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High Nitrates Level? Try This!

 




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SMW1
Veteran

Jan 17, 2002, 12:50 AM

Post #151 of 311 (45795 views)
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Re: [ahmad] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi ahmad,

I'm glad your pond is now clear. It's a real shame that you lost quite a few koi along the way. Hopefully now the bad spell is out of the way, you can start enjoying the benifits of being a koi dad Sly.

As for the survivor "if it doesn't kill you, it can only make you stronger".

Stuart


newbie
Novice

Jan 17, 2002, 7:17 PM

Post #152 of 311 (45786 views)
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Re: [SMW1] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
Shocked

thanks for your reply
i'm intend to use tt diy look like khoo bg tt.
i'm confused about height each step.
Can i use 2 step only?

Unsure


Khoobg
Webmaster


Jan 17, 2002, 8:08 PM

Post #153 of 311 (45780 views)
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Re: [newbie] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
The design is simple. I use four trays. The top tray is to ensure that water will be dripped evenly and slowly to the tray below. To achieve this, I drill a lot of small holes on the base of the top tray.

The most bottom tray is meant for collecting water and channel them back to pond via pvc pipe.

The middle two trays will hold all the bio balls.

If you can achieve all the above in two trays, why not Smile


cwloo
User

Apr 8, 2002, 11:38 AM

Post #154 of 311 (45591 views)
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Re: [Khoobg] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
hi,

any comment of dry up the pond & filter for direct sun expose after few years of usage ? Recently done that with one of my pond and after moving the koi back to the "new" pond the fish seem to enjoy it very much.


patrick123
Veteran


Apr 8, 2002, 12:33 PM

Post #155 of 311 (45590 views)
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Re: [cwloo] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
cwloo,

Are you sure the koi are happy not because they got out of the prison cell of temporary storage tank? Cool

By the way, how to you keep your good bacteria in your filter alive while you sun bath your pond and filter chamber? What do you do with with bio-balls?


cwloo
User

Apr 8, 2002, 1:43 PM

Post #156 of 311 (45586 views)
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Re: [patrick123] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
no, because I have 2 ponds at home. Smile I moved all the fish from the 1st pond (this pond is about 7 years running none stop) to the 2nd for about a weeks so that I can sun the 1st pond for about 3 days. Water take about 24hrs to fill (Mad, this month water bills is gonna be exp), after which I put salt + others water starter kits and let the "new" pond run for 2 days.

I advoid keeping any old filter media cause I want to advoid any bad bacteria that leave over thus I sun all the filter map as well. I recon. it should be ok as I try not to feed them for about a weeks so by that time the good bacteria will start to grow already. My pandan plant still there so they should able to take as many nitrate as possible (those plant was clean and sun for half day before i put them into water again)

I didn't have any bio-balls install in the previos system yet but I going to try it next week.


patrick123
Veteran


Apr 8, 2002, 4:59 PM

Post #157 of 311 (45578 views)
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Re: [cwloo] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
cwloo,

That's an interesting concept....not many people are as lucky as you to have 2 ponds. By the way, what do you do with the 2nd pond when you move the fishes back to the first 1? Do you spit the stock?

I guess 7 years is a long time and probably good idea to clean it out thoroughly. By the way, aren't you afraid of new tank syndrom by doing this?


cwloo
User

Apr 8, 2002, 6:40 PM

Post #158 of 311 (45572 views)
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Re: [patrick123] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
well, I actually have 2 batch of Koi. The 2nd pond is a smaller pond (2.5 - 3 feet) mean for keeping smaller Koi fish ( about 15 @ >30cm + 10 newly bought @ ~12cm ) while the 1st pond (4 feet) keep all the bigger one (> 60cm ). I had about 32 big one in the 1st pond so I moved 25 to the smaller pond for a week and another 7 in 2 hospital tank.

Not very sure of any new tank "syndrom (?)" as I never experience any before. The water system in my pond is like those water pump that you purchase for the fish tank which suck the air when the water go thru .. thus supply the pond with plenty of oxygen. ... I let the pump/filter system run for 2 ~3 days before I move the Koi back, maybe thats eliminate a lot of problem regarding new water.

Any problem regarding new water systemt that I not aware of ?


patrick123
Veteran


Apr 10, 2002, 6:57 PM

Post #159 of 311 (45532 views)
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Re: [cwloo] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
cwloo,

Are you sure you don't mean to say 4m instead of 4ft? Because 4ft is simply too small to house 32 jumbo koi at >60cm.

What is the deep and width of your ponds?

Cheers,
Patrick


cwloo
User

Apr 10, 2002, 10:41 PM

Post #160 of 311 (45523 views)
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Re: [patrick123] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
er .. sorry .. the 4ft is mean the deep of the pond. the length is >12 ft and the width is > 5 ft.

can't remember the exact measure .. only remember the deep is 4ft.


patrick123
Veteran


Apr 11, 2002, 10:00 AM

Post #161 of 311 (45518 views)
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Re: [cwloo] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
cwloo,

Lucky you to have such a big garden. In my small Singapore home, I can only afford a 5x3x2 ft fiber tank in my garden. Unsure

Since the topic of this post is on Nitrate, did you build a TT filter? I got one using a trash can. Looks really out of place but I guess I don't really have any choice.

Cheers,
Patrick


cwloo
User

Apr 11, 2002, 10:46 AM

Post #162 of 311 (45509 views)
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Re: [patrick123] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
no , i haven't put any TT filter on the 2 pond yet .. Bought a small bag of bioball to try on the Q tank and the result is noticeable..

I used 2 x 1.5 little coke bottle to connect together and put the bio ball inside for testing of TT filter.. the water condition for the Q tank (no fish) is very bad cause the water is from the old pond. High level of nitrate & nitrite. Take a water reading before I place the bioball and the nitrite is >5mg/l (can't remember nitrate reading). After running for 2 days I notice that the water turn clear and I took another reading .. the nitrite & nitrate drop ...

Still decide whether to use a 12" PVC pipe or PVC box .. But I think I will get more bio ball (1200 maybe ?) this weekend and ready for the main pond test.


wishi
New User

Jun 12, 2002, 1:33 PM

Post #163 of 311 (45383 views)
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Re: [Khoobg] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
 


gemmgjl
Novice

Aug 23, 2002, 12:27 PM

Post #164 of 311 (45251 views)
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Re: [Doc Conrad] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
what is doc conrad talking about salt killing koi? the farms that supply koi run salt all the time , though i wouldn t run it all the time , i have run it for over 3 weeks at 3 per cent and had no proplems at all,streesed a few plants (not all), but they all came back.i use 99.5 per cent pure morton water softener salt and anytime i ever added it to my middle waterfall all the fish rush under the falls as if they love it, untill it s evenly dispersed,please expound


TonyG
User

Aug 23, 2002, 3:23 PM

Post #165 of 311 (45243 views)
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Re: [gemmgjl] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
are you sure you run your pond at 3% salt level for three weeks or you meant to say 0.3%? I'm not sure about the type of salt you are using but if it is 3%, than I seriously doubt that a koi can live in such a salinity.

Tony


johnson lee
Veteran

Aug 23, 2002, 3:39 PM

Post #166 of 311 (45243 views)
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Re: [TonyG] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
I agree with Tony that at 3.0% salinity, kois would be hard pressed to survive and also the plants, they would all die.Crazy

Johnson


patrick123
Veteran


Aug 23, 2002, 4:10 PM

Post #167 of 311 (45237 views)
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Re: [johnson lee] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
I can attest to this. When I first started measuring salt, I made the mistake of using a marine hydrometer and thought that 0.022 specific gravity is equivalent to 0.3% salt. Guess what. I put a test koi into the water and it just went belly up on me instanteously. Luckily I removed it fast and it was saved.

Later I found out that 0.022 specific gravity which is what marine fish thrive on is actually 3% salt.

Cheers,
Patrick


gemmgjl
Novice

Aug 25, 2002, 3:41 AM

Post #168 of 311 (45215 views)
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Re: [gemmgjl] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
forgot the decimal point , still the question remains- .3%


johnson lee
Veteran

Aug 26, 2002, 10:56 AM

Post #169 of 311 (45190 views)
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Re: [gemmgjl] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi gemmgjl

Salt is a very good healing property and it also kills quite a number of known bad bugs. That is why, whenever our kois run into some kind of trouble, the first thing is to add salt.

Salt at 0.1 to 0.3% salinity is a recommended % for healing and recovery and killing bad bugs. Any higher, say up to 0.6% can also be used but for a shorter duration and thereafter immediately diluted. I have read on some websites that kois can tolerate much higher salt salinity. While I have no personal experience in that, I am happy to use salt at 0.3% and safely recommend to anyone at this level.

The reason why we do not encourage koi owners to keep the salinity in their pond permanently is to prevent a risk of the bad bugs becoming resistant to salt.

You can do a search at www.koivet.com and you can read up more about salt.

Any other comments welcomed.

Johnson


Nibiru
New User

Sep 6, 2002, 5:36 PM

Post #170 of 311 (45130 views)
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Re: [Mark] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi you all!

I have read through the topic, beacuse I would like to build an adequate filtering system to my aquarium.

I do not have a pond, since I lack of space, and in my country, winter is too cold, I would get some frozen fish by the end of november.

Thus I keep african cichlids. I too have a problems with high nitrate and sometimes phosphate levels, and beeing tired of regular water changes, which always have the risk of putting some new bacteria, or other stuff, like too much chlorine into the aquarium, I have decided to build a trickle system.

After reading the topic, there are still a few questions on my mind:

1, I have a 500 liter aquarium. What dimensions must the tower have? I would like to make it as small as possible, since it will be in the house.

2, Bioballs are too expensive for me, lava rock is not available, just for gold, Unsure what other material can be used for a filter media? I was thinking about that clayish thing, which resides in power plants. I mean that red thing, which when grinded, used to cover tennis courts.

3, Must I use my old filter too, or it is not needed any more?

4, Is there any way to make is start faster? Some bacteria concentrate or like it?

5, What do you do with phosphates?

Hope you can help me.


cometress
Novice

Sep 16, 2002, 10:23 PM

Post #171 of 311 (45079 views)
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Re: [Mark] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
To Mark and a few others (can't remember thier names as this is a long and interesting topic).

After following all the questions & replies here, it appears that the general consensus of the members here agreed that a trickling tower can reduce nitrate, as opposed to the widely known fact that nitrate can only be reduced by water changing and adding more plants. I also read some where in this thread that a tower has to be 3' high in order to have any effectiveness. Is that correct? How about shorter, say 2' ?

My question - is it really better to build a high and slim tower or a big surface area but shallow depth (assuming both has the same volumn). Due to my limitation of space (my is a fibre indoor pond at my living room), I prefer the latter design ( ie big surface area but shallow depth). Would it be just as effective?

Another questions on bio balls - do you need to rinse them once in a while or just live it there for life. I have not used it but by looking at most of the bio balls, the gaps between respective surfaces are quite wide apart and it appears won't get clog. So I guess there's no point in rinsing, correct?

Thanks for advise.Wink


johnson lee
Veteran

Sep 17, 2002, 1:06 PM

Post #172 of 311 (45055 views)
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Re: [cometress] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
Hi there

A TT filter is most useful and have been proven very effective in removing nitrates from the pond system.Smile The diameter is not terribly important. Even if you have a 1' diameter but you have a good height (of at least 12" between the trickle and the media), it would be effective.

Rinsing is necessary if you see some clogging of debris. Make sure you rinse the bio-balls with pond water only.

Johnson


SMW1
Veteran

Sep 17, 2002, 3:09 PM

Post #173 of 311 (45046 views)
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Re: [johnson lee] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
Just for info,

I built a TT about a year and a half ago now. I also built one (identical fro my friend). Both had flocor as the media rather than bio balls. Our ponds are roughly the same volume and the filters we use are also both home made and do the job well. The only difference is that I have a G65 turbo cleaner, he only as a G20.

Anyway to cut a long story short. We both had Crystal clear water. He decided to rinse his TT media (in pond water), I was supposed to do mine as well but I didn't get the time. As soon as he rinsed his media within a couple of days his water became cloudy and slighty green. I decided to hold off on the cleaning of my TT. His Nitrates levels were 25 above normal and he had to do a few day of water changes to get the levels down. After 3 weeks of greenish water his pond cleared up again.

I have never cleaned my TT in the 1.5 years I have had it. I fitted a bottom drain to it and I do flush it once a month, but this is only because it takes water direct from the pond.

I feel that with the expection of regular flushing filters are best left alone. I know that a lot of people will disagree with me, but it seems that everytime I clean a chamber in my filter (just one), I encounter water problems. So I am leaving a lot of the maintainence up to nature.

Stuart


dttk
Veteran

Sep 17, 2002, 8:19 PM

Post #174 of 311 (45033 views)
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Re: [SMW1] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
Guys Smile, I'm sure a TT need not be cleaned at all if built correctly. Khoo never cleans his and I'm sure many others do not as well. The most important factor that discourages bad bugs from residing in the TT is the high level of oxygenation. So, ensure that your TT is well oxygenated and ventilated Sly. As for shape of TT, broad or cylindrical does not matter if ventilation is good. As for the height of TT, the taller the better! Logic tells me that by increasing the distance to be travelled by water, more gaseous exchange occurs and there is more contact with the bacteria rich bio-media. This would result in more effective removal of nitrates in water. Documentation? No need lah as long as it is logical...Laugh. Cheers!
Always friendly :)


RichardD
Novice

Sep 17, 2002, 8:54 PM

Post #175 of 311 (45031 views)
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Re: [dttk] High Nitrates Level? Try This! [In reply to] Can't Post
My question about a TT is. How long until you start to see the positive affects of it.

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