Many rules of thumbs, none right. The bacteria can digest the waste in a
very fast stream, or a very slow stream. The amount of waste consumed is
the same. The water coming from a very slow flow, will have less ammonia
get through the filter, while the high flow will keep the amount from
building up in the pond. A very slow flow has the advantage of allowing
solids to settle out in the filter, where high flow will keep the solids
suspended and send them back to the pond. If the filter keeps the ammonia
and nitrites down to zero or imperceptible, then the filter is a good enough
filter. A larger one won't do any more for the biological filtration, but
may help with solid removal.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"NewbieBill" wrote in message
om...
Hi group - I have several questions that I post to my local group and
got little or no response. Perhaps the fact that I might actually see
these people at meetings make them less likely to just venture a
guess. In any case I would greatly appreciate your ideas and
opinions. Thanks in advance.
1) Amongst the many things I don' really understand is filtering
area and gph. Is there a rule of thumb as to how fast you run your
pump. I saw one filter (55 gallon I think) they said they turned it
down to about 200 gph for 1000 gal pond. Other 'sources' frequently
say turn you pond once an hour. Many seem to put much more emphasis of
filter area than flow. A local told me when I put in upflow sink
filter(very big around here) , my outflow looked about right. It was
probably only about 2-400 GPH and was definitely no where near 800,
which is my pond size. My box filter and many advertised say they are
for ponds up to 1000 gals but max flow rates 500 gph. Another local
answered a 'how many fish can I have post' as being primarily an "is
your filter working" issue. ie-If Ammonia etc start to rise take out
fish or add more filter. Almost never hear anyone say turn you pump up
or down. I know there is no pat answers or formula but a clearer grasp
of the concept might help my pond keeping and attempts to upgrade
filtration.
Thanxx - Bill Brister