In
Yogas’s write-up he will give you step by step details on his filter modifications
and what improvements he’s beginning to see in his pond parameter and Koi
heath. He also makes mention of his water clarity finally being what he
expected from his old filter but did not get.
In
this second part of Yogas’s pond conversion build, his Anoxic filter add-on is
now taking over his filtering needs and things are starting to look better now with cleaner water and his
metabolic waste and protein buildup is now far less to completely disappear now
than before his filter changeover. He had a typical Biofalls filter but bigger, but like all
filters that clog he ran into troubles. Water parameters are improving with the
typical filtrations startup cyanobacterium problems in the filter. Having
cyanobacteria in the Anoxic filter during its early stages is not a problem
because it is easy to scoop out until things settle in and it dies off on its
own. The main pond should have algae in it but not the long stringy
cyanobacteria type that so many hobbyist hate or the greening of the ponds mass
into Split Pea soup.
He
also has concerns about his UV light before the Biocenosis baskets and will it
do any harm. A UV sterilizer should only be a concern for free floating
bacteria and not fixed bacteria.
UV’s have no effect on the Biocenosis baskets but only on the
improvement of water quality.
However, it will not take long before unforeseen
turn of events happens and Yogas new Anoxic filter and Koi will be put to the
test. His Koi get spooked and stressed out with an eight hours power
outage. Eight hours of no
oxygenated water going to his Anoxic filter or Koi. Here in Chicago that has
happed to me and with our heat and humidity the Koi will begin to gasp for air
at the ponds surface in no time at all.
I have always tried to tell hobbyist
that unforeseen circumstances will change the playing field for filtrations
systems that depend on high amounts of oxygenated water for their bacteria to
complete the nitrogen cycle. A small backup aerator for the main pond and
animals is all that’s needed. The Anoxic filter will survive for weeks without
the aid of the hobbyist. Please take heed to what has happed to Yogas and
myself included, things happen to ponds that if you do not have enough
foresight to protect your Koi you may lose them all.
Once
again I cannot thank Yogas enough for his taking the timeout of his busy work
schedule and away from his family to do this write-up for my blog.
“Anything
for the good of the process of learning even though meaning exposure of my
mistakes is not a problem for me. I have learned a lot from other people and
sharing their mistakes enabling me to avoid them; I don't mind doing the same
in return. So please, if possible and if it is not too much trouble for you,
expose everything I did wrong and what I should have done.”
[Ed:
As always I will give my editors comments.]
Yogas Anoxic filter build part-2
I got back from
my business trip on September 29thand immediately took some photos
of the existing condition of the Anoxic filter and pond. The main pond was
crystal clear, but the Anoxic Filter was full of mulm/sedimentation.1 The Biocenosis baskets were also
full of long cyanobacteria.2 I know
my mechanical filters were still doing a poor job, so I decided to take out the
Lava rock 3 and the Crystal-bio bags out of chamber 3 and replace them with
grey Matalla Japmats. Before doing that, I wanted to clean the Biocenosis
baskets from the long stringy cyanobacteria by just pulling them out with my
bare hands. It was quite easy, though (and please excuse me), it did give out a
very faint odor similar to dirty socks/athletes foot. 4 Afterwards I drained the
Anoxic filter through its side drain and rinsed out all the sedimentation and
refilled it. Confident that I could already rely on my BB’s, I did a total
clean out of the Japmats in chamber 2 and took out all the bags of Crystal-bio
and Lava rock out of chamber 3. After the Japmats of chamber 2 were hosed clean
and new grey Japmats of chamber 3 were installed, a black out occurred, this
was a very unusual one because it lasted about 8 hours. So the condition when
the blackout happened:
· Anoxic Filter cleaned from sedimentation and refilled with new
water.
· Chamber 1, backwashed and brushes were hosed clean but not yet
put back in
· Chamber 2, backwashed and Japmats were hosed clean but not yet put
back in
· Chamber 3, backwashed and new Japmats were put in
· Chamber 1-4 were not yet filled with water
1:[Ed: This is an indication that your prefilter
is not adequate enough and too much detritus is getting through into the Anoxic
filter. I didn’t clean my filter out in over a year and had very little
detritus and mulm to even worry about when I cleaned it out at the end of
September.]
2:[Ed: This is common and for new or restarted
filters, it will do this but the pond should remain free of the stringy
bacteria.]
3: [Ed:
Lava-rock is a very poor filter media because of the pores in the rock get
clogged up and assimilatory denitrification will take place. This is one media
that hobbyist should avoid using.]
4:[Ed: Yes it does smell but only when the
chlorophyll is compressed; unsightly but harmless to the fish.]
So there you
have it, my old Biofilter were all back to zero. While waiting helplessly for
the electricity, I made three more Biocenosis basket, 2 of them were put in
chamber 3 on top of the new Japmats and 1 in chamber 4. Please note that even
though I have installed an Evo aqua clarifier before the water fall pool, I
still have a submerged UV lamp in chamber 4. Could the bacteria in the BB’s in
chamber 4 still develop with a submerged UV lamp of 35 watts in it? 5 The electricity kicked in at
around 9 O’clock in the evening and immediately put everything back in,
brushes, Japmats and refilled the water. Turned everything back on and hoped
that the BB’s were ready to take over the entire process of nitrification. The
next day, Monday September 30thafter giving the Koi their first meal
I checked my water parameters and the results were as follow:
· Ammonia: 0
· Nitrite: 0
· Nitrate: 25 mg/L
· TDS: 85
· pH: 6.9
5:[Ed: The UV light will do no harm to the
bacteria in the Biocenosis baskets only on the free floating bacteria.]
Feeling
everything was fine, I left for work, and it was a pretty busy week for me, got
home late at night every day, but I still checked on the pond visually before
retiring to bed. On Wednesday I noticed a lot of my Koi were behaving like they
were being irritated by some sort of parasite. One also showed signs of white
spot or cotton disease on the mouth and near the tail. I guess this was due to
stress from what happened on Sunday, so I gave them the appropriate medication.
The signs of irritations stopped but the Koi still seemed to be stressed out.
Checked the parameters again on Friday October 4thand 2 parameters
were different. My TDS was 105 and my nitrates were 50mg/L. The TDS I figured
was due to administering medication to the pond, and nitrates also probably
were due to this, guessing that the Facultative bacterium has been disturbed by
the medication. 6
Today I decided
to give a rather large water change to dilute the residual medication and
hopefully the dead parasites from the pond. Refilled the water and giving a
dosage of Bentonite to help give the Koi a feeling of their natural environment
and hopefully reduce their stress. When the water started to clear up, the Koi
seemed to be acting a bit better so I tried to give them some Koi food and they
consumed it aggressively. They are still a bit jumpy, but no longer idle on the
bottom of the pond.
One more thing,
I added 2 more Biocenosis baskets in chamber 4 so there are 3 BB’s in chamber 4
now but I still haven’t taken out the submersible UV lamp. Should I? 7 In total now I have 17 BB’s. 12 in
the waterfall pool, 2 in chamber 3 and 3 in chamber 4.
The water is very
clear and I believe there is significant improvement in my redox potential.
The reason I believe so is because the bubbles from my aeration tubes seem to
have reduced significantly. At first I thought that there was something wrong
with my aeration pump, but nothing was wrong, the bubbles are just popping
immediately when they reach the surface, and the ones that don’t will break
just about a foot away. Previously the bubbles could reach the other end of the
pond (2 meters) before breaking.
I apologize for
this already lengthy email, but please allow me to complete it the photos
explaining the chronology:
This photo shows the pond is crystal clear with no bubble foam
like I used to have: photo taken September 29th. [Ed:The pond is so clear now I bet you could see a penny at the
bottom of it and read the date too.]
· Anoxic filter with cyanobacteria growing on the Biocenosis
baskets; this is common for a newly started up Anoxic filter but will soon correct
itself and magically disappear. Taken on
September 29th. This is what it was like when I first got back.
Anoxic filter after a good cleaning… The little bit of Zeolite
clay that has spilled out into the filter is okay and is nothing to worry
about. It can be pick up at next cleaning time.
Take on
October 5th before the huge water change and dosage of bentonite
I couldn’t get
a photo of the pond after the water change due to rain. It’s been mostly cloudy
here since I got back thus making it difficult to get a photo that can show the
clarity level of the pond. Tomorrow I’ll try and get some more photos showing
the latest condition and also check my water parameters again.
6:
[Ed: The medication would have a negative effect on all bacteria because most
meds can’t distinguish between good bacteria or bad bacteria.
7:[Ed:
UV units are good and will not hinder biological activities in the Biocenosis
baskets in any way.
Coming up soon: Ardy’s Anoxic build
from Indonesia, so keep looking in from time to time!
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