I have built an outdoor pond and I'm setting up a filtration system for catfish - any recommendations? The pond is about 3metresx2.5metresx1.5m(depth).
Thanks
John
Thanks
John
Outdoor Cement Pond
- Thread starter John Kwasniuk
- Start date
Hey John
I've a pond almost the same size...5M x 4x x 1.5m. The most important thing to remember is that the filtration area must be close to 1/3 of the total pond volume. So if you have about 30 tonnes of water, you need 10 tonnes of filtration space. Needlesss to say, inadequate filtration builds up NO2 & 3 rapidly plus the 'pea soup' effect....very green water.
Next thiing is the PH...neutral is best I think although catfish likes slightly acidic water in my opinion. Softwater is also necessary for any Amazon fishes. Take your pick of the various filter media that will give you that effect.
My other advice is to allocate at least 1 chamber with bio balls as the filter media as they last long, are easy to maintain and build up huge amounts of bacteria that the pond needs. They are slightly more expensive but worth it.
Last advice....very important, aeration!! Make sure that you have plenty of oxygen and build redundancy so that at no time, will there be a total pump failure.
Hope this helps
I've a pond almost the same size...5M x 4x x 1.5m. The most important thing to remember is that the filtration area must be close to 1/3 of the total pond volume. So if you have about 30 tonnes of water, you need 10 tonnes of filtration space. Needlesss to say, inadequate filtration builds up NO2 & 3 rapidly plus the 'pea soup' effect....very green water.
Next thiing is the PH...neutral is best I think although catfish likes slightly acidic water in my opinion. Softwater is also necessary for any Amazon fishes. Take your pick of the various filter media that will give you that effect.
My other advice is to allocate at least 1 chamber with bio balls as the filter media as they last long, are easy to maintain and build up huge amounts of bacteria that the pond needs. They are slightly more expensive but worth it.
Last advice....very important, aeration!! Make sure that you have plenty of oxygen and build redundancy so that at no time, will there be a total pump failure.
Hope this helps
Thanks very much for your advice - I'll try to attach a picture of what I have done so far.
Cheers
John
Cheers
John
I have used quite a bit less filtration volume than you recomend though I think more is better, I have sometimes added ugfs, but usually go with a boxed sponge prefilter, a container of biomedia like bioballs or lava rock, and a trough that is fed from the bottom so that the water rises through more biomedia and into an area of water hyacynth or water lettuce. the water is returned through either a gravity fed splash chute or pumped through spray bars or both. I do use multiple set ups and pumps on larger set ups. the largest pond I set up was in Navato , California and was just under 4 meters wide x 8 meters long x 1 1/3 meters deep and was mainly an aboveground pond but set into the ground by 1'2 meter. Not counting the pre-filters the filter system contained about 15% of the total volume. The pond was shaded from direct sun by a suspended canopy made of shade mesh and contained potted water lilies, lotus, and cattails. The fish were bluegill, 2 big largemouth bass, several good sized channel cats, a striped bass, some big yellow suckers, a couple of terrapins, and a bunch of gambusia and some crayfish, the latter two were replaced as needed. When last I saw it the pond had been running well for over a year. the bioload was low compared to most koi ponds that I have seen, less than 35 kilos of livestock in a pond of about 35000 liters.
your right...koi & goldfish ponds are such a mess as those fishes really can excrete!! keeping any other fish really has a much lower bioload
I forgot to mention that I also have a long trough at the side that is planted with large water plants for natural filtration as well. I would recommend this to anyone who has some space to spare to use this. the plants look good anyway.
I have araipaimas, peacocks, catfish, oscars, gars, arowanas, dats etc etc. my favourite place in the whole wide world.
I forgot to mention that I also have a long trough at the side that is planted with large water plants for natural filtration as well. I would recommend this to anyone who has some space to spare to use this. the plants look good anyway.
I have araipaimas, peacocks, catfish, oscars, gars, arowanas, dats etc etc. my favourite place in the whole wide world.
mintylover said:your right...koi & goldfish ponds are such a mess as those fishes really can excrete!! keeping any other fish really has a much lower bioload
I forgot to mention that I also have a long trough at the side that is planted with large water plants for natural filtration as well. I would recommend this to anyone who has some space to spare to use this. the plants look good anyway.
I have araipaimas, peacocks, catfish, oscars, gars, arowanas, dats etc etc. my favourite place in the whole wide world.
Thats impressive!! Do you have those fishes in the pond or in a tank?
