How Koi Pond Air Pumps And Japanese Matting Improve Koi Pond Filtration
The Secret Of Japanese Matting And Air Pumps In Purifying Koi Ponds
This article is really aimed at Koi keepers rather than those casual pond keepers. However the points are still pertinent to small garden ponds as well.
The vast majority of smaller fish ponds do not need a pond air pump as the oxygen demands of the pond fish and pond filter system are not as excessive as those of a large Koi pond. Oxygen is still extremely important and you try to get as much oxygen into the pond as possible.
Humans need oxygen to respire, in much the same way as Koi carp need oxygen. Oxygen is critical to the effective functioning of nitrifying bacteria, responsible for breaking ammonia in pond water. These bacteria live in a biological pond filter, or more specifically on the pond Biomedia, housed in the filter chamber.
Garden Fish Ponds Before Feeding Koi
If you were to attach an analyzer to your pond system and measure the levels of ammonia and oxygen before the pond filter and after the pond filter, you would see something along the lines of the following ...
Just before feeding your Koi the ammonia levels and oxygen levels at the intake of the pond filter would be be low and high respectively. Providing that you have fully functional biological pond filter the level of ammonia exiting the biofilter would be minimal and the level of oxygen would be lower.
Remember earlier that I said nitrifying bacteria need oxygen; this is the reason why! They utilize large quantities of oxygen in converting ammonia into nitrites and then into nitrates. The purification of water and the removal of ammonia is critically important to prevent Koi stress and fatalities.
Garden Fish Ponds After Feeding Koi
Koi food and fish food in general contains nitrogen which when it passes through the Koi's system is converted into ammonia. This happens very quickly. So if you repeat the measurements above for water ponds under feeding circumstances this is what you would see.
At the inlet to the biofilter a much higher ammonia level with a normal high oxygen level would be observed. On the outlet side of the biofilter you would see a much lower oxygen measurement and a significantly lower ammonia level.
What has happened in the biofilter? The beneficial bacteria consumed as much of the ammonia as possible and absorbed lots of oxygen from the circulating water to be able to achieve this. The Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter bacteria, however could not convert all the ammonia this time around, as the amount of oxygen was depleted too quickly.
In order for the bacteria to convert the ammonia the next time they require as much oxygen as possible. That it why you should use an air pump, or incorporate a venturi or waterfall into your pond system. Without oxygen the bacteria would be completely wiped out after about 6 hours. This is why a garden pond pumps must run 24 hours a day. A pond pump supplies water to the pond filter, waterfall and venturi for example.
Air pumps and how to use them in garden fish ponds
Based on the above discussion it is obvious that biofilter bacteria need lots of oxygen and that oxygen is removed in the biofilter continuously in the biofilter process itself. Where is the best place in any fish pond to add oxygenated air.?
The best place is directly into the pond filter system as close as possible to the nitrifying bacteria. For this reason Japanese matting and vortex filters are probably the best Koi pond filtration system available. You would of course need to use an air pump to continually supply oxygen to the Japanese matting matrix.
In the UK Vortex filters and Japanese matting are particularly popular for use in large Koi ponds. In the USA bead filters (fluidized bed filters) are the preferred choice. Bead filters are not as good as a vortex filter with Japanese matting unless they incorporate a blower. The inclusion of a blower will make them just as good as a vortex filter with Japanese matting.
So it is not the Japanese matting itself that is the secret to excellent biofiltration it is the fact that Japanese matting lends itself to efficient contact between bacteria, ammonia and oxygenated pond water.
Do yourself a favor and add as much oxygen into your Koi pond as you can. An air pump with air stones is definitely a recommendation I would consider.
