setup facts and myths

[pilgrim]

I was given a 1000 litre fibreglass tank with a 3 chamber filter tank ( around 150l )that sits on top the main tank. I sunk the tank in the garden and coonected everything. It worked but I lost 4 koi over 6 months before everything stabilised.... its been running well for the past year but I think its not my smarts but more stumbling along and finding a path.

I want to separate the facts from the myths because I want to get a larger tank and dont want the trauma of losing fish for 6mths until things sort themselves out.. Hope you can help..

Myth or Fact #1

The filter tank must be 1/3 the size of the main tank. My current filter is 15% of the main tank and although the fish have survived more than a year now, I dont have crystal clear water and they are not as lively as fish I see in the ponds of professional setups.

I just bought a 150l sealed filter tank with UV that claims to be able to filter up to 13,000 litre sized outdoor pond.... that's no where near the 1/3 rule.

Who is right? The 1/3 rule or the filter manufacturers.

Myth or Fact #2

"Algae is best controlled with UV" or "The bacteria in a mature tank will control the algae" or " you must starve the algae of one or more of it's growth factors eg light or nutrients".

Thanks
Shane

 

[haynchinook334]

I was given a 1000 litre fibreglass tank with a 3 chamber filter tank ( around 150l )that sits on top the main tank. I sunk the tank in the garden and coonected everything. It worked but I lost 4 koi over 6 months before everything stabilised.... its been running well for the past year but I think its not my smarts but more stumbling along and finding a path.

I want to separate the facts from the myths because I want to get a larger tank and dont want the trauma of losing fish for 6mths until things sort themselves out.. Hope you can help..

Myth or Fact #1

The filter tank must be 1/3 the size of the main tank. My current filter is 15% of the main tank and although the fish have survived more than a year now, I dont have crystal clear water and they are not as lively as fish I see in the ponds of professional setups.

I just bought a 150l sealed filter tank with UV that claims to be able to filter up to 13,000 litre sized outdoor pond.... that's no where near the 1/3 rule.

Who is right? The 1/3 rule or the filter manufacturers.

Myth or Fact #2

"Algae is best controlled with UV" or "The bacteria in a mature tank will control the algae" or " you must starve the algae of one or more of it's growth factors eg light or nutrients".

Thanks
Shane

A lot of people like to turn the water 2xmore then the tank...I.E. 100gal, has a 300gph turn over rate. and it also depends on the stock of your tank. Bio load, you don't want to run a 100gal tank with 8 Oscars and only running a 100gph filter. and a UV sanitizer will cut down you alge.

 

[cassharper]

it all really depends on what type of filter, what type of filtration, what type of set, and what type of fish you are talking about. Smaller tanks with an HOB could use 8-10x turnover for effective filtering (unless you have planted or slow water fish), but larger tanks with sumps can need as little as 2-3x turnover per hour. Then again, HOB are great (for their size) at mech filtration, while sumps are better biological filters.

 

[Dr Joe]

I was given a 1000 litre fibreglass tank with a 3 chamber filter tank ( around 150l )that sits on top the main tank. I sunk the tank in the garden and coonected everything. It worked but I lost 4 koi over 6 months before everything stabilised.... its been running well for the past year but I think its not my smarts but more stumbling along and finding a path.

I want to separate the facts from the myths because I want to get a larger tank and dont want the trauma of losing fish for 6mths until things sort themselves out.. Hope you can help..

Myth or Fact #1

The filter tank must be 1/3 the size of the main tank. My current filter is 15% of the main tank and although the fish have survived more than a year now, I dont have crystal clear water and they are not as lively as fish I see in the ponds of professional setups.

I just bought a 150l sealed filter tank with UV that claims to be able to filter up to 13,000 litre sized outdoor pond.... that's no where near the 1/3 rule.

Who is right? The 1/3 rule or the filter manufacturers.

Myth or Fact #2

"Algae is best controlled with UV" or "The bacteria in a mature tank will control the algae" or " you must starve the algae of one or more of it's growth factors eg light or nutrients".

Thanks
Shane

First, Welcome.

Second, you'll notice the first responses were just more questions, I would suggest that since you are so new here you should use the search function at the top of the page read over past threads on these subjects. All have been covered here in great detail. This will then let you ask more detailed questions pertaining to your circumstances.

Third, you either haven't given the proper amount of info or aren't comparing apples to apples.

As far as fish dying, it shouldn't happen in a well established pond.

How did you cycle the pond?

Dr Joe

.

 

[nfored]

I was given a 1000 litre fibreglass tank with a 3 chamber filter tank ( around 150l )that sits on top the main tank. I sunk the tank in the garden and coonected everything. It worked but I lost 4 koi over 6 months before everything stabilised.... its been running well for the past year but I think its not my smarts but more stumbling along and finding a path.

I want to separate the facts from the myths because I want to get a larger tank and dont want the trauma of losing fish for 6mths until things sort themselves out.. Hope you can help..

Myth or Fact #1

The filter tank must be 1/3 the size of the main tank. My current filter is 15% of the main tank and although the fish have survived more than a year now, I dont have crystal clear water and they are not as lively as fish I see in the ponds of professional setups.

I just bought a 150l sealed filter tank with UV that claims to be able to filter up to 13,000 litre sized outdoor pond.... that's no where near the 1/3 rule.

Who is right? The 1/3 rule or the filter manufacturers.

Myth or Fact #2

"Algae is best controlled with UV" or "The bacteria in a mature tank will control the algae" or " you must starve the algae of one or more of it's growth factors eg light or nutrients".

Thanks
Shane

Algae needs light if you limit the light it can't grow, If you can't limit light such as in your case; you must limit the nutrients. UV only kills free floating algae, it wont help with bba or hair algae so it really depends on the type of algae.

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

The 1/3 rule is for sump style filters. I am guessing that your pond filter is not a sump style. It is kind of rare for a pond to have a traditional sump filter. Most use a bakki style filter or a large canister style filter. With both of these styles what you need is the right turn over rate and the right media's to do what you want. For turn over on a pond I would guess that you need to pump 2-4x the water your pond holds thru your filter every hour. And then you can add finer or coarser media to the filter to obtain the results in clarity you want. ----------------------------------------------------And for algae you have to take away what it needs to grow. Light for photosyn. and nutrients for food. A uv will only kill what is in the water. If you are trying to clear green water then yes it will work. -----------------------------You need to cycle your pond so that it can handle a fishes watse with out making the water toxic.----Do a search on fishless cycling on the net.

 

[pilgrim]

Thanks for your replies. Unfortunately, most of you are in the US so thats around a 12 hr time difference so I wont be able to respond quite so promptly.

I have 3 koi from 12" to 16" , a comet and an algae eater. I use to run a single Eheim pump which is rated at 1200 litre per hour but after 1 1/2 years it feels like it has lost 1/2 its power. I've cleaned and cleared everything but it just can't get back its mojo. So I bought another similiar size Eheim pump and both of them run together. I am guessing that they turnover the 1000l every 1/2 hour which puts me at the lower end of the acceptable range.

I bought a new canister filter with bio balls as a filter medium as I thought the biological filter didnt have enough surface area but afetr reading cassharper it seems I am at the low end of the turnover range and the limiting factor is the pump throughput.

Dr Joe,
I didn't really cycle the pond, I just left the pump circulate everything for a day or 2 before adding the fish. I thought, mistakenly, that the only critical thing was to let the chlorine outgas out of the water. When I added the fish I also put bacteria starter in the filter. The fish didnt die immediately, it was over 6mths...very agonising. I'll go look up pond cycling.

hybridtheoryd16,
Will the canister type cycling work with the existing pump at 1.5 - 2x per hour or do I need to get anotherpump?

Thanks

Shane

 

[pilgrim]

Well, I set up the canister filter in series with the existing filter and I will run it like that to get the bacteria going in the new filter. From what I am reading I need optimally 4x the volume of the tank gong through the filter every hour so thats 4000l/hr which is just under the max flow rate of the filter ( specified to be 4500l/hr ).

In a few months I hope to make a nice waterfall and do some landscaping so that the garden looks nicer which will earn me Brownie points with the wife. The canister filter will be easier to hide than the big rectagular box filter I have now.

Shane