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    Thread: At my wits end with this biofilter!

    1. #1
      fpmacko is offline Junior Member
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      At my wits end with this biofilter!

      I'm close to selling my koi flock and landscaping-over my pond. I'm a prisoner to my pond because I have to backwash my biofilter every 24-36 hours. It's worse than having little kids around. Can anyone provide some guidance on how to proceed other than by putting my control valve in "exhaust" and calling it a day?

      My 1200 gallon pond is 20 years old, EPDM liner, UV, and I'm using an Aquadyne 0.60B with the air blower (now called model 2000). I don't have a bottom drain. I'm using a Matala aeration system and the biofilter exhausts into a small waterfall (via the UV). I haven't had gin-clear water in years. Before the bio installation that was understandable and for the 2-4 years after I installed it in 2010 everything was fine. But for the past few years, after bringing the biofilter back online after the winter (I live in Annapolis, MD) things have not gone well. From this April I've had maybe 2-3 days of clear water and maybe 10-20 days of an acceptable, slight green tint. Otherwise, I've had to deal with foggy green water and also with suspended algae that grows on the walls only to be disturbed by the fish and forced into solution. I add bead filter bacteria after almost every backwash. I have a pond vac, which I've used 3 times this season so I keep the bottom pretty clean of leaf debris. Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are good as is phosphate. Ph is 7.2. I was adding liquid barley extract until I was confident that the pond was free of leaf and twig matter.

      Fish load: 10 koi. Average length is about 16 inches. The three largest are a good 20-24 inches.

      When I backwash the biofilter, which is indicated by a slow waterfall, the effluent is as dark as squid ink. Very dark, opaque green. Nearly black. My perception is that it's mostly "fines" as the visible algae debris doesn't appear to be excessive. It takes 2-4 backwash/rinse cycles to clear the filter, which buys me another day, maybe two days if I'm lucky. If I get lazy and let it go 3 days without a backwash the waterfall will slow to a trickle. Oh, and I use the blower 2-3 times per month, not for every backwash.

      In closing, in desperation I put the **** thing on bypass this morning to see if perhaps the higher circulation will help. But I'm hoping that the learned folks on this forum have some ideas that I can pursue.

      Thanks for reading this far!

      Frank Mackowick, Annapolis MD

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    2. #2
      tbullard is offline Senior Member
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      We can tell you about a system you could install that you would never have to touch again and will give you great water but it might be cheaper to landscape over the pond

      Search this forum for RDF and shower filters and you will get tons of info.

    3. #3
      kevin32 is offline Inactivated
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      I would get a zakki sieve filter if $ allows. This will re .mive the big stuff before the bead filter and minimize the need to backflush the filter. You could also add a retrofit drain with built in air diffuser

    4. #4
      Essex Koi is offline Senior Member
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      Sorry to say this, but your filter seems too small for the koi you have in a small volume of water. On paper, it can cope with 2,000 gallons, so in ‘real’ life that means 800 to a 1,000 with maybe 4-5 koi of the size you have. Sticking with Aquadyne, I’d be looking at the 4,000 at least and preferably the 8,000.

      Blurb from Aquadyne, you’ll note how they add in ‘starter’ to cover themselves and also indoor aquarium.

      The AD200 is very suitable for an excellent indoor large volume aquarium filter. This unit is also an excellent starter for small laboratory research applications.
      Source: http://www.aquadyne-filters.com/Aqua...llons-p-5.html

      General rule of thumb is 250 Gallons per fish = 2,500 gallons for 10. This assumes a reasonable filtration set up, nothing too fancy.

      Seeing as filtration has progressed in the last few years, then the rdf route would be a great option, assuming your budget and inclination allows. This would hopefully allow you to keep the koi in the volume of water you have.

      Alternatively, reduce your stocking levels to 4-5 koi and see how it goes.
      Main pond 4000 US Gallon, 22 Koi. Oase Proficlear Premium + Bio Module, Bitron 120 w UVC, Bakki Shower, Dura 7+ ashp. Grow on tank 600 Gallons with Eazypod Automatic and 70 litre K1 biochamber.

    5. #5
      catfish whiskers's Avatar
      catfish whiskers is offline Supporting Member ~ WWKC President
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      Let's help get your pond back to where You can enjoy it again .

      The media inside Your bead filter is probably compacted solid , that's what happens to them when You don't use the blower.
      The only remedy is probably to remove the head and loosen the media up with a stick , then rinse and repeat .
      When You remove the head , place a pipe cap on the vertical pipe that You will see sticking up in the center. That cap will insure that You don't accidentally let any media fall into that pipe. When You put it back together , backflush and rinse multiple times , and use that blower every time.
      Although that filter is not really a good bio filter , if it is the only one that You have , it is providing Your only bio, so You will need to use pond water to rinse it. Chlorinated tap water will kill off any bio that it contains.
      Once You get it loose and clean , and back in order , there are a few things that You can add to make Your job cleaning easier , make the pond better for the fish.
      First one is a Zacci sieve , it is kind of like a giant pump priming pot/ leaf basket on steroids . It goes before Your pump , and has a special screen called wedge wire , that filters algae, leaves , poop, and any solids larger than 250 microns , before it gets to the pump and bead filter. It is easy to clean by simply rotating some valves, and will make the bead filter also easier to clean .
      The second thing You should add is some form of bio filter . Two favorites around Here are a moving bed filter , and a shower filter. Both are easy to build yourself , however, if Your not a DIYer, Zac that makes the Zacci sieve , builds custom shower filters to fit Your pond.

    6. #6
      fpmacko is offline Junior Member
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      Thanks, Kevin. I'm looking at it. $1,300 doesn't seem too bad if it will fix my problem. I think a lot of my problem is due to what I've seen described as "fines". Do you think the sieve will have any effect on them?

    7. #7
      fpmacko is offline Junior Member
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      Thank you. Obviously, I'm forced to agree with you. (A local koi pond emporium said the same thing.) I didn't see that snippet until you pointed it out just now. It's very interesting that when I bought the filter in 2010 their web page copy didn't say anything of the sort. If it had I would have gone larger. The fact that they've ignored my two email queries for help on this problem leads me to suspect that they know they overstated their capabilities when I bought the system and are probably hoping I'll just go away.

      If my koi would just stop growing and breeding I wouldn't be in this pickle. (Does anyone in the Annapolis area want some koi?) If I install an RDF as a prefilter to my existing biofilter do you think I have any chance of success or is the 0.6B always going to be too small no matter what I do to augment it?

    8. #8
      wingrider is offline Senior Member
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      Don't give up on your pond! I was all bummed about my pond and convinced I was looking at a ton of work and this group on this forum helped me. They're still helping and I love my pond even more now. Catfish sounds like they have a good idea about getting your pond filter sorted out. I have similar type of filter and replaced the media a couple of times because I had convinced myself that was the problem. Now I know I could have done something like this years ago and it just didn't occur to me I could do that.

      As for the washing- Go to Depot and buy one of those "sump pumps". It will have a garden hose fitting on it (should have). Drop that in your pond and along with a hose you have a way to use the Pond water with enough pressure to wash out your media. Just do it in the container and let it drain out the bottom. Don't do what I tried to do the first time and get a tarp and pour the media all over the tarp on lawn and hose it out that way. (still can't believe I tried that).

      Anyway, hopefully this post lightens your mood and hang in there. You're this far with the pond, don'd give up now.
      Last edited by wingrider; 06-15-2018 at 06:52 PM.

    9. #9
      kevin32 is offline Inactivated
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      As catfish said the zakki removes to 250 micron. Most rdfs remove to 70 micron. Bead filters come out at about 80 micron or so. Not all 2 ponds are the same also. Do you have alot of leaves around. I didn't run a prefilter in my head filter and had fine tree leaves get into my bead filter and got into the media and was impossible to flush out. Can you take a pic of the pond and surrounding area. It everyone needs the same equipment. 1200 gallons isn't to big and easy to filter imo.

    10. #10
      fpmacko is offline Junior Member
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      I agree that it's probably wedged totally solid. Just like last year. Funny thing about the blower. When I bought the system in 2010 the blower was an option whose purpose was merely to reduce the amount of water expended for a backwash. I bought the blower but never thought it to be mandatory so I've used it when it was convenient, i.e., 2-3 times per month. Using it every 1-2 days was never considered nor would I want to because it's stored in the garage. Now I see that the current 2000 system has the blower as standard.

      I'll get to cleaning the filter tomorrow as you suggested. BTW, if I go with a Zacci sleeve and a shower filter do I even need the Aquadyne anymore? Running it in series with the shower filter sounds like wearing a belt and suspenders.

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    11. #11
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      It has been shown that the filter is too small, so lets move on to some other ideas. First, the B on the filter indicates it is a unit with a blower. Are you using the blower? When I would do my Aquadyne, I would put the filter in the backwash position, with the pump off, turn on the blower and allow it to blow some of the water out of the filter, maybe 5 or 10 seconds, shift the valve to the rinse position and allow the blower to churn the beads for several minutes, making sure the filter sounded like a popcorn popper, then turn off the blower and put the valve back in the backwash position and running the pump to blow out any waste until it ran clear, then turn the valve to rinse and allow to run until clear, then return the valve to filter position. If you are doing this, then the filter is getting clean. If not, try it.

      The green water is the result of not having sufficient bio filtration. Green water algae needs ammonia to survive, and once the biological filtration is adequate, the green water will disappear. Look at the shower filter designs in construction. They are relatively inexpensive, do a tremendous job in the bio filter area converting the ammonia to nitrite to nitrate. Right now with the green water, you probably cannot measure any ammonia, but that is because the green water is using it to grow. The ammonia is there because you have fish and the fish have food, and the food is converted to proteins, amino acids, and the fish utilize these, wasting ammonia. You could install a correctly sized UV filter and kill the green water algae, but you would then need to neutralize the ammonia or you would burn the gills out of the fish with high ammonia.

      If you aren't testing, start. You should be testing for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, KH, and high range pH. To assist the bio filter to cycle faster, get the KH to over 150ppm, with 200ppm being better, as the bio bacteria create large amounts of acid and will cause the pH to drop, potentially killing the bacteria and possibly the fish, if the KH is not sufficient to buffer the pH.
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    12. #12
      fpmacko is offline Junior Member
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      Thanks for the encouragement, wingrider. For cleaning the filter I think I'll remove the valve body and try breaking things up with a mop handle or small shovel. Then perhaps I can reassemble it and do several backwash/rinse cycles using the blower.

      I can't believe you tried that either.

    13. #13
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      Thanks. I'll post some photos tomorrow. I no longer have trees overhanging the pond. But I do have shrubbery surrounding it and some aquatic grass floating in the water.

      Side note....we had a terribly cold winter in January. I had 3-6 inches of ice everywhere except over the bubbler and under the waterfall. After we got some thawing one of my dumber fish jumped up through a hole in the ice and landed among the grasses that were sticking thru the ice. He froze solid and it was two weeks before there was enough thaw to pry him off the ice and feed him to the fox family behind the house.

    14. #14
      wingrider is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by fpmacko View Post
      Thanks for the encouragement, wingrider. For cleaning the filter I think I'll remove the valve body and try breaking things up with a mop handle or small shovel. Then perhaps I can reassemble it and do several backwash/rinse cycles using the blower.

      I can't believe you tried that either.
      Well, the *plan* was to spray downward on clumps of the media with a nozzle and the junk would fall off the media onto the tarp. I had hoped I could float the media to another side of the tarp and into a bucket. First shot of the nozzle accidentally blew a ton of stinky media all over me, the dog, and all around the yard.

      The next move was to call Champion Koi and see if they had replacement media in stock... After a shower my Visa card solved my dirty media problem.

    15. #15
      Essex Koi is offline Senior Member
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      How much water do you change on a weekly basis? As you can see from the posts there are multiple solutions, personally I’ve gone for an rdf, biochamber and a Bakki Shower. Water is crystal clear and better than its ever been. I still change water 3 times a week at 10-15% at a time.
      Main pond 4000 US Gallon, 22 Koi. Oase Proficlear Premium + Bio Module, Bitron 120 w UVC, Bakki Shower, Dura 7+ ashp. Grow on tank 600 Gallons with Eazypod Automatic and 70 litre K1 biochamber.

    16. #16
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      Hello Rich....yes, I'm using the blower, but only 2-3 times per month. I know everyone is probably shrieking in horror at that statement but in my defense when I bought the system in 2010 the blower was sold as an "option" whose purpose was to allow those who are hard over on water conservation could backwash using much less water than would be the case without a blower. So I didn't feel it mandatory that I use it at every backwash because at the time Aquadyne also said that excessive blower use would impact the bacteria population on the surface of the little balls. In retrospect it appears they weren't the experts they thought they were.

      Oh, and I've already been running the blower in the backwash position as you suggested because it seems much more effective even though the expert instructions from Aquadyne said to use the rinse position. As for KH, I didn't know that was something to test and monitor (I test everything else.) so I'll look for a kit. As an aside I'm on a deep well and use a water softener with sodium hydroxide injection to correct the pH so for now I'm gonna assume that my KH is lower than you recommend.d

      What are your thoughts on UV size? I'm running a 9W unit in the bio outflow. I divert most of the water around it so that the reduced velocity thru the UV gives it a better chance to kill the algae.

    17. #17
      fpmacko is offline Junior Member
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      Hello Essex..... I top-off the pond every time I backwash so in the course of a week I'm probably exchanging 25%, which in normal situations should be sufficient.

      I'm a little confused. Aren't your biochamber and Bakki shower redundant?

      There's something that I need to mention to everyone on this thread. My filtration system is outside and next to the pond (shielded by shrubbery and trelliswork). Living in the NE U.S. means that I have to deal with cold winter weather. This past winter, which was exceptional, had overnight lows of -10F in January. (More typical lows are 25F.) So my standard procedure is to remove the bio and UV from the water loop and store everything in the garage. I install bypass piping so that water circulation continues throughout the winter. So any equipment solution I converge on has to be removable from service for the winter. Some of the "plumber's nightmare" rigs that I'm seeing on youtube aren't practical.

    18. #18
      Essex Koi is offline Senior Member
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      The Bakki and biochamber are still needed as the ammonia produced by the koi cannot be taken out via an rdf. They were bought at the same time as the rdf.

      Main pond 4000 US Gallon, 22 Koi. Oase Proficlear Premium + Bio Module, Bitron 120 w UVC, Bakki Shower, Dura 7+ ashp. Grow on tank 600 Gallons with Eazypod Automatic and 70 litre K1 biochamber.

    19. #19
      fpmacko is offline Junior Member
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      Understand that the RDF alone is insufficient. But I don't understand why one would need the Bio Module when the Bakki Shower is also a biological filter.

      BTW, very nice installation in that video. Unfortunately, for me it can't be left out over the winter and it's impractical to disassemble and store in my garage. Also, OASE don't offer it in the U.S. My solution space for this problem is quite small.

      http://us.oase-livingwater.com/en_US...-aeration.html

    20. #20
      Essex Koi is offline Senior Member
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      Belts & braces approach really. It means I can feed heavily without worrying and if one goes down, I still have filtration. There are plenty of decent equivalent rdf units available in the US. I’ve put my equipment into a shed, whilst it doesn’t get as cold as your area, it still freezes and gets down to -10c, mine runs through the winter as the pond is heated.

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      Main pond 4000 US Gallon, 22 Koi. Oase Proficlear Premium + Bio Module, Bitron 120 w UVC, Bakki Shower, Dura 7+ ashp. Grow on tank 600 Gallons with Eazypod Automatic and 70 litre K1 biochamber.

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