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Home: KOI Talk: Pond Water Quality:
bacteria

 





 


bboop321
Koi Lover

Apr 4, 2007, 6:39 AM

Post #1 of 10 (2795 views)
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bacteria Can't Post
hi. i have artesian well water in my pond, its salty, but not to salty to drink, my fish are doing fine, question, will the salty water kill the bacteria in my filter, i have someone that keeps telling me that i can,t have a biological filter because of the salt. would love to find out if this is so.


ayranjim
Koi Lover

Apr 5, 2007, 7:52 PM

Post #2 of 10 (2745 views)
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Re: [bboop321] bacteria [In reply to] Can't Post
Hello, you must measure the amount of salt in the water to determine if it is too much or ok for the bio filter, one question , Are you using a bio filter noew and is it working?


Roger89
Koi Lover


Apr 5, 2007, 11:28 PM

Post #3 of 10 (2737 views)
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Re: [bboop321] bacteria [In reply to] Can't Post
Sea water has salt, creatures and bacteria live in it..


bboop321
Koi Lover

Apr 6, 2007, 1:04 AM

Post #4 of 10 (2723 views)
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Re: [ayranjim] bacteria [In reply to] Can't Post
i have a home made filter, i dont know if it works or not, my water is pretty clear and i have had no problems with my fish, i have been using algea fix once a week, my filter is trickle down and has foam and filter pads with a little sand, in the bottom i have,[dont laugh] hair curlers in the bottom. my friend who helps me with my pond says the bacteria wont live because the water is salty, it is not to salty to drink. i am building another pond and i am trying to decide what kind of filter to get. new pond is 6000 gal. with liner,old pond is 1000 gal and cement. have to get the new pond up and running have too many babies in old pond and i want to breed again in about 3 weeks. do you think i should just go out and buy a filter or make another home made one, sorta like the first one?? only much bigger. i need all the help i can get, and so many of you are so much more knowledgeable than me. let me know what you think.


ayranjim
Koi Lover

Apr 6, 2007, 3:04 AM

Post #5 of 10 (2718 views)
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Re: [bboop321] bacteria [In reply to] Can't Post
Hello, MAKE A BIO FILTER! Apart from the learning experiance , which will come in hand, they are cheaper, And I think much better! What I would mention is staying away from sand, OLD SCHOOL!!! Today there are so many things that do the job better! Also in a trickle system , the sand may be acting more like a mechanicle, the benefit of a trickle system or tower is that the water runs smoothly down through the bio media , also sand can cause more problems to a pump!!!All it takes is a nice size grain to start costing money for a pump repair! About the salt, you should test the water , but if you cant, and you notice your koi seem fine and the water is clear, then your probably ok! Remember that on your new filter , it will take a couple of weeks before it kicks in, and the water must first be DIRTY, so that the new bacteria will have something to eat and live off.
Jim


koiguyoz
Member


Apr 6, 2007, 2:10 PM

Post #6 of 10 (2703 views)
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Re: [ayranjim] bacteria [In reply to] Can't Post
Re: New pond and new filter

In my opinion you should shoot for having a settlement tank to settle out solids and debris as the first stage, following this with a very large trickle tower filled with biological balls or similar high surface area biomedia.

I prefer bioballs over anything else in a TT.

Re: Water must first be dirty
I believe Jim is talking about having a source of ammonia in the pond water itself. This can be done by introducing a big pooper of a koi into the system in the initial start up phase, and adding one koi every few weeks so that as the koi numbers increase, the waste will increase which will increase the level of positive bacteria in the pond. Basically you want to approach the filter seeding incrementally.


ayranjim
Koi Lover

Apr 6, 2007, 7:30 PM

Post #7 of 10 (2691 views)
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Re: [koiguyoz] bacteria [In reply to] Can't Post
Hello, YES< dirty water is water that has been FEED with koi crap! And this CRAP will give the new bacteria something to live off, and true add a few small guys, or a nice big pig of a koi to start the pond!
Jim


bboop321
Koi Lover

Apr 6, 2007, 11:25 PM

Post #8 of 10 (2680 views)
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Re: [ayranjim] bacteria [In reply to] Can't Post
thank you all for the replys, i think i will make my own, so i should have a mechanical filter with foam pads first, then bio. the bio balls cost a lot, like 8 for 15.00, what about lava rock or a mixture of both. where can i get a drawing of a filter that is not to hard to understand, i want to get this pond up and going soon. i know you have to let it run a while before it will funtion properly, i have lots of babies to go in, but would not want them to die , guess i will have to start with 1 or 2 and work up. do you think plastic containers would work for filters, or should i have barrels and how many bio balls do i have to have??, i can get some 55gal barrels but that is a lot of space to fill up. waiting to hear from you.!!!!


southernjenny
Koi Lover


Apr 11, 2007, 7:56 AM

Post #9 of 10 (2586 views)
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Re: [bboop321] bacteria [In reply to] Can't Post
Ok. My new super secret bio medium are those scrubby pads like grandma used to use. they are bright colors and round. I rinsed them well and have been using them for a few months with no problems. They rinse easy with the hose too. Not those flat square ones, round and about the size of a kids fist. Nylon I think. I got mine at the dollar store. I have also heard of people using pads for commercial floor strippers. You can get them on the net. I've never used them so can't vouch for them personally.
On the topic of salt in your water. If your worried, use both salt water and fresh water dried bacteria. One of them should take.


bboop321
Koi Lover

Apr 12, 2007, 6:56 AM

Post #10 of 10 (2570 views)
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Re: [southernjenny] bacteria [In reply to] Can't Post
hi thanks for the reply, i have heard of people using those scrubbies. i am going to try the lava rock, about cleaning, i didn,t think you were suppose to clean the boi filter material very often, about once a year. is this correct? maybe i am all wrong on this. good suggestion on the bacteria, i did not know you could buy salt water bacteria, where would you get it? aquarium store?. really i don,t think my water is to salty to grow bacteria its that a friend told me it would not work, but i believe it does work . how can you tell for sure? another question i am setting up another pond filter on sat. new pond, old pond i used pvc, on this one i would like to use the black tubing to run on the bottom of the pond , have you used that, does it tend to float? i am going to have 2 pumps 1 is a solids pump and the other is sump pump, should pump my entire pond in less than an hour. my old pond is getting crowded, my little ones are growing, and i have about 75 of them, and expecting to have some more about may. it will take until may or later before i can get them in the new pond.

 
 
 



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