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




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