BIO Question ??

I just built a bio filter with veg on top and was wondering how long it will
take for this bios stuff to grow in the filter?
How long until it is working at 100%?
Can the bio freeze solid or should I sink it?

I used pot scrubbies and cut up election signs (Canadian). The corrugated
plastic makes good medium with good water flow and surface area. All crammed
into a 5 gal (imp) plastic flower pot. If I had a digicam I would have a
pic.
thanks

"Steve (Dart)" wrote in message
...
I just built a bio filter with veg on top and was wondering how long it
will
take for this bios stuff to grow in the filter?
How long until it is working at 100%?
Can the bio freeze solid or should I sink it?
snip

Hi,
Curious, is it upflow or down? Colonization has begun already and I'm not
sure what 100% working looks like. There is, for sure, a too small for the
pond size but that has many factors, i.e. number of fish, gallons, feeding
of fish, flow rate, mechanical filtration happening before the bio, etc. Big
is better.
Biofiltration stops at about 40 degrees f, that's about 4.4 c for those who
do it correctly, so letting it freeze or not requires a cleaning and a
restart in spring.
HTH -_- how
no NEWS is good

The amount of time for the filter to develop enough to eat all the ammonia
will be fairly short, probably less than 2 weeks. It is not until those
bacteria are producing the nitrites that the next group of bacteria can
start growing and they are slower to come up to speed. The time could be as
much as six weeks. The number of bacteria are determined by the amount of
food available, so once established, if you shock the pond with a large
influx of new fish, you will go through the cycle again. While going
through the cycle, monitor ammonia and nitrite levels. If the ammonia
starts to go high, use an ammonia binding chemical like Amquel, to
neutralize the ammonia to prevent burns to the gills. If the nitrites start
to go high, then you can add salt to neutralize the effect of the nitrites
on the fish.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html
"Steve (Dart)" wrote in message
...
I just built a bio filter with veg on top and was wondering how long it
will
take for this bios stuff to grow in the filter?
How long until it is working at 100%?
Can the bio freeze solid or should I sink it?

I used pot scrubbies and cut up election signs (Canadian). The corrugated
plastic makes good medium with good water flow and surface area. All
crammed
into a 5 gal (imp) plastic flower pot. If I had a digicam I would have a
pic.
thanks

"RichToyBox" wrote in message
news:sLkJc.92580$Oq2.29332@attbi_s52...
The amount of time for the filter to develop enough to eat all the ammonia
will be fairly short, probably less than 2 weeks. It is not until those
bacteria are producing the nitrites that the next group of bacteria can
start growing and they are slower to come up to speed. The time could be as
much as six weeks. The number of bacteria are determined by the amount of
food available, so once established, if you shock the pond with a large
influx of new fish, you will go through the cycle again. While going
through the cycle, monitor ammonia and nitrite levels. If the ammonia
starts to go high, use an ammonia binding chemical like Amquel, to
neutralize the ammonia to prevent burns to the gills. If the nitrites start
to go high, then you can add salt to neutralize the effect of the nitrites
on the fish.

I'm interested in knowing how adding salt neutralizes the effect of nitrites on
freshwater fish, since it does nothing for sal****er fish.

" George" wrote in message
...
snip
I'm interested in knowing how adding salt neutralizes the effect of
nitrites on
freshwater fish, since it does nothing for sal****er fish.


Hi,
I don't do salt water fish but this link talks about 'brown blood disease'
or nitrite poisoning which can happen with fresh water fish. Do a google
using "salt + brown blood" for a few hundred thousand more.
http://msucares.com/pubs/infosheets/is1390.htm
HTH -_- how
no NEWS is good

"how" wrote in message
...
" George" wrote in message
...
snip
I'm interested in knowing how adding salt neutralizes the effect of
nitrites on
freshwater fish, since it does nothing for sal****er fish.


Hi,
I don't do salt water fish but this link talks about 'brown blood disease'
or nitrite poisoning which can happen with fresh water fish. Do a google
using "salt + brown blood" for a few hundred thousand more.
http://msucares.com/pubs/infosheets/is1390.htm
HTH -_- how
no NEWS is good


The reason why I asked is that I do salt water aquariums as well as ponds, and I
know from experience that when setting up a sal****er tank you can't put
anything at all into the tank until the nitrogen cycle is completed, especially
when it is in the nitrite portion of that cycle because of the high toxicity of
nitrite. Thanks for the link.

"Steve (Dart)" wrote in message
...
I just built a bio filter with veg on top and was wondering how long it will
take for this bios stuff to grow in the filter?
How long until it is working at 100%?
Can the bio freeze solid or should I sink it?

I used pot scrubbies and cut up election signs (Canadian). The corrugated
plastic makes good medium with good water flow and surface area. All crammed
into a 5 gal (imp) plastic flower pot. If I had a digicam I would have a
pic.
thanks


I have to say it. That is the best use of an election sign I've ever heard of.

Thanks George, I also use them to cover the surface to keep our birds,
coons and sun while I am at work.
The filter feeds from the bottom and pumps about 8L or 2 gal /min
so far everything is fine but was just wondering how long till the filter is
working at max capability.
Thanks
Steve
" George" wrote in message
...

"Steve (Dart)" wrote in message
...
I just built a bio filter with veg on top and was wondering how long it
will
take for this bios stuff to grow in the filter?
How long until it is working at 100%?
Can the bio freeze solid or should I sink it?

I used pot scrubbies and cut up election signs (Canadian). The
corrugated
plastic makes good medium with good water flow and surface area. All
crammed
into a 5 gal (imp) plastic flower pot. If I had a digicam I would have
a
pic.
thanks


I have to say it. That is the best use of an election sign I've ever
heard of.

"Steve (Dart)" wrote in message
...
Thanks George, I also use them to cover the surface to keep our birds,
coons and sun while I am at work.
The filter feeds from the bottom and pumps about 8L or 2 gal /min
so far everything is fine but was just wondering how long till the filter is
working at max capability.
Thanks
Steve

Depends on the size of the pond, but 2 gal/min doesn't seem to be very much. If
your pond is very big, it is possible that your filter will go septic, and start
cranking out foul-smelling hydrogen sulphide. Mine pumps about 1,400
gallon/hour for a 1,200 gallon pond (the container is an old jacuzzi swimming
pool filter with about 40 gallons capacity, half-filled with rounded gravel).
It also has a 5 gal capacity pre-filter. What size is your pond?

Here is a link to my web site that shows my pond:

http://bellsouthpwp.net/r/o/rockcat/pond/pond.htm

You can see the pre-filter in the first picture. The main filter is below the
waterfall (which I have since made major modifications to).

" George" wrote in message
...

"Steve (Dart)" wrote in message
...
I just built a bio filter with veg on top and was wondering how long it
will
take for this bios stuff to grow in the filter?
How long until it is working at 100%?
Can the bio freeze solid or should I sink it?

I used pot scrubbies and cut up election signs (Canadian). The
corrugated
plastic makes good medium with good water flow and surface area. All
crammed
into a 5 gal (imp) plastic flower pot. If I had a digicam I would have
a
pic.
thanks


I have to say it. That is the best use of an election sign I've ever
heard of.

My pond is about1300L or 300 imp gal
that means my pond gets turned over once every 2.5 hrs (give or take)
does that sound reasonable?
by the way, your yellow fish is HUGE !! It looks nice, i particularly like
the color.

Steve

" George" wrote in message
...

"Steve (Dart)" wrote in message
...
Thanks George, I also use them to cover the surface to keep our birds,
coons and sun while I am at work.
The filter feeds from the bottom and pumps about 8L or 2 gal /min
so far everything is fine but was just wondering how long till the
filter is
working at max capability.
Thanks
Steve

Depends on the size of the pond, but 2 gal/min doesn't seem to be very
much. If
your pond is very big, it is possible that your filter will go septic, and
start
cranking out foul-smelling hydrogen sulphide. Mine pumps about 1,400
gallon/hour for a 1,200 gallon pond (the container is an old jacuzzi
swimming
pool filter with about 40 gallons capacity, half-filled with rounded
gravel).
It also has a 5 gal capacity pre-filter. What size is your pond?

Here is a link to my web site that shows my pond:

http://bellsouthpwp.net/r/o/rockcat/pond/pond.htm

You can see the pre-filter in the first picture. The main filter is below
the
waterfall (which I have since made major modifications to).

" George" wrote in message
...

"Steve (Dart)" wrote in message
...
I just built a bio filter with veg on top and was wondering how long
it
will
take for this bios stuff to grow in the filter?
How long until it is working at 100%?
Can the bio freeze solid or should I sink it?

I used pot scrubbies and cut up election signs (Canadian). The
corrugated
plastic makes good medium with good water flow and surface area. All
crammed
into a 5 gal (imp) plastic flower pot. If I had a digicam I would
have
a
pic.
thanks


I have to say it. That is the best use of an election sign I've ever
heard of.