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Koi Pond Filters | Gold fish Bio pond Filters Review

Choose From Industry Leading Fish Pond Filters

This page points to pond filter reviews for all filters and filter related products on this site. There are links to branded products from reputable, industry leading pond biofilter manufacturers, such as the world's number 1 water gardening company Oase, Fishmate (Animate) and Laguna.

These companies have extensive knowledge and understanding of the needs of koi and gold fish keepers and have produced a range of high quality, reliable and cost effective pond filtration systems for most backyard ponds.

Pond filters are essential for cleaning your pond water. To get the most from your filter it must run 24 hrs a day, and be connected to a pump of the right size for your pond.

The fish pond filters below have been categorized according to type of pond filter, for convenience.

You will find categories relating to traditional box filter types, pressurized pond filters, koi pond filters, bead filters, combined pond filter and pump kits, biological waterfall filters and skimmer filters, all from industry leading manufacturers.

Box Type External Gravity Discharge Pond Filter Models

Backyard Or Garden Pond Pressure Filters

Koi Pond Filters & Biological Bead Filter Systems

Combined Pond Pump And Filter Kits

Waterfall Filters and Water Feature Spillways

Why Do I Need A Fish Pond Filter?

Fish pond filters are a must have for any water garden or fish pond that contains Koi, goldfish, orfe, or any other species of pond fish. A pond filter will perform some of or all of the functions bullet pointed below (99% of pond filters will perform steps 1 and 2 at least). The 3 steps outlined below are essential if you want to maintain a healthy fish pond where the fish population will thrive and remain healthy and disease free ...

• 1 - Mechanical Filtration - this involves trapping large solids such as leaves, grass, fish excrement and other debris that falls into your pond.

• 2 - Biological Filtration - this is the predominant purpose of a biological pond filter. Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter beneficial bacteria that colonize on your pond filter media, housed in the pond filter break down toxic ammonia (from fish excrement, decaying fish food, decaying leaves etc) into much less harmful nitrates. Ammonia is potentially lethal to all fish species in high concentrations.

• 3 - Ultra-Violet Clarification - many modern fish pond filters incorporate a UV sterilizer (UV clarifier) into the filter housing. A UV sterilizer is responsible for killing algae cells, found in pond water, preventing your pond water from turning green.

What Are The Main Types Of Pond Filter?

There is a lot of different terminology banded around the water gardening industry to describe fish pond filters and their categorization. I will attempt to make the differentiation as simple as possible...

Box Type Gravity Fish Pond Filters

These traditional fish pond filters are generally used in small to medium sized fish ponds, up to about 1000 gallons in volume. They incorporate mechanical filtration in the form of filter sponges or filter brushes (sometimes both), which trap vegetation and other organic solids found in your backyard pond. As water flows through the filter, after having debris trapped by the brushes, sponges etc it enters the biological filter chamber where the biomedia containing the beneficial bacteria starts to convert any ammonia into nitrite then into nitrate.

Fishmate Supra Biofilter Medium

Pond filter media can range from cheap plastic coils (small surface area on which beneficial bacteria can colonize) to much more efficient ceramic media such as Fishmate Supra, known as Alfagrog in the UK which has a much larger surface area on which beneficial bacteria can live.

The higher the surface area of the pond filter media the higher the concentration of beneficial bacteria. This means that pond water will be purified much more quickly and efficiently. It also means that a much smaller pond filter using Supra will be as effective as a large filter using cheap plastic coils.

Many models incorporate a UVC clarifier (UV lamp) that kills algae cells found in pond water. As the algae is killed it clumps together and is trapped by the brushes/sponges outlined earlier (mechanical filtration). These box type filters are external pond filters, located outside of the pond and are usually located next to the pond at the highest point, allowing gravity to discharge the purified pond water back into the pond. For this reason they are often known as gravity pond filters or gravity discharge pond filters  ... For further relating to popular industry leading products please take a look at the reviews above entitled Box Type External Gravity Pond Filter Models.

Pressurized Pond Bio Filters

The major advantage of these types of biological pond filter is the fact that due to their design and functioning they can be buried up to their lid away from the immediate vicinity of the pond. The box type filters outlined above need to be located next to the pond and can be a bit of an eye sore. Pressurized pond filters incorporate a back flushing system which expels trapped waste such as leaves, grass and other organics, making routine cleaning of this type of fish pond filter much easier and quicker.

In fact pressurized pond bio filters have become the dominant fish pond filter choice for the majority of small to medium sized fish ponds, mainly due to the much more compact size and increased efficiency when compared to the more traditional box filter models. Pond pressure filters need a higher pressure pump than gravity box type filters and many manufacturers suggest a recommended pump to use (usually one of their own models but any pump that matches the specification will do).

Bead Filters Or Koi Pond Filters

These professional type of biological pond filters are usually the preserve of those pond keepers with large ponds containing large volumes of water and large Koi and/or high fish stocking densities. The majority of US manufacturers who make these koi pond filters use biological beads as the pond filter biomedia choice because bead biomedia has a very large surface area on which beneficial bacteria can colonize. This combined with other advanced biofiltration techniques such as incorporating a bead agitator to prevent the beads from clumping together make these Koi pond filters one of the best choices for large koi pond filtration requirements.