. you got nitrate, and you get algae. how does algae get in the pond. in simple words, algae is the most important
living thing in the world. in fact without algae, nothing will live. let me explain, algae is at the bottom of the food chain. and it
reproduce very very fast. imagine a food pyramid. you got a large base, and a little tip. its just how food chain works. algae needs
to reproduce very fast as to compense the amount being eaten by the upper class of the food chain. hope you are not lost here...
algae just reproduce to keep it self in existence. everyone knows of evolution, maybe this algae evolve after millions of years and
it get to this level where it only needs water + sunlight and you got algae. lets not get to the many many kinds of algae, ok.
so now, you got nitrate, which is used up by the algae to give of nitrogen. nitrogen is harmless & no need to worry as you wont
get into high toxic level in your pond. even in the air right now, there is nitrogen. now, i want you to imagine.. say you have a
pond, fill it with water. dont fill in fish or put a filter in it. let it be until algae grows & grows. (if you worry about mosquitos, well
place in a bunch of males only/females only guppies.. :p ). now after a few months or years.. you see this very green pond, you
see the side, the top covered by algae. then now, i want you to slowly move the algae thats covering the top of the pond.. what do
you see? i bet you'll see crystal clear water.. :) so in order to have clear water you need algae. so lets say, we get all this algae into
one area where it can live & give my crystal clear water.. you get it now?? that's what's actually happening.. let the algae get stuck
in the filter media, but without clogging it and you have yourself a clear pond. what's happening in the filter is all balance.
ammonia, nitrite & nitrate is all working harmony with all the ammo, nitri & importantly algae.. there wont be cloging issue as the
waste is broken down. and you do your forgetful days drain.. (my filter running since sept06, no taking out of the scrubbing pads
until now, no clogging). i might add, in the filter there is good and bad bacteria. we want as much as the good bacteria. good
bacteria are aerobic bacteria & and bad ones are anaerobic bacteria. aerobic bacteria needs oxygen to survive/convert the waste.
once oxygen is less, the bad bacteria will dominate the filter, and that is no good. so in order to get more good bacteria, you give
them oxygen or air.. if you notice, the filter is bubbling. you dont need to madly bubble the filter as just a little is enough. im yet
to try and connect an airpump to assist the good bacteria. (that's gonna be my third experiment) also its good to dose in some
bacteria in bottle (available in fish store) as naturally, living things dies off. so does bacteria. with the bacteria in bottle, it will top
up the dead bacteria, and fresh bacteria to start its cycle. i dont recommend any brands.. as long as it got ammo & nitri bacteria in
it, its good enough (read the lable). actually im using laguna detox, laguna pond clear & tetra sludge buster, reason i use this,
because its cheap. :)
hope.. that clears things up.. happy ponding..
for more reading, try this.. http://www.skippysstuff.com/index.html
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Scrub.jpg
) 
perhaps I was focusing for the one with 1" thickness. 
My apology... it was actually 250 pcs per carton and not 250 packs.. so its 0.70 per pack just about the market price.. 
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