Best Pressure Bio Filters For Koi Ponds – Reviews And Guide

In most types of filters for Koi ponds today, pressure bio filters are the best ones to choose. This type of pond filters features a very capacity larger than the rest making the best choice for dealing with a huge amount of waste from pond fish. Moreover, a good pressure bio filter can help to better control the biological balance of your pond system, keeping your fish happy and healthy. This article will highlight some of the best pressurized bio filters that you should use with your koi pond to ensure it stays clean and the fish are in a comfortable environment.

Mechanical And Biological Pond Filtration

Koi pond filters do two kinds of filtration: mechanical and biological. Both are vital for the health of your koi.

Mechanical Filtration And Filter Media

Koi produce a fair bit of solid waste, and it needs to be filtered out of the water so that it doesn’t poison your koi. Your koi pond filter system can use various types of filter media for mechanical filtration such as foams, coarse, or plastic media. Probably the best materials for mechanical filtration are Japanese filter mat and coarse, which allow the water to flow freely, and don’t clog. Most mechanical filter media also provide good biological filtration.

You can also use a water vortex that separates out particles by centrifugal force. The vortex is the only kind of mechanical koi pond filter that doesn’t need regular cleaning, and it’s also probably the most efficient. One good approach for your filter system is to have a vortex filter followed by a chamber with brush filter. You can add more kinds of filter if you have space, time and money – better too much than too little. More about koi pond filter media below.

Biological Filtration And Filter Media

The biological filtration use friendly bacteria to process the ammonia which koi produce in their waste. The bacteria turn the ammonia into nitrite and then nitrate (See more: Nitrogen cycle in a fish tank), and that can be kept in check with your usual weekly koi pond maintenance. For biological filtration, you’ll need chambers which contain some suitable material for the bacteria to live on. Ceramic rings, bio-balls and bio-balls offer great biological filtration, as they provide a huge surface area for the bacteria to live on.

After you build your pond, it will take a month or two for the bacteria in your filter to multiply to the right levels, so until that’s happened, it’s best not to introduce too many koi, or feed them too much. In fact, it’s a good idea to increase the number of koi in your pond gradually, a few at a time, to give the filter time to adjust. If you want to speed the Nitrogen cycle process up, you can get dried bacteria culture which you can add to your filter.

Biological filtration will also help stop algae growing in your koi pond, so you may find that after the pond is built, the pond goes quite green, but this should improve once the bacteria are established in your koi pond filter. You may also get an algae bloom in winter because bacteria will be more active in summer than in winter, but don’t be tempted to treat it chemically, as this will damage the bacteria in your filter.

Types Of Koi Pond Filter System

There are basically two kinds of koi pond filter system: pump-fed filter systems and gravity-fed filter systems.

A pump-fed filter system has a pump submerged in the pond, which pumps water from the pond into the filter. The filter sits above the ground. The clean water pours from the filter back into the pond.

A gravity-fed filter system works by gravity rather than pumping. In this case you have drains at the bottom of your pond, and gravity pushes the debris down through the drain, along pipes, and into the filter. In this case the filter needs to be buried so its top is level with the ground. That’s because gravity will ensure that the level of the water in the filter is the same as the level of the water in the pond, so if one is higher than the other, you’ll get overflow. Gravity-fed filter systems also need a valve so you can close the system off from the pond for cleaning.

Types Of Koi Pond Filtration Methods

1. Pressure Filters

   ​These filters are fed with water pumps that help to remove water from the pond to clean it and then send it back into the pond once it is cleaned. They offer both biological and mechanical filtration. This type of pond filters provides the simplest and affordable way to keep your pond clean and clear. The pressure filter usually features a backwash feature that helps to remove sludge and debris out of its filtration system much more easier without the need of opening its lid and getting out the filter materials for manually cleaning. This helpful feature makes these filters loved and chosen by many hobbyists.
   
   

2. Vortex Filters

   Old style filter systems work by passing the water through filter media which sieve out the debris. Vortex filters work quite differently. They spin the water, and the centrifugal force sends all the waste in the water to the sides, where they hit the walls and drop down to the bottom of the chamber. The waste can then be removed just by opening a valve at the bottom.
   Vortex filters are probably the most effective filter available – they can remove over 75% of the waste that passes through them. They make a great first chamber in a multi-chamber filter system.
   
   

3. Protein Skimmers

   These are marvellous things which dramatically improve water clarity and color by removing proteins and very fine solid waste from the water. They’re especially useful if you have a problem with foam on the top of your pond, as this is caused by proteins and other dissolved compounds.
   Basically they work by frothing up the water inside the skimmer; the proteins etc stick to the bubbles, and this foam is passed to the waste out pipe. The remaining water is returned to the pond, much cleaner and clearer than it started. As an added benefit, all the foaming raises the oxygen level of the water.
   
   

4. Trickle Filters

   Trickle filters, also called trickle towers, are a very effective kind of biological filtration. They work by pumping water to the top of the tower, then spraying it over the filter media. The water trickles down through the media, and back into the pond. The reason they’re so effective is that the bacteria on the filter media are not underwater, they just have water pouring over them – this means they have more oxygen, which means they process much more ammonia, and can even turn nitrates into nitrogen gas.

How To Choose A Koi Pond Filter?

A good koi pond filter is the most important investment for your koi pond. Don’t waste your time with those little box filters you see in garden centers! Koi are very sensitive to water quality, and it’s vital to have really good specialist koi pond filtration. That means a purpose-built koi pond filter, consisting of several chambers, doing different kinds of filtration. A good koi pond filter usually has more than one kind of filter media.

Whatever approach you’re taking, when choosing your koi pond filter, you’re going to need to think about the size of your pond, and the number of fish you plan to have. You need to be able to pass the entire volume of your pond through the filter once every two or three hours, so the larger the pond, the bigger a filter you need. And the more koi you have, the more waste they produce, and again, the bigger a filter you need. Commercial filters will tell you what size pond and how many koi they’re designed for. If in doubt, get something bigger than you think you need, rather than risk getting a filter which is too small.

Think also about how much time you have. Some koi pond filters require more maintenance than others. So if you’re short on time, go for something which is easier to look after, such as a pressure filter. This will be more expensive, but will take up less of your time. They do need backwashing occasionally, but this will only take a few minutes, and isn’t a messy job, just a question of turning a lever.

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