Topic: Cleaning Fliters?

[Doris_Pinks]

Those box things that the water pumps into before it goes into the pond is what I am talking about! 
My Mum's has a layer of plastic crinkly tubes, then 2 layers of foamy stuff!! I was cleaning it out today after a long period of her not be able to run her pond, and the thought crossed my mind, are we supposed to clean them out, or do we just let all the creatures in there do their stuff?  And if we ARE supposed to clean them, how often?
Now if someone would create a pond pump that doesn't clog and require cleaning they would be a millionaire!   DP

[Roy Bham UK]

You should not touch the bottom of the biological filter, that does most of the work on toxic ammonia, you get friendly bacteria that colonise the 'plastic crinkly tubes' I only clean the top sponge medium, you should wash it in pond water (not in the pond) and occasionally the next one down. ;D

The pump needs regular cleaning if you want it to last. :o

[Doris_Pinks]

Aha Roy, thanks fo that,Thats what I thought!! But which spongy thing goes on top of which, and which way up???  Mountains to the top or bottom, and black on top?

[Roy Bham UK]

It's mountains up ;D I think the coarsest on top then medium then fine, (if there's three?) not seen a black one unless you are talking about those plastic crinklies ??? they go on the very bottom ;D

[Doris_Pinks]

Roy, me Mum has 2, one black and one white! I have tried to see which one is coarser, but they both look the same to me!! Oh well I guess it won't make a huge difference! ;D  Bet I am back at hers today cleaning out the %$£((^^*%£&^ pump! 
Mountains up it is then, thanks for that!  (So glad mine at home only has a pump to worry about! ;D  ;D )

[Margaret]

Hi Doris.Has there been a pump  continually pumping water through the filter ? if so then yes,all it needs is a good rinse in pond water as Roy says.However if the filter has not been used the bacteria will have long died and it is not safe to just start running it again without thoroughly cleaning it,in tap water.You will need to add filter start if you are feeding fish.It will then work quicker on building up the biological process that can take up to 8 weeks.This includes the bottom section as well,the most important part of the whole process.

Years ago a friend of a friend learned a valuable lesson the hard way.Her pump packed up and she was over 24 hours getting round to replacing it.This was in hot weather.She connected it to the filter system and thought everything would just carry on as normal.Unfortunately,and especially as she had a beautiful pond full of Koi carp,(though all fish are of equal value in my eyes)it didn't work as planned and the next morning she looked on her pond in horror.Most of the fish were dead and dying.Purely because the bacteria had died without the oxygen that the pump provided,and then had been released into the pond,heavily polluting it and removing the oxygen in one foul swoop.

I always have a spare pump to hand,and always leave my filtration and pumps running all the time,all year round.

[Doris_Pinks]

Thank you for that Margaret.
Oh your poor friend, I bet she was devastated! 
It hasn't been running for months now, (fence panel behind wind damaged so waiting for workman to replce it...one of those, i'll be there, then next week, i'll be there, etc.!!)  so I did give it all a good rinse out with tap water, (mainly because it stank to high heaven!)
8 weeks to get all that bacteria going again, crikey! :o  Will let my Mum know, how often do you rinse yours?  DP

[Margaret]

Hi again Doris.Mine are very well established and as i never turn the pumps off i do not need to clean them more than once a month in winter when the fish are not feeding.But as the warmer weather comes and the fish are eating well i clean mine about once a week.Depends on how much algae the uv is killing and is collecting in the filter more than anything.I also have a lot of fish in each pond so that also means a lot of gunk!!On my raised pond i had some probs last month with the external pipes splitting so i finally changed the system over to an internal pump,uv and filter all in one.However it is not enough for the number of fish i have so i also bought another internal filter that attaches to the original pump.I now find these get clogged up quite quickly as this pond is in the full sun when it shines all day! So more work but i don't mind.

If you use filter food,a liquid that is inexpensive, it will help the filter to mature quicker and therefore be better for the fish.I would refrain from cleaning vigorously for some time,at least until it gets quite blocked.Then just see how things go.You can always PM me if you ever have any queries as i always check on here regularly these days.

[Doris_Pinks]

Thank You Margaret (me mum's name BTW! ;D) I might hold you to that!!  DP :-*

[Andy H]

 :'( :'( :'(
Sad weekend. Lost 3 Koi 22",21" & 16"
revived 2 and another dead this morning(@16")
One was nice one with blue scales.
Had them years...

Must have been either oxygen depletion or filter gunge as mentioned above :-\ :-\ :-\

[Roy Bham UK]

 >:( winter ph crash killed mine off amongst other things  >:( very sad :'(

[Andy H]

Lost 6 total, all nearly 2ft long.

All ok now,drained ots water and topped up.

Have had pump on timer but now back to full time like the last ten yrs. trying to save elec and lost 6 >:(

I found that the bottom finest of the 3 sponges clogged the worst? Top one which was course was ok most of the time?

What should I do???

Must replace UV too

[Doris_Pinks]

Update!

Changed UV bulb, £14.75, if it works cheap at half the price!
Bought new filter sponges
Cleaned out pump filter and it is now all up n running properly.

Was going to clean the quartz, but took one look at the unit and the instructions that came with it, and decided it looked rather like dismantling an atomic bomb! :o :o Plus I had my duaghter in the background yelling, " don't cut the red wire Mum" , so needless to say I chickened out of doing that!

Mum looked  it up in her "book" and the UV was bought in 2000, no wonder the water was green!! She has now put a note to herself in her diary to change it every spring ;D

Hopefully in a few weeks time she will be able to see her fish again.

Sorry Andy as you can tell by my original post, not much help on the whole filter/UV thing :-\

[Roy Bham UK]

Doris I think you have wasted your money (or was it your Mums?) on the UV bulb if you didn't clean the Quartz, especially after five long years of use :o They should be cleaned every 6 months and bulb replaced too.

What I do is run the UV via a time switch and set it to come on in daylight hours, this way you can extend the life of the bulb to a year as I believe the algae grows with the aid of the sun. ;)

[Margaret]

Hi Roy and Doris.My uv is wired in with the pumps so i can't put mine on a timer but i turn mine off all winter and then when the pond gets very clear i may turn it off for a week or so.If you get blanketweed it does no harm to let the pond get a bit green which curtails its growth.This way,like yours, my bulb lasts up to a year.

Glad to hear all is now up and running ok with your mums pond Doris.

[Doris_Pinks]

Mum's money Roy ;)  I peered down the tube thingy (technical term that!) and it didn't look too brown so fingers crossed!
The chap in the fish shop said that the best time to replace the bulb is in the spring so that it works on the algae at its best/worst time, and then as winter approaches and the bulb begins to be less effective, its algae clearing job is not needed, errrr if you see what I mean! Well it made sense to me when he said it! I must go over and take some piccies to see if it is improving over the weeks!
Margaret, don't you run your pumps in the winter then?

[Margaret]

Hi Doris.I most certainly do run my pumps in winter.In fact i have had my pumps running non stop for 14 years(apart from when i have to change them cos they wear out!!) The uv bulb is part of the filter and you can turn off the electricity to the filter which of course turns off the bulb.My 2 pumps on my large pond,and the uv are wired into a box that has 3 separate switches and they can be individually switched off rather than inside the house where they are wired up to a circuit breaker.My raised pond electrics are run to a powersafe box specially installed in the garage,but again they are individually switched for ease.

[Roy Bham UK]

Mum's money Roy ;)  I peered down the tube thingy (technical term that!) and it didn't look too brown so fingers crossed!

 :-\ Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe you should treat the Quartz tube the same way you would treat a Quartz Halogen bulb, that is, do not touch it with your bare hands, I wash mine with warm soapy water, let it drip dry a little and use a paper towel  to dry thoroughly inside and out without touching the quartz as they are quite expensive pieces of glass. :o ;D

[Doris_Pinks]

Roy, I just could not figure out how to get the thing out without doing damage to it, so it stayed! The instructions muttered on about buying a proper kit etc. to get it out, so we gave up!!   At this fish shop they leave theirs overnight in a bucket of stuff you clean water features with, a chlorine based summit, then they rinse them off.

Margaret it sounds like a very complicated setup you have :o  but wonderfully thought out!  Do you have any piccies posted anywhere I would love to see your ponds  ;D

[sand]

Hi,

Just moved house and aquired a small unimpressive pond that we thought about filling in but have decided to make the most of.  It has a filter box jobbie thing on the side and a fountain in the middle.  The previous owners avoided feeding the fish as it clouded up the water (!) and it had no plants in the water whatsoever.

We have been feeding the fish and put in some plants and weed.  The fish seem happy and the water, after initially clouding has cleared beautifully.  However the fountain drops and the filter seems to clog up frequently and need cleaning (in a bucket of pond water) sometimes more than once a week.  Is this too often?  Am I missing something?

Advice please.  Sand