Goldfish Pond Filters and Koi Pond Filters

Author: Richard Guest of Pets Parade Team

This article is split into two sections: Goldfish Pond Filters and Koi Pond Filters.

Choosing the correct pond filter for your pond is one of the most important projects you must undertake when designing or building your pond. Choosing unwisely could result in you having to pay more out in the long run.
First decide the size and type of pond you wish to build. Koi Carp and other large ornamental cold water fish produce a lot more waste than smaller fish i.e. Goldfish. With this in mind you need to consider your pond filter choice carefully and choose the pond filter system that will best suit your requirements.

Goldfish Pond Filters
Goldfish being a smaller bodied fish produce a lot less waste and therefore lighten the load on a biological filter. The Hozelock filter range are ideal for this task.
Hozelock have a vast range of filters designed for almost any situation that may present itself whilst designing a pond. The Bioforce filter units are ideal for small ponds with very little space available for filters. The Bioforce filter uses an enclosed vortex style unit to improve water quality. Oase also produce a more than capable pressure
unit for goldfish ponds. However the Oase Filtroclear does have a added main feature that reduces pond maintenance to a bare minimum. The ability to turn a dial and have the filter clean itself featuring a unique back washing system to keep the filter in top quality condition. Both these units contain ultraviolet units to keep the pond crystal clear all year round, and are also available in complete kits supplied with the correct size pump to run with these units.

Koi Pond Filters
In good conditions, koi will maintain and even improve their body shape, skin quality and colours. The role of filtration is quite simple:- to provide the correct healthy water conditions to ensure your koi carp survive and thrive. A pond filter acts as a sewage treatment plant for the Koi pond and is responsible for producing good quality water and healthy conditions for the fish to live in. To do this effectively the filter must first separate out the solid waste with some type of mechanical filtration such
as brushes or a vortex unit.

The next step is to break down the dissolved waste products i.e. ammonia and nitrite, that are produced as a byproduct of the fishes metabolism. This is done by bacteria living in the filter system and is a natural process hence the reason why pond filters are often referred to as biological filters. In order to produce the maximum numbers of bacteria a filter media with a large surface area such as Japanese matting, Flocor, or Alfagrog is used. The water needs to be efficiently channeled through this media and sufficient oxygen supplied with the use of extra air stones in the filter if necessary. First you must decide what type of filter you wish to go for.

The pump fed filter is a favorite amongst many koi keepers. This involves the filter being above the water level and fed via a submersible pump located in the pond itself. This then returns to the pond in a number of ways, most popular being the waterfall. As well as being a good design feature the waterfall also adds extra oxygen into the pond, essential with warm weather and when using pond treatments. These type of systems have many advantages including being one of the cheapest to produce and in some cases maintain.
However there are several disadvantages with this system.

The filters are usually quite visible especially when trying to incorporate a waterfall in your pond, because the box filter system needs to be situated at the top of any
flow of water. Another disadvantage is because the pump to power the filter system is actually located in the pond fish may damage themselves swimming around in the pond. Because you don't just have the pump in the pond you also need all the pipes connecting up to the filter. Also because the pump is situated in the pond any solids that may build up at the bottom will be chopped up by the pump and may just pass straight through the filter. Whereas with other setups the solids will usually get to the filter whole and are therefore a lot easier to remove. Other disadvantages surrounding the pump being located in the pond come from the pump sometimes being blocked by debris in the pond.

For a range of pond filters, please have a look at our pond filters section

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Goldfish Pond Filters and Koi Pond Filters

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