Q & A from Manky Sanke http://www.mankysanke.co.uk/

Q & A from Manky Sanke

http://www.mankysanke.co.uk/

A: I've only got about 10,000 liters (2641.72 gph) per hour at the minute going through the Anoxic Filter, this is why I'm building the new Anoxic filter pond. Once it's up and running it will gravity flow back to the pond and hopefully I can turn it over at about 20,000 lts (5283.44gph).

Q: Would you need to double the flow if it's fine at the minute?

I'm curious that's all

A: It stands to reason that, the faster the pond turnover rate, the faster any ammonia will be removed from the pond and presented to the anoxic pond. These ponds are very tolerant of water flow rates through them provided that the flow is diffused enough so as not to disturb the baskets.

Good read thanks Manky, I read the whole lot and the filter building guide too, excellent stuff...........not sure I understood it all after one read.........am I right in thinking that an anoxic filter works straight from the outset the and doesn't need to mature?

David

A: No. All biological filters use bugs and so we have to give them time to multiply to a large enough colony to do the job we want to do e.g. convert ammonia to nitrite or convert nitrite to nitrate or, in the case of the bugs in biocenosis clarification baskets, convert ammonia into nitrogen gas (dinitrogen) plus metabolize other pollutants such as phosphate.

However, the bugs in baskets are heterotrophs whereas the bugs in conventional nitrogen cycle filters are autotrophs. Heterotrophs get their energy from organic carbon (the cells of something that is or once was alive), autotrophs get their energy from inorganic sources (chemicals such as ammonia or nitrite). Since there is more energy in organic carbon than can be obtained from chemicals, heterotrophs form colonies more quickly than autotrophs, therefore the bug colonies in the baskets mature more quickly than the bug colonies in conventional biofilters.

Moving water from the Anoxic Filter into the pond as fast as possible is the best way to run the filter. The water flow shown in this photo is turning over this pond twice in one hour.