Pond Filtration Guide

Why Filter a Pond?

Koi and other pond fish can not stay alive without filteration (unless you have a large pond with very few fish/koi). The main reason for filteration is to improve water quality within your pond, as well as enabling you to be able to stock your pond with more fish and ensure that all the pond fish grow and reach there full potential. A good filtration system also means that the pond water will stay clear enabling you to be able to see your pond fish/koi clearly throughout the year making the most of your Garden pond.

What Kind of Filtration Do I Need?

This depends on two factors; type of fish and stocking level of the pond, if you only intend to keep a few small fish i.e Goldfish, Ore etc , you will only need the simplest of set ups;

A small submersible pump a small bio filter > a UV clarifier

However if you wanted to keep a larger number of pond fish in your pond or even move into keeping Koi then a more advanced set up is required, a bare minimum of:

• Strong submersible pump; capable of pumping the entire contents of your pond through your filter at least once every two hours preferably once every hour
• A large bio filter; the exact size of the filter again depends on the size of your but as a rough guide a standard box filter  should have the same water volume capacity as one third of your pond.  There are exceptions to this rule many smaller filter's perform just as well  if well matured.
• A good sized UV clarifier to keep the pond algae clear.
• Depending on your budget a set-up that i use  for keeping Koo is a gravity fed filter which is fed via bottom drains then into a sand filter via a large surface pump (skimming pool type). This is an expensive option but highly recommended if you intend on keeping large Koi.