I try using the Algaway 5.4 but not effective. So far, I have dose for 3 week of microlift bacteria into the filter chamber, the algae is getting lesser each day.

I think the bacteria also consume the same type of nutrients as the algae. So less nutrients for the algae mean less chance of them growing rapidly. IMHO.

Bro noidea, thks for the info... I will go and get Algaway 5.4 or Microlift Bacteria if the algae condition worsen further... :o

I am thinking if the algae bloom is due to the higher flow rate as I change the 2 pumps recently? Could it due to this? Furthermore I remove the mesh cover at the overflow to prevent the detached black hair algae from clogging it. With it removed, the water being 'suck' in is amazing... normally after a heavy feeding, the water surface will have a layer of foam/bubbles and it will take a while to be gone. But now the foam/bubbles is removed in a short duration. I kind of love it :D here is a video showing how it works...
http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7qiszzbk.mp4

Cheers!

nice solid over flow. this way your water surface sure to be always clean :)

I don't think water flow rate will cause the algae bloom. I have 4 pump in my pond, I still think the flow rate is not enough. The higher the turnover rate, the better the water will be. IMHO.

Foam/bubbles is sign of the water have too much protein/etc and the bacteria in the filter are not at the optimum level to clean them up. (layman term)

When my pond display too much foam/bubbles, I will add some bacteria into the filter and somehow the next day there will be less foam/bubbles.:)

Re: Foam bubbles

It is possible to build a foam fractionator to deal with the Dissolved Organic Compounds which cause the foam.

It need not be a permanent fixture, but is rather large.

http://www.koiphen.com/forums/showth...-1300-1500-gph

You will be able to get by with 4" pipe for your pond. Getting rid of the DOCs will improve water quality greatly. The only other means of removing DOCs is water changes.

Algae bloom generally points to

1. too much nutrients in water
2. BB die off in bio filter causing #1

I think that the installation of beefier pumps may have stirred up collected dirt that settled out in the past, causing a nutrient spike. I suppose that this will resolve itself after a new equilibrium is achieved.

This one a bit 'chim' for me...

Yes bro... always like yr advise :) I believe point 2 is the cause! I did stir up quite a lot of dirt from the filter chambers and I believe quite a lot of the BB were destroyed in the process... really appreciate it.

I have some BB stuff that a very nice bro passed to me some time ago. Wonder if there is expiry date for this? Maybe I just dose some inside to try :)

Bro, in normal situation there is no foam/bubbles, these foam/bubbles only show up immediately after a heavy feeding... do u experience the same after a feeding or yours will have the foam/bubbles as and when regardless got feeding or not? Care to share a pic of your pond :)

My pond normally don't have foam as I have a clarity tower unless the koi start to spawn then there will be a lot of foam. The water is fast flow toward the surface skimmer.

I have to go find the old photo of my pond.

Clarity tower is a commercial foam fractionator. The link I supplied earlier is how you can DIY one for about $150-200. I need to build one soon for my own pond. Got most parts except the bio balls.

Bro, why go find old pic? Just take a pic of your current pond pic will do :)

Wow bro, show us when u are done with the DIY :D

Recently I discover my only ray having some weird behavior, swimming near the water surface at the back of the pond. Today saw her doing it again and decided to take video from my room... her behaviour worries me. why did she do that :( here is the video of her swimming near the water surface... sorry the video isnt very clear as I didnt open up my window as not to scare the fishes... any advise?

http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/...psaxkzdynp.mp4

so far in my experience of keeping ray.. i only notice them do this for 2 reasons

1 ) other bottom dweller stress them so hard that they forced to stay above ground ( saw this from my female ray during mating time )


2) they like to play with the air bubbles..

in your case i think since no other ray in there and your female looks reasonably big i doubt other fishes are disturbing i think should be second reason - playing..

either ways as long the ray is eating & active. should be ok

Thks bro... is good to learn that she is just playing with the air bubbles :D

I will just keep her this way at the moment... only when the time is right, then I see if I can get her a 'partner' :D

Today is a sad day. My last tiger in the pond passed away unexpectedly... yesterday she was still eating very well and I never expect her to die this morning... Took her out and then I realised that she was already 15 inches big. Didn't really know that she had grown so big in the past years from a 6-7 inches tiger... in the pond, she looked small...
I think I will not have tigers anymore. From 7pieces to 0 is a bad experience for me... I hope no more casualties... RIP tiger...

http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/...psa069bf62.jpg

Sorry... wrong photo...
Here is the correct one...

http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/...pslwrq1uas.jpg

sorry to hear that... condolences..

feel sad to see this happened, hope you can get over it soon..

Thanks bro... :)

Is really a sad day for me... my first AK red jumped out of the medication fgt after spending 2 nights in the fgt for treatment. I did put cover and heavy weight on it. However its powerful jumps somehow manage to toppled the weight and eventually broke itself "free"... and caused its death... my fault... my negligence...

RIP 小红... I will forever remember u...

If u would like to take a look at 小红, u can click the following to bring u to photobucket... sorry, I do not know of other way to load my pic yet...

http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/...psfjfwdo8c.jpg

RIP , Sorry for your loss. looked quite sumo like

You may be better off buying a second hand protein skimmer used for reef tanks - there is someone who used it for freshwater - search in youtube.
Alternatively, you may want to try ocean free hydra stream. I have been talking to qianhu staff and they advised that the hydra stream can break down DOC

Thanks bro... she is sumo to me :(

I just notice all my pictures didnt show up anymore... disappointed with photobucket :(

Time to switch to imgur bro.

Yeah looking at a v6. It's a bit ugly tho lol. Not have a lot of space in the garden.

Bro did you ever manage to deal with the nitrate problems? I have been doing some research into anoxic filtration using biocenosis baskets. Turns out the raw materials can be purchased locally.

Interested in giving this a go?

Didnt test nitrate for a long long time as it always give me that red red result. Guess it is hard for me to solve this nitrate problem...

What is biocenosis baskets? Have u tried it out? Any pic or info? How is the nitrate in your pond?

Cheers!

Haha the nitrate in my pond also red red. 40-60ppm by the looks of it. Now looking for means to make good this for the next pond. With 70+ tons, water change cannot be done efficiently.

I heard from koiphen folk that biocenosis basket properly applied can bring nitrates down to 10-20ppm easily.

Here is the site to read up on if you are interested.
http://www.mankysanke.co.uk/html/anoxic_filtration.html

I am planning to set up a trial soon to see if there is measurable effect.

1 basket in a rectangular bin into which I was pass through a small amount of pond water. If there is a significant delta in nitrate levels when comparing ingress and egress water, I will know the basket is working. In another basket, I will try 2-3 cermedia 8x8x4 cubes.

The trial might need a few months tho. The type of bacteria in biocenosis baskets take a long time to mature. I think it will cost about S$50-$60 a basket based on the price of the type of cat litter I need to buy to make it.

btw I decided not to go with the Hydrastream. It doesn't really do anything my shower doesn't do already.

Good news! There is a local distributor for oil dri premium absorbent - which is the same material as the kitty litter that is so hard to find. Even better, it isn't treated with deodorants like the kitty litter.

One bag of 50lb is under $30. I think that will make 2 biocenosis baskets easily. I am now looking for the laterite which is needed for the basket's core. That will be a bit pricier, though there are alternatives available.

considering to build a pond of my own some time in the foreseeable future, what are some of the problems you guys have faced, bro Thomas and dragonfire.

a concern of mine was appropriate circulation of the pond.

For me, I had a lot of teething problems with my drum filter. It being a single point of failure in my pond, and being somewhat less than bulletproof was a source of stress. Heck. I started dreaming about it, which can't be good :)

That's behind me now tho. Know the unit inside out, and can pretty much fix most problems. The warranty support, even though it is out of China, is good. As I tell they folk on Koiphen, it is a solid unit for folk willing to DIY. I will be using a somewhat modified version of the drum filter in my new pond. I know where the faults of the unit are. And I know precisely how to get rid of them.

My advise to you would be to plan everything to the finest detail when embarking on your quest. Comb through the details over and over. Once a pond is built, making changes is nearly impossible.

- Size and volume? Affects fish load.
- Placement? Ground beams and buried utilities can be a concern.
- Type? Poured concrete? Prefab Fiberglass? Liner? (not so common in Singapore)
- Technology? Breakback brush and mats filter? ERIC raceway? RDF? Sieve?

Don't worry too much about circulation. Strategically placed drains and returns will sort that out. Airlift pumps can make great circulation devices that move a lot of water for very little energy input.

wow that is good that you know your system inside out, this way need not rely on contractors who probably have less knowledge on fish keeping than yourself :)

so far i have been keeping my fishes inside FGTs through the years and faced various issues. like u said, would plan to the finest detail so as to avoid any future issues. i would look at what my needs are and design a system accordingly. i am looking at an above ground cement pond as my house is elevated from the ground and it'd be nice to feed the fishes from my window :)

i probably start a new thread soon to discuss this further.. just been reading up and asking friends on what issues they've faced so far so i can plan and design to avoid those..

btw u mentioned 70+ ton pond. what sort of dimensions will u be going for?
i m more the type looking for bigger swimming space instead of depth, understand you keep koi and Koi's need quite a deep place. for my self majority rays and just a few arowanas...

Dimensions still being planned right now. Getting the house design sorted before the pond.

My max depth will likely be 1.5m, fully below ground. It will be running along side my house at 1m depth, with a deep open area taking up most of the front.

My house is actually at the bottom of a hill. The driveway goes over the top and shelters most of the pond area.

Koiphen build thread is at http://www.koiphen.com/forums/showth...House-New-Pond!

You folk might want to look at the dracodrum RDF. It is an interesting design that might interest local pond owners as it is very compact, and can easily be retrofit in existing ponds.

http://www.dracodrum.com/dracodrum.html

thank you for sharing :)

Mine just using simple filtration... a few compartments of overflow and underflow compartments. I am using 2 pumps. One of the concerns is that I cannot use a more powerful pump for my filtration. This is because the water level will go very low at the last compartment where the 2 pumps are placed. The water levels will get lower and lower after each underflow compartments... u must be careful when planning these compartments so that u will not have a problem of putting a very powerful pump and it starts pumping out water so much faster than the water that can be 'taken' in by your inlets and through each compartments...

Another issue that I am facing is that I do not have control valves both at the inlets and outlets of the filter system. This will be a problem whenever I am doing water change as the water level in the filter compartments will vary with the pond water accordingly. Sometimes when I am doing a 50% WC, the water level in the compartments also lowered and all the medias are exposed... if there is control valve, at least I can shut it off and the water level inthe compartments will not be affected by WC.

Initially I thought a UV light is a must to keep away the green water, but strangly, my UV light was faulty few months back and I disposed it off. Till date, the water still as good. so I also not very sure if UV light is a must or not. But I guess it is always good to have one if possible...

Good luck in your pond building :)

Can you pls share contact. Thanks.

http://www.goldcrest.com.sg/spilfyte...pill_kits.html

Ask them about the Oil Dri Premium Absorbent granules.

Btw, laterite is now very hard to find for a good price. It seems that Seachem Red Fluorite is a viable alternative, and should be available at LFS. Need about 1 cup per basket.