Scott Evans wrote:

However, is a veggie filter just a natural form of a
biological filter, or do they serve different functions?
Sort of. The biological filter has little bacteria that cling to whatever
surfaces they can find and eat the nasty stuff in the pond. A veggie filter
is really just an area that the pond water flows through with lots of plants
in it that do a good job of removing nutrients from the water - water
hyacinth come to mind.

In doing some reading, it seems that especially with Koi, maintaining a
sufficient oxygen level is critical. However, I haven't seen anything
about whether it'd be possible to get too much oxygen in the water
possibly leading to algae problems not due to other issues (overfeeding,
sunlight, etc.) Is there such a thing to worry about as too much
oxygen, or can I waterfall, bubble, and fountain to my heart's delight
and not worry about overdoing it? I'd think that maybe running a
waterfall during the day and then a bubbler at night would work well as
a compromise between the cost of running a waterfall pump 24 hours a
day and making sure the fish had enough oxygen.
From what I understand, the main issue with not running your pump 24/7 is
that stopping it will halt delivery of oxygen to the afore mentioned little
bacteria and they die.

Also, in regards to Koi, how much do they really cost for some
small-fry type fish of "pet quality" (rather than show) that will look
nice in the pond, but wouldn't break the bank (or my heart) if a
predator might happen to take a liking to a few. Obviously I can get
some goldfish relatively cheaply from the local pet store, but I don't
see much information on the WWW in regards to what a few starter Koi of
average quality would cost.
I had a pond several years ago and would have sworn I bought a Koi for $5.
The cheapest ones I bought last year were $35.

Price doesn't have anything to do with breaking your heart. It's when you
give them names. All of ours are gone.

Joe



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