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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Help with pond please

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07 Jul 2017 22:21 #31 by robert (robert carter)
Joey the diy fishkeeper is a big fan of pot scrubs , personaly i will stick with bio home ultimate as my preferred media

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08 Jul 2017 08:34 #32 by Aldrin (Aldrin Martin)
How many would you recommend? 20?

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08 Jul 2017 08:35 #33 by Aldrin (Aldrin Martin)
Robert I would like to go your way but it seems more expensive.

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08 Jul 2017 09:12 #34 by paulv (paul vickers)
I've never used pot scrubbers but I'd use as many as your filter will hold. Go to some place like Mr price and get them there. Maybe they can knock a few Euro of if you buy enough. As for oxygenating your pond I thought you were building a water fall, the water splashing back into the pond will add all the oxygen it needs.

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08 Jul 2017 09:17 #35 by Aldrin (Aldrin Martin)
I am still building the water fall but if I could get anacharis to grow it would reduce algae growth. I should correct myself, I am using oxygenating plants because they grow quickly and take in a lot of nutrients leaving less nutrients Available for algae.
I think I'll hit some store today, euro general, more 4 less and dealz. Mr price is a good bit away from me so I won't be able to cycle to there

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08 Jul 2017 09:30 #36 by paulv (paul vickers)
Any of those discount stores will do. Goes without saying not to get the ready soaped scrubbers. The pump you got off me will drive water into your filter under pressure, you may have to adjust accordingly.

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08 Jul 2017 10:27 #37 by Bill (Bill Hunter)

Ok, I never knew that, well u learn something new every day.
Also could this filter work?
Or will the plants deplete the oxygen at night?

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about plants depleting oxygen levels at the expense of fish otherwise we would be doing damage by introducing Co2 to our tanks to get good plant growth. My personal opinion is that both kind of plants can be used for a healthier tank and less need for introducing Co2 to the tank, but the difficulty is finding those plants that "reverse" this respiration. But there again, if plants were ever to use more o2 than Co2 I wouldn't worry about my fish, I'd worry more about life altogether :lol: the respiration of o2 to Co2 is negligible, the plants hang onto Co2, which makes them good Co2 sinks.
Bill

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09 Jul 2017 11:13 #38 by Aldrin (Aldrin Martin)
Ok, I am going to build this filter.

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09 Jul 2017 11:39 #39 by robert (robert carter)
Good man its great building your own , i build my 4 tier trickle filter over the last xmas hols and am delighted at the way it turned out

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10 Jul 2017 10:22 #40 by Aldrin (Aldrin Martin)
Should I put sand or gravel at the bottom of the pond ?

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10 Jul 2017 10:27 #41 by paulv (paul vickers)
If you plan on putting live plants in the pond I'd guess sand/soil mix will allow the plants to root better. Goldfish will up root plants so use heavy rocks to keep the plants in place. Hopeful others can advise you better.

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10 Jul 2017 11:08 #42 by robert (robert carter)
I wouldnt put gravel in the pond ,just too hard to keep clean . As Paul says koi and goldfish will dig up the plants , i have a few in planter which i have secured to the top edge of the pond so my fish cant get at them

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11 Jul 2017 13:15 #43 by FR85 (Gavin O'Sullivan)
Another reasonable option on filter material that I have heard about is hair curlers, again I would be of the opinion that they wouldn't break the bank too much?
As Robert mentioned I'd not put gravel in the bottom of a pond, it's going to build up with sludge and gunk and as he say's they'd be impossible to keep clean.

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11 Jul 2017 13:18 #44 by robert (robert carter)
What about ordinary lava rock the stuff you use for a barbaque , very porus and cheap at B and Q , probaly better than any plastic type media

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11 Jul 2017 13:40 - 11 Jul 2017 13:42 #45 by FR85 (Gavin O'Sullivan)
Looking at your filter design again, without there being a pressure element to it I don't know if it will work. I know you are going to drill some PVC pipe but I don't think what will force water through a submerged plant pot and your filter media.

How about building it the other way, go water into the bottom of your 110l container, build a spider web of holed PVC piping and force water to rise through the tub and exit via the top? This way you can use gravel as your media along with foam, curlers, bioballs ect and then plant it making a mini bog filter? It offers affordability and an enjoyable bit of DIY!!

Watch this video and I think you'll see where I'm going. There is about 10 parts to it but I think he covers a lot of what you want to do....the pond digger other then the irritating intro music has some very good build videos as well and planting ideas as well as stocking options.....

Last edit: 11 Jul 2017 13:42 by FR85 (Gavin O'Sullivan).

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11 Jul 2017 13:52 #46 by Aldrin (Aldrin Martin)
I did think of going the other way around but thenI thought about cleaning the filter. What if I changed the planter pot into a smaller tub with a lid, since it has a lid the water will be forced to go down as it doesn't have any other way? I want the pond filter to be cheap but also easy to clean

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11 Jul 2017 14:11 #47 by FR85 (Gavin O'Sullivan)
You don't have to go with the gravel, you can use foam, scrubbers, bioballs and other media. I feel you would be losing out on a lot of potential media space by going with your initial design. All the media that everyone has suggested is easily cleaned by swooshing (yes that's a word!) it around in a bucket of pond water. I have a bottom drain on my filter and I can actually use this to hose my media, minimal effort is required!

Remember you can have a lot of water turnover with little effect if you don't have enough media, water gets cleaned by passing through media so the more you have of it the better it will be. If you have a fast turn over the water will not get properly clean so don't think it needs to go through at high pressure. Also, if you have a small area of media with 2000l trying to pass through it, it will get clogged in no time at all, it is better to spread out the surface area that the water comes in touch with to increase cleaning intervals.

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11 Jul 2017 19:19 #48 by Aldrin (Aldrin Martin)
Ok,I think I might do with ur idea

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24 Jul 2017 10:24 #49 by FR85 (Gavin O'Sullivan)
I also think if you went with a more common design if you did run into issues more people would be able to assist. Your initial design I feel wouldn't have given you sufficient filtering, again I could be wrong!!

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24 Jul 2017 11:30 #50 by Aldrin (Aldrin Martin)
I read somewhere that having too much filtration media can be bad since there wouldn't be enough nutrients for the bacteria to survive and hence providing less filtration hence I decided to go with a 35l filter . I won't be keeping many in it and hoping to use alphagrog which supposedly is able to filter so much for such a little amount. I read it's .5l per 1000l of water.

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24 Jul 2017 12:05 #51 by FR85 (Gavin O'Sullivan)
I'm not overly sure of the maths behind it but I know too much waterflow is bad as water doesn't have time to properly pass through the media and get filtered, hence and awful lot of proper/serious Koi keepers are against pressure filters as they are good for mechanical filtration but not so good for bacterial filtration.
I also know from experience that not having enough filter media surface area leads to clogging of the media which in turn caused an overflow and my pond completely drained!!!
That was a lesson learned, this is when I also learned to put your pump up on something then on the floor of the pond so if an overflow occurs fish still have a body of water to swim in.....

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24 Jul 2017 12:18 #52 by robert (robert carter)
Flow rates are as important in a pond as in an aquarium , in a koi pond the ideal is to turn the water over 4 times an hour . Pressure filters are commonly used on koi ponds mostly for mercanical filtration . My own set up is a very big pressure filter that has k 1 media in it but i also have a 4 tier trickle filter full of white pumice and bionome ultimate media . Pond is only 5000 litre . Flow through the pressure filter is 12000 litres an hour and the trickle filter flow rate is 8000 litres , making a total of 20000 litres an hour . I personnally think with koi you cant over filter as they are certainly very messy fish , i might add i vacumm the pond weekly when doing a 50% water changs using prime as a declorinator

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24 Jul 2017 12:34 #53 by FR85 (Gavin O'Sullivan)
I still have read that you can have too much of a flow rate for your filtration and that while your flow rate may be good your filtration can be poor as water isn't being filtered to a good degree.

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24 Jul 2017 17:38 #54 by robert (robert carter)
Your right , thats what i point out saying the flow rate should be approx 4 times capacity . I did see a pond in the uk where the output from his filter was like Niagra Falls so the water was only spending mille seconds in the filter , not good

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24 Jul 2017 18:00 #55 by Aldrin (Aldrin Martin)
Biological filtration prefers slower flowing water while mechanical prefers fast flowing. Hence recommended not to have a flow rate over 10 times. This is what I have read. In small ponds try and treat it like a fish tank but wth big ponds its not possible

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24 Jul 2017 20:35 #56 by robert (robert carter)
Hi , i would think a flow rate of 10 in a pond , would be way over the top , not to even think of the poor fish trying to swim in that sort of current

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24 Jul 2017 20:38 #57 by Aldrin (Aldrin Martin)
I meant 10 for an aquarium and it isn't really that strong, depends on how u let the water out.

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24 Jul 2017 20:49 #58 by robert (robert carter)
Sorry Aldrin took you up wrong , my 350 litre community tank would have a flow rate of about 8 from two canister filters , my 470 coldwater with sump would also have a flow rate of about 8 .

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01 Aug 2017 23:53 #59 by Aldrin (Aldrin Martin)
Nearly finished the pond, hopefully pond would be ready for fish by the weekend, gonna be fully finished by end of next month

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02 Aug 2017 06:24 #60 by paulv (paul vickers)
Where are the photos young man ;) ;) . Must be very satisfying to be thinking of stocking the pond now.

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