Hi Kevin,
Yes I have read
every single article on your blog and everything on Manky Sanke’s too. http://anoxicfiltrationsystem.blogspot.com/2014/12/well-long-anticipated-informative.html
I saw that you put
the Picture of my test results on your blog so I thought that I had better give
you a few more details about my pond build.
It is divided into
two sections. The Main pond is 4.5m x 1.5m ranging from 30cm deep to 65cm at
the deepest (very small area where pump is) and the Anoxic filter pond is
90cm x 1.5m and is all 60cm deep.
It holds 3414l and
I am running a 4500lph pump to a black box filter (Pre Filter) with an 11W U.V.
The pump is rated at 3950lph for the head pressure that I have.
I have 30
Shubunkins and Comets about 3inches in size, a few maybe 4-5inches.
We started building
the pond at the beginning of summer this year and reused the existing (already
biologically seeded) black box filter that I have had running for 2 summers now
as a prefilter. All media and sponges were just rinsed out in pond water at the
beginning of May and I haven’t touched it since, not once. I had already
started some BCB’s seeding in my stock tanks in April so that they would be
ready when the new pond was built.
In the Anoxic
filter area I have an egg crate plenum grid sitting on some lengths of waste
pipe to keep the bottom layer of 15 baskets off the base. This area was
designed to take 3 rows of 5 baskets (27cm square) with an inch gap between
each. Then there is another egg crate layer on top and a further layer of biocenosis
clarification baskets containing plants sitting on top. At the moment I have
about 7 baskets with plants in them but plan to add another 8 to make a
second layer of 15 next year. (Pond building is a very costly business you
know) I could not obtain any Laterite so the baskets with plants have one Cup
of JBL Aquabasis plus in each. There are a further 6 water lily biocenosis clarification
baskets in the main pond.
Some of the plant
baskets that I took out of my old stock tanks had a thick layer of
Cyanobacteria on them but this disappeared and did not proliferate in the newly
set up pond (to my pleasant surprise)(yes I read your article about cyanobacteria
hence the surprise)
The pond is in full
sun facing south all day but despite this I have only a very small amount of
blanket weed along the south facing wall and attached to the pipes and
cables. The fish seemed to find it tasty so I have left it alone and it is now
disappearing along with the sun.
I have had no green
water, murky or cloudy water. I have done no water changes at all only topping
up evaporation loss. pH is now 8.00
The only slight
disappointment that I have had this year is I have not had very much plant growth
despite adding two rounds of pond plant fertilizer. After seeing Brian’s I was
hoping to have an explosion of greenery. Maybe it is down to dividing and
repotting my water lilies, which were happily sitting in aquatic compost
baskets into BCB’s. Perhaps they don’t like root disturbance and they have
had to grow new roots. Or I am wondering if this is down to the fact that my
Nitrites and Nitrates have been more or less zero all summer. All the plants
have been disappointing. Pontederia, Iris’s, Saggittaria, Elodea died, water
hawthorn turned black. Perhaps the fish are just not producing enough
waste to feed the plants (or the BCB’s have gobbled it all up). I would like to
know your thoughts on that please. It has not been a very hot summer here even
by English standards.
I will be adding
more fish next year. Based on one BCB per full-grown koi, how many full-grown
12” Shubunkins do you think 30 BCB’s can support?
Photographs to
follow.
Thank you for your
hard work and selfless nature Kevin.
Kindest regards
Rachel
Nottingham, U.K
Answer to Rachel
questions:
The plants may have been a disappointment this year
because they may have to relearn how to absorb and adsorb ions like they are
expected to.
It’s not something I would worry about, next year will
bring better plant growth once their root systems are established. The cooler
weather will also play a big part in plant growth too.
I know hear
in Chicagoland all our terrestrial plants did great in early Spring because of all
the rain we had and bloomed very early this year, but died way too early also but
ran out of steam earlier than they were supposed to.
Thirty BCB’S can handle about 60-70 12" Shubunkins
but I don’t think that many fish would be very practical though.
Kevin
Anoxicfiltrationsystem.blogspot.com