Maximizing pressurized filters efficiency?

Hi, folks.

Our pond is rather small at only 280 gallons. After a few years of using an
inpond integrated pump/homemade filter (lava rock, scrubbies, etc.) last
season I ran across a good deal on a Hozelock Bioforce 500 UV filter and
Titan 550 pump. It has worked fine over this past season but with a new
hatch of goldie babies, I'm finding that the filter foams now need to be
cleaned every other day - - which is a pain in itself, but even more so as
this unit does not feature a backwash.

Without having to spring for yet another filter system, I would like your
thoughts on how I can:

a) augment the current Bioforce filter ..how can I improve it's efficiency,
or add more filtration? Has anyone tried adding BioBalls to the bottom of
the filter cannister, below the 2 foams? ..or perhaps adding back the old
inpond filter setup?

b) stop the females from constantly producing, etc. In other words control
the population (currently at 30 with (8) 5-6" goldies, comets and
skubunkens).

It's early in the season and the water is still clear. There are already
several plants in place and the pond is sunny about 5 hours/day in the
summer. We are on the Pacific West Coast.

Thanks. Jack

Jack....What you describe doing is how the later model Bio Force
filters are made. They have three rings of foam of different porusity
or densitys. setting on a plastic disk with a series of perferations
in it, under wich is a bunch of bio balls.......They work fantastic.
The older models were as yu described, and used mainly one or two
pieces of foam. Check with hozelock in New Jersey, and see if yu can
convert or add the three foam rings and the bio ball and perforated
disk to yur present filter canister. As far as I can tell they are the
same. RThe newer model canistors also have a red ring aorund a
pressure indicator. I run these Bio Force filters on a bunch of
preforms we keep tropicals and fancy golides in in hot sunny southern
weather, and I can get 2 months easily without nding to clean filters,
often times more. I may have predominately tropicals in my preforms
but they are heavily stocked, so they do have quite a fish load on
them......as do the ones with goldies. I also run the UVC as well so
make sure yur clear quartz sleeve is not dirty or covered in crud or
mineral deposits as that will drastically reduce its efficieincy, as
will using a old or used up UV tube.

The BIo F9orce is a great filter setup, better IMHO than Laguna or
Tetra or Oase systems, and hands down better than any submergedbox can
dream of being......Even if you need to add a perforated disk, it can
me made with a piece of the plastic hardware cloth or bird netting,
and be sure to slow down the flow of water. Hozelock shows a
proceedure to measure how many gph flow your getting, and its
important to not to flow th water too fast or you do not get good
results from the UV system....Is yuor pump enclosed in a plastic
housing / cage type deal? I sure do not see why and how it can get so
dirty so quick, but have yu cleaned the mulm in the ppnds bottom yet
this year? Algae load as does mulm adds quite a bit of trash to the
foam rings so its best to remove and clean the pond bottom every
spring and every fall...

Don;t discount that Bio Force filter system, its a great setup and
does wonderfull.

Pay no attention to Ron as all he is is the resident troll looking to
drag mopre folks over to his controled moderated group in his vain
attempt to destroy the real rec.ponds..He sold everyone a bill of
goods and started and suported a troll war beghind the scenes in order
to justify a moderated group and the majority of folks fell for his
game.......Rec.ponds is not dead, they are just tired of Ron and his
rogue moderators starting and trashing and trolling foks in this as
well as other aquaria groups to start yet more moderated forums....

Regards and have a great Day
Roy


On Tue, 01 May 2007 14:36:51 GMT, "Jack"
wrote:

Hi, folks.

Our pond is rather small at only 280 gallons. After a few years of using an
inpond integrated pump/homemade filter (lava rock, scrubbies, etc.) last
season I ran across a good deal on a Hozelock Bioforce 500 UV filter and
Titan 550 pump. It has worked fine over this past season but with a new
hatch of goldie babies, I'm finding that the filter foams now need to be
cleaned every other day - - which is a pain in itself, but even more so as
this unit does not feature a backwash.

Without having to spring for yet another filter system, I would like your
thoughts on how I can:

a) augment the current Bioforce filter ..how can I improve it's efficiency,
or add more filtration? Has anyone tried adding BioBalls to the bottom of
the filter cannister, below the 2 foams? ..or perhaps adding back the old
inpond filter setup?

b) stop the females from constantly producing, etc. In other words control
the population (currently at 30 with (8) 5-6" goldies, comets and
skubunkens).

It's early in the season and the water is still clear. There are already
several plants in place and the pond is sunny about 5 hours/day in the
summer. We are on the Pacific West Coast.

Thanks. Jack




-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!

Thanks very much for your advice on the Hozelock devices, Roy.

As I mentioned, it is the newer Bioforce 500 UVC. It has 2 slices of foams
in it only. No bottom plate. After canvassing Hozelock last Fall, I found
that the unit with the plate (and BioBalls) is the Bioforce 1000. That
unit's bottom tank is considerably larger than mine, so there is room for
the plate, an extra foam, and biomedia ..the lesser models only have the
foams: 1 for the Bioforce 250 and 2 for the Bioforce 500. I did previously
inquire to an online retailer as to whether getting a 1000 shell would work
for retro'ing my model, and apparently it can but there doesn't appear to be
a plate available to separate the foams from the biomedia below. However,
the top unit that houses the UVC is the same fit for models 250~1000 as
well.

So yes, if I could economically remodel my unit to a more efficient one I
probably would do it. I would need: a larger canister tank to fit the
exisiting top unit, the inside center centrifical thing that surrounds the
quartz glass, a bottom plate separator, biomedia, and another foam.

I did try to put some biomedia (really, just some cut up pieces of scrubbie
pads) in the bottom of the canister under the 2 foams, but that didn't work
as expected as it inhibited the proper swirl function of the Bioforce
filter. There is not much space left after the foams are added. Perhaps if
I tried some other types of biomedia it might have worked better? Also, as
the foams are so ridiculously priced have you had any luck sourcing a
generic foam material that can be cut?

So I would imagine a properly sized unit would work as you suggest.
However, it would be nice to have a design that allows backwashing as the
Oase and others do ;-)

As for the pump, it is the Titan 550 gph unit and it is surrounded by a
cage. This pump rests on the bottom and is slightly elevated on a small 2"
brick slab. And yes, the pond was drained and the bottom scum was cleaned
up just recently. But the walls, etc. weren't washed as I figure I wanted
to leave the stuff on them. The water is currently very clear and tests
fine ..but then I clean the filter foams every other day, which is the
current problem.

Using the Hozelock site, I used the filter to pump water into a 5 gal bucket
and timed it. It took 90 secs to fill so I figure the filter is processing
at near its maximum flow-through rate of 250 gph which, with my size of pond
gives it a water change only once per hour ..less than what Hozelock
suggests (1.5~2.0). BTW, the outlet is spit between a type of water fall
(just a drill hole in a massive blasted boulder) and the rest is re-routed
back to the pond via a ball-valve. This is to regulate the amount of splash
into the pond. I would think a good deal of pressure would be needed to
force the water through the filtering unit. So do you really think slowing
down the flow through the filter makes that much of a difference? I can
install another ball valve to split the supply from the pump (to the filter)
if it will.

Jack




"~Mr. McDonald~" wrote in message
...


Jack....What you describe doing is how the later model Bio Force
filters are made. They have three rings of foam of different porusity
or densitys. setting on a plastic disk with a series of perferations
in it, under wich is a bunch of bio balls.......They work fantastic.
The older models were as yu described, and used mainly one or two
pieces of foam. Check with hozelock in New Jersey, and see if yu can
convert or add the three foam rings and the bio ball and perforated
disk to yur present filter canister. As far as I can tell they are the
same. RThe newer model canistors also have a red ring aorund a
pressure indicator. I run these Bio Force filters on a bunch of
preforms we keep tropicals and fancy golides in in hot sunny southern
weather, and I can get 2 months easily without nding to clean filters,
often times more. I may have predominately tropicals in my preforms
but they are heavily stocked, so they do have quite a fish load on
them......as do the ones with goldies. I also run the UVC as well so
make sure yur clear quartz sleeve is not dirty or covered in crud or
mineral deposits as that will drastically reduce its efficieincy, as
will using a old or used up UV tube.

The BIo F9orce is a great filter setup, better IMHO than Laguna or
Tetra or Oase systems, and hands down better than any submergedbox can
dream of being......Even if you need to add a perforated disk, it can
me made with a piece of the plastic hardware cloth or bird netting,
and be sure to slow down the flow of water. Hozelock shows a
proceedure to measure how many gph flow your getting, and its
important to not to flow th water too fast or you do not get good
results from the UV system....Is yuor pump enclosed in a plastic
housing / cage type deal? I sure do not see why and how it can get so
dirty so quick, but have yu cleaned the mulm in the ppnds bottom yet
this year? Algae load as does mulm adds quite a bit of trash to the
foam rings so its best to remove and clean the pond bottom every
spring and every fall...

Don;t discount that Bio Force filter system, its a great setup and
does wonderfull.

Pay no attention to Ron as all he is is the resident troll looking to
drag mopre folks over to his controled moderated group in his vain
attempt to destroy the real rec.ponds..He sold everyone a bill of
goods and started and suported a troll war beghind the scenes in order
to justify a moderated group and the majority of folks fell for his
game.......Rec.ponds is not dead, they are just tired of Ron and his
rogue moderators starting and trashing and trolling foks in this as
well as other aquaria groups to start yet more moderated forums....

Regards and have a great Day
Roy


On Tue, 01 May 2007 14:36:51 GMT, "Jack"
wrote:

Hi, folks.

Our pond is rather small at only 280 gallons. After a few years of
using an
inpond integrated pump/homemade filter (lava rock, scrubbies, etc.)
last
season I ran across a good deal on a Hozelock Bioforce 500 UV filter
and
Titan 550 pump. It has worked fine over this past season but with a
new
hatch of goldie babies, I'm finding that the filter foams now need to
be
cleaned every other day - - which is a pain in itself, but even more
so as
this unit does not feature a backwash.

Without having to spring for yet another filter system, I would like
your
thoughts on how I can:

a) augment the current Bioforce filter ..how can I improve it's
efficiency,
or add more filtration? Has anyone tried adding BioBalls to the
bottom of
the filter cannister, below the 2 foams? ..or perhaps adding back the
old
inpond filter setup?

b) stop the females from constantly producing, etc. In other words
control
the population (currently at 30 with (8) 5-6" goldies, comets and
skubunkens).

It's early in the season and the water is still clear. There are
already
several plants in place and the pond is sunny about 5 hours/day in the
summer. We are on the Pacific West Coast.

Thanks. Jack




-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!

Yep, slower is better with the bio force and UVC. I adjust mine with
ball valves to get the flow in the range Hozelock recomends for UV
use. I often times will open the valves wide open when I turn the UVC
off, and get more flow. Slower is nonly needed when UV is used, so
water passing through the unit loiters longer so it kills algae etc
faster.

I had to buy one set of foam filters already and yes they are pricey.
Thats what is nice about the pressure indicator. I did find out once
it starats to raise that red ring, its best to clean the
filters......If that foam is comressed for any length of time it never
seems to recover to its original (or even close to it) thickness
again.

I know a fellow who just retired from his aquatic supply business and
he said a lot of folks simply use various floor scrubber pads like
those used on the buffing and scrubbing machines. They are sold in
sizes from 12" on up, and on the larger pads yu can cut two or more
replacement pads out of them. Different pads for buffing and scrubbing
have different densities so its easy to stack them and get good
filtration. You can also put a poly batt in there and it works finem,
but it clogs faster, but it does polish the water up nice.

Drs. Foster and Smith have Oase pressure type filters on sale right
now with UVC and backwash as well as the Tetra IIRC.......or it may be
the Fishmate brand..Only problem is the UV bulbs are priced high for
those brands of filters....

I was not aware of the smaller Bio Force having less foams. I just
assumed the containers wewre pretty well the same and only the pumps
changed or at least that was the impression I got from their
literature. I have never physically seen any smaller than the 1000
series, which I use, which do a super job, and I even have three
preforms ganged together and all filtered off one Bio Force 1000

I bet you could fashion a plate to separate the foam formthe bio media
as its nothing special. Even a piece of lexan or plexi or a frisbee
or coffee can lid may work.

Have fun


On Wed, 02 May 2007 00:11:44 GMT, "Jack"
wrote:


Thanks very much for your advice on the Hozelock devices, Roy.

As I mentioned, it is the newer Bioforce 500 UVC. It has 2 slices of foams
in it only. No bottom plate. After canvassing Hozelock last Fall, I found
that the unit with the plate (and BioBalls) is the Bioforce 1000. That
unit's bottom tank is considerably larger than mine, so there is room for
the plate, an extra foam, and biomedia ..the lesser models only have the
foams: 1 for the Bioforce 250 and 2 for the Bioforce 500. I did previously
inquire to an online retailer as to whether getting a 1000 shell would work
for retro'ing my model, and apparently it can but there doesn't appear to be
a plate available to separate the foams from the biomedia below. However,
the top unit that houses the UVC is the same fit for models 250~1000 as
well.

So yes, if I could economically remodel my unit to a more efficient one I
probably would do it. I would need: a larger canister tank to fit the
exisiting top unit, the inside center centrifical thing that surrounds the
quartz glass, a bottom plate separator, biomedia, and another foam.

I did try to put some biomedia (really, just some cut up pieces of scrubbie
pads) in the bottom of the canister under the 2 foams, but that didn't work
as expected as it inhibited the proper swirl function of the Bioforce
filter. There is not much space left after the foams are added. Perhaps if
I tried some other types of biomedia it might have worked better? Also, as
the foams are so ridiculously priced have you had any luck sourcing a
generic foam material that can be cut?

So I would imagine a properly sized unit would work as you suggest.
However, it would be nice to have a design that allows backwashing as the
Oase and others do ;-)

As for the pump, it is the Titan 550 gph unit and it is surrounded by a
cage. This pump rests on the bottom and is slightly elevated on a small 2"
brick slab. And yes, the pond was drained and the bottom scum was cleaned
up just recently. But the walls, etc. weren't washed as I figure I wanted
to leave the stuff on them. The water is currently very clear and tests
fine ..but then I clean the filter foams every other day, which is the
current problem.

Using the Hozelock site, I used the filter to pump water into a 5 gal bucket
and timed it. It took 90 secs to fill so I figure the filter is processing
at near its maximum flow-through rate of 250 gph which, with my size of pond
gives it a water change only once per hour ..less than what Hozelock
suggests (1.5~2.0). BTW, the outlet is spit between a type of water fall
(just a drill hole in a massive blasted boulder) and the rest is re-routed
back to the pond via a ball-valve. This is to regulate the amount of splash
into the pond. I would think a good deal of pressure would be needed to
force the water through the filtering unit. So do you really think slowing
down the flow through the filter makes that much of a difference? I can
install another ball valve to split the supply from the pump (to the filter)
if it will.

Jack




"~Mr. McDonald~" wrote in message
m...


Jack....What you describe doing is how the later model Bio Force
filters are made. They have three rings of foam of different porusity
or densitys. setting on a plastic disk with a series of perferations
in it, under wich is a bunch of bio balls.......They work fantastic.
The older models were as yu described, and used mainly one or two
pieces of foam. Check with hozelock in New Jersey, and see if yu can
convert or add the three foam rings and the bio ball and perforated
disk to yur present filter canister. As far as I can tell they are the
same. RThe newer model canistors also have a red ring aorund a
pressure indicator. I run these Bio Force filters on a bunch of
preforms we keep tropicals and fancy golides in in hot sunny southern
weather, and I can get 2 months easily without nding to clean filters,
often times more. I may have predominately tropicals in my preforms
but they are heavily stocked, so they do have quite a fish load on
them......as do the ones with goldies. I also run the UVC as well so
make sure yur clear quartz sleeve is not dirty or covered in crud or
mineral deposits as that will drastically reduce its efficieincy, as
will using a old or used up UV tube.

The BIo F9orce is a great filter setup, better IMHO than Laguna or
Tetra or Oase systems, and hands down better than any submergedbox can
dream of being......Even if you need to add a perforated disk, it can
me made with a piece of the plastic hardware cloth or bird netting,
and be sure to slow down the flow of water. Hozelock shows a
proceedure to measure how many gph flow your getting, and its
important to not to flow th water too fast or you do not get good
results from the UV system....Is yuor pump enclosed in a plastic
housing / cage type deal? I sure do not see why and how it can get so
dirty so quick, but have yu cleaned the mulm in the ppnds bottom yet
this year? Algae load as does mulm adds quite a bit of trash to the
foam rings so its best to remove and clean the pond bottom every
spring and every fall...

Don;t discount that Bio Force filter system, its a great setup and
does wonderfull.

Pay no attention to Ron as all he is is the resident troll looking to
drag mopre folks over to his controled moderated group in his vain
attempt to destroy the real rec.ponds..He sold everyone a bill of
goods and started and suported a troll war beghind the scenes in order
to justify a moderated group and the majority of folks fell for his
game.......Rec.ponds is not dead, they are just tired of Ron and his
rogue moderators starting and trashing and trolling foks in this as
well as other aquaria groups to start yet more moderated forums....

Regards and have a great Day
Roy


On Tue, 01 May 2007 14:36:51 GMT, "Jack"
wrote:

Hi, folks.

Our pond is rather small at only 280 gallons. After a few years of
using an
inpond integrated pump/homemade filter (lava rock, scrubbies, etc.)
last
season I ran across a good deal on a Hozelock Bioforce 500 UV filter
and
Titan 550 pump. It has worked fine over this past season but with a
new
hatch of goldie babies, I'm finding that the filter foams now need to
be
cleaned every other day - - which is a pain in itself, but even more
so as
this unit does not feature a backwash.

Without having to spring for yet another filter system, I would like
your
thoughts on how I can:

a) augment the current Bioforce filter ..how can I improve it's
efficiency,
or add more filtration? Has anyone tried adding BioBalls to the
bottom of
the filter cannister, below the 2 foams? ..or perhaps adding back the
old
inpond filter setup?

b) stop the females from constantly producing, etc. In other words
control
the population (currently at 30 with (8) 5-6" goldies, comets and
skubunkens).

It's early in the season and the water is still clear. There are
already
several plants in place and the pond is sunny about 5 hours/day in the
summer. We are on the Pacific West Coast.

Thanks. Jack




-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!




-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!

Just a note here. Run a line unrestricted form the pump to the filter
unit, and once it comes out of the filter unit, then install your ball
valves. Do not divert water prior to it going through the filter unit.
I tired it before and after myself and found that controlling the flow
after the filter unit worked the best for me at least. So I have a
manifold I made out of PVC and have two ball vlaves on it. One is to
control what goes to a water fall and the other is what is used to
control what goes to a fountain head....or dumped back into a
connecting stream or pipe for return to the preform(s)


On Wed, 02 May 2007 00:11:44 GMT, "Jack"
wrote:


Thanks very much for your advice on the Hozelock devices, Roy.

As I mentioned, it is the newer Bioforce 500 UVC. It has 2 slices of foams
in it only. No bottom plate. After canvassing Hozelock last Fall, I found
that the unit with the plate (and BioBalls) is the Bioforce 1000. That
unit's bottom tank is considerably larger than mine, so there is room for
the plate, an extra foam, and biomedia ..the lesser models only have the
foams: 1 for the Bioforce 250 and 2 for the Bioforce 500. I did previously
inquire to an online retailer as to whether getting a 1000 shell would work
for retro'ing my model, and apparently it can but there doesn't appear to be
a plate available to separate the foams from the biomedia below. However,
the top unit that houses the UVC is the same fit for models 250~1000 as
well.

So yes, if I could economically remodel my unit to a more efficient one I
probably would do it. I would need: a larger canister tank to fit the
exisiting top unit, the inside center centrifical thing that surrounds the
quartz glass, a bottom plate separator, biomedia, and another foam.

I did try to put some biomedia (really, just some cut up pieces of scrubbie
pads) in the bottom of the canister under the 2 foams, but that didn't work
as expected as it inhibited the proper swirl function of the Bioforce
filter. There is not much space left after the foams are added. Perhaps if
I tried some other types of biomedia it might have worked better? Also, as
the foams are so ridiculously priced have you had any luck sourcing a
generic foam material that can be cut?

So I would imagine a properly sized unit would work as you suggest.
However, it would be nice to have a design that allows backwashing as the
Oase and others do ;-)

As for the pump, it is the Titan 550 gph unit and it is surrounded by a
cage. This pump rests on the bottom and is slightly elevated on a small 2"
brick slab. And yes, the pond was drained and the bottom scum was cleaned
up just recently. But the walls, etc. weren't washed as I figure I wanted
to leave the stuff on them. The water is currently very clear and tests
fine ..but then I clean the filter foams every other day, which is the
current problem.

Using the Hozelock site, I used the filter to pump water into a 5 gal bucket
and timed it. It took 90 secs to fill so I figure the filter is processing
at near its maximum flow-through rate of 250 gph which, with my size of pond
gives it a water change only once per hour ..less than what Hozelock
suggests (1.5~2.0). BTW, the outlet is spit between a type of water fall
(just a drill hole in a massive blasted boulder) and the rest is re-routed
back to the pond via a ball-valve. This is to regulate the amount of splash
into the pond. I would think a good deal of pressure would be needed to
force the water through the filtering unit. So do you really think slowing
down the flow through the filter makes that much of a difference? I can
install another ball valve to split the supply from the pump (to the filter)
if it will.

Jack




"~Mr. McDonald~" wrote in message
m...


Jack....What you describe doing is how the later model Bio Force
filters are made. They have three rings of foam of different porusity
or densitys. setting on a plastic disk with a series of perferations
in it, under wich is a bunch of bio balls.......They work fantastic.
The older models were as yu described, and used mainly one or two
pieces of foam. Check with hozelock in New Jersey, and see if yu can
convert or add the three foam rings and the bio ball and perforated
disk to yur present filter canister. As far as I can tell they are the
same. RThe newer model canistors also have a red ring aorund a
pressure indicator. I run these Bio Force filters on a bunch of
preforms we keep tropicals and fancy golides in in hot sunny southern
weather, and I can get 2 months easily without nding to clean filters,
often times more. I may have predominately tropicals in my preforms
but they are heavily stocked, so they do have quite a fish load on
them......as do the ones with goldies. I also run the UVC as well so
make sure yur clear quartz sleeve is not dirty or covered in crud or
mineral deposits as that will drastically reduce its efficieincy, as
will using a old or used up UV tube.

The BIo F9orce is a great filter setup, better IMHO than Laguna or
Tetra or Oase systems, and hands down better than any submergedbox can
dream of being......Even if you need to add a perforated disk, it can
me made with a piece of the plastic hardware cloth or bird netting,
and be sure to slow down the flow of water. Hozelock shows a
proceedure to measure how many gph flow your getting, and its
important to not to flow th water too fast or you do not get good
results from the UV system....Is yuor pump enclosed in a plastic
housing / cage type deal? I sure do not see why and how it can get so
dirty so quick, but have yu cleaned the mulm in the ppnds bottom yet
this year? Algae load as does mulm adds quite a bit of trash to the
foam rings so its best to remove and clean the pond bottom every
spring and every fall...

Don;t discount that Bio Force filter system, its a great setup and
does wonderfull.

Pay no attention to Ron as all he is is the resident troll looking to
drag mopre folks over to his controled moderated group in his vain
attempt to destroy the real rec.ponds..He sold everyone a bill of
goods and started and suported a troll war beghind the scenes in order
to justify a moderated group and the majority of folks fell for his
game.......Rec.ponds is not dead, they are just tired of Ron and his
rogue moderators starting and trashing and trolling foks in this as
well as other aquaria groups to start yet more moderated forums....

Regards and have a great Day
Roy


On Tue, 01 May 2007 14:36:51 GMT, "Jack"
wrote:

Hi, folks.

Our pond is rather small at only 280 gallons. After a few years of
using an
inpond integrated pump/homemade filter (lava rock, scrubbies, etc.)
last
season I ran across a good deal on a Hozelock Bioforce 500 UV filter
and
Titan 550 pump. It has worked fine over this past season but with a
new
hatch of goldie babies, I'm finding that the filter foams now need to
be
cleaned every other day - - which is a pain in itself, but even more
so as
this unit does not feature a backwash.

Without having to spring for yet another filter system, I would like
your
thoughts on how I can:

a) augment the current Bioforce filter ..how can I improve it's
efficiency,
or add more filtration? Has anyone tried adding BioBalls to the
bottom of
the filter cannister, below the 2 foams? ..or perhaps adding back the
old
inpond filter setup?

b) stop the females from constantly producing, etc. In other words
control
the population (currently at 30 with (8) 5-6" goldies, comets and
skubunkens).

It's early in the season and the water is still clear. There are
already
several plants in place and the pond is sunny about 5 hours/day in the
summer. We are on the Pacific West Coast.

Thanks. Jack




-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!




-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!

Okay so.. Glad you clarified that for me. I was thinking on restricting
the flow _to_ the filter but you say I should stick another valve in the
outlet (making 2 in all -- 1 is for diversion), thereby throttling down the
water in the filter to allow it to hang around longer. In other words don't
between pump and filter. Jack




"~Mr. McDonald~" wrote in message
...


Just a note here. Run a line unrestricted form the pump to the filter
unit, and once it comes out of the filter unit, then install your ball
valves. Do not divert water prior to it going through the filter unit.
I tired it before and after myself and found that controlling the flow
after the filter unit worked the best for me at least. So I have a
manifold I made out of PVC and have two ball vlaves on it. One is to
control what goes to a water fall and the other is what is used to
control what goes to a fountain head....or dumped back into a
connecting stream or pipe for return to the preform(s)


On Wed, 02 May 2007 00:11:44 GMT, "Jack"
wrote:


Thanks very much for your advice on the Hozelock devices, Roy.

As I mentioned, it is the newer Bioforce 500 UVC. It has 2 slices of
foams
in it only. No bottom plate. After canvassing Hozelock last Fall, I
found
that the unit with the plate (and BioBalls) is the Bioforce 1000.
That
unit's bottom tank is considerably larger than mine, so there is room
for
the plate, an extra foam, and biomedia ..the lesser models only have
the
foams: 1 for the Bioforce 250 and 2 for the Bioforce 500. I did
previously
inquire to an online retailer as to whether getting a 1000 shell would
work
for retro'ing my model, and apparently it can but there doesn't appear
to be
a plate available to separate the foams from the biomedia below.
However,
the top unit that houses the UVC is the same fit for models 250~1000
as
well.

So yes, if I could economically remodel my unit to a more efficient
one I
probably would do it. I would need: a larger canister tank to fit
the
exisiting top unit, the inside center centrifical thing that surrounds
the
quartz glass, a bottom plate separator, biomedia, and another foam.

I did try to put some biomedia (really, just some cut up pieces of
scrubbie
pads) in the bottom of the canister under the 2 foams, but that didn't
work
as expected as it inhibited the proper swirl function of the Bioforce
filter. There is not much space left after the foams are added.
Perhaps if
I tried some other types of biomedia it might have worked better?
Also, as
the foams are so ridiculously priced have you had any luck sourcing a
generic foam material that can be cut?

So I would imagine a properly sized unit would work as you suggest.
However, it would be nice to have a design that allows backwashing as
the
Oase and others do ;-)

As for the pump, it is the Titan 550 gph unit and it is surrounded by
a
cage. This pump rests on the bottom and is slightly elevated on a
small 2"
brick slab. And yes, the pond was drained and the bottom scum was
cleaned
up just recently. But the walls, etc. weren't washed as I figure I
wanted
to leave the stuff on them. The water is currently very clear and
tests
fine ..but then I clean the filter foams every other day, which is
the
current problem.

Using the Hozelock site, I used the filter to pump water into a 5 gal
bucket
and timed it. It took 90 secs to fill so I figure the filter is
processing
at near its maximum flow-through rate of 250 gph which, with my size
of pond
gives it a water change only once per hour ..less than what Hozelock
suggests (1.5~2.0). BTW, the outlet is spit between a type of water
fall
(just a drill hole in a massive blasted boulder) and the rest is
re-routed
back to the pond via a ball-valve. This is to regulate the amount of
splash
into the pond. I would think a good deal of pressure would be needed
to
force the water through the filtering unit. So do you really think
slowing
down the flow through the filter makes that much of a difference? I
can
install another ball valve to split the supply from the pump (to the
filter)
if it will.

Jack




"~Mr. McDonald~" wrote in message
m...


Jack....What you describe doing is how the later model Bio Force
filters are made. They have three rings of foam of different
porusity
or densitys. setting on a plastic disk with a series of perferations
in it, under wich is a bunch of bio balls.......They work fantastic.
The older models were as yu described, and used mainly one or two
pieces of foam. Check with hozelock in New Jersey, and see if yu
can
convert or add the three foam rings and the bio ball and perforated
disk to yur present filter canister. As far as I can tell they are
the
same. RThe newer model canistors also have a red ring aorund a
pressure indicator. I run these Bio Force filters on a bunch of
preforms we keep tropicals and fancy golides in in hot sunny
southern
weather, and I can get 2 months easily without nding to clean
filters,
often times more. I may have predominately tropicals in my preforms
but they are heavily stocked, so they do have quite a fish load on
them......as do the ones with goldies. I also run the UVC as well so
make sure yur clear quartz sleeve is not dirty or covered in crud or
mineral deposits as that will drastically reduce its efficieincy, as
will using a old or used up UV tube.

The BIo F9orce is a great filter setup, better IMHO than Laguna or
Tetra or Oase systems, and hands down better than any submergedbox
can
dream of being......Even if you need to add a perforated disk, it
can
me made with a piece of the plastic hardware cloth or bird netting,
and be sure to slow down the flow of water. Hozelock shows a
proceedure to measure how many gph flow your getting, and its
important to not to flow th water too fast or you do not get good
results from the UV system....Is yuor pump enclosed in a plastic
housing / cage type deal? I sure do not see why and how it can get
so
dirty so quick, but have yu cleaned the mulm in the ppnds bottom yet
this year? Algae load as does mulm adds quite a bit of trash to the
foam rings so its best to remove and clean the pond bottom every
spring and every fall...

Don;t discount that Bio Force filter system, its a great setup and
does wonderfull.

Pay no attention to Ron as all he is is the resident troll looking
to
drag mopre folks over to his controled moderated group in his vain
attempt to destroy the real rec.ponds..He sold everyone a bill of
goods and started and suported a troll war beghind the scenes in
order
to justify a moderated group and the majority of folks fell for his
game.......Rec.ponds is not dead, they are just tired of Ron and his
rogue moderators starting and trashing and trolling foks in this as
well as other aquaria groups to start yet more moderated forums....

Regards and have a great Day
Roy


On Tue, 01 May 2007 14:36:51 GMT, "Jack"

wrote:

Hi, folks.

Our pond is rather small at only 280 gallons. After a few years
of
using an
inpond integrated pump/homemade filter (lava rock, scrubbies,
etc.)
last
season I ran across a good deal on a Hozelock Bioforce 500 UV
filter
and
Titan 550 pump. It has worked fine over this past season but
with a
new
hatch of goldie babies, I'm finding that the filter foams now
need to
be
cleaned every other day - - which is a pain in itself, but even
more
so as
this unit does not feature a backwash.

Without having to spring for yet another filter system, I would
like
your
thoughts on how I can:

a) augment the current Bioforce filter ..how can I improve it's
efficiency,
or add more filtration? Has anyone tried adding BioBalls to the
bottom of
the filter cannister, below the 2 foams? ..or perhaps adding
back the
old
inpond filter setup?

b) stop the females from constantly producing, etc. In other
words
control
the population (currently at 30 with (8) 5-6" goldies, comets
and
skubunkens).

It's early in the season and the water is still clear. There
are
already
several plants in place and the pond is sunny about 5 hours/day
in the
summer. We are on the Pacific West Coast.

Thanks. Jack




-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!




-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!

the problem is you have a small pond and a lot of fish for the size.
small ponds tend not to have enough water to be able to handle the
bioload. they need to be treated like an aquarium rather than a pond.
consider scooping up and giving some of those GF babies away.

you dont say where you are, but if your GF are still spawning this
can really foul a filter fast. the easiest way to add filtration is
either with a bucket filter or gravity filter.
http://weloveteaching.com/puregold/care/hardware.html
here is a simple veggie filter I put together for over the top of a
stock tank.
http://weloveteaching.com/mypond/VF/veggie_filter.html
veggie filters are extremely efficient and dont need constant
cleaning.
Ingrid


On Wed, 02 May 2007 00:11:44 GMT, "Jack"
wrote:
So yes, if I could economically remodel my unit to a more efficient one I
probably would do it.
the foams are so ridiculously priced have you had any luck sourcing a
generic foam material that can be cut?

But the walls, etc. weren't washed as I figure I wanted
to leave the stuff on them. The water is currently very clear and tests
fine ..but then I clean the filter foams every other day, which is the
current problem.