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#1
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Oxygen in biofilter
I have a question to a problem. The breaker that my pump is on keeps tripping.
I know the reason and I have an electrician coming on Monday. As it happens I have been able to discover when it trips fairly quickly and so far no harm no foul. The pump is on another circuit for now. Once before when my pump cratered and for the four days before I got a replacement I keep airstones going. My academic question is: How long will the bacteria in the filter system live without constant aeration. I an using an up flow water column that flows through window screen media then through a heavily planted top layer "veggie" filter then to the waterfall outflow. The incoming water water had a venturi to add O2 before it reaches the filter media. When the pump goes off, the filter is still under water and in the dark. At what point does the bacteria start dying and your filter is set back along with the attendant problems? How long without constant water/O2 movement before the filter is toast? Rhino See my pond www.htcomp.net/rhino_4_good/index.htm "Without the second ammendment, the others are just suggestions." |
#2
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Oxygen in biofilter
Rhino,
For your type of filter, I think it would take quite a while for the bacteria to die of oxygen starvation, but it will also start to starve to death for lack of ammonia and nitrites it needs for food fairly quickly. The number that die will be relatively small for the first few hours, but if it has been off for a couple of days, then it will be anaerobic, and you will get a lot of hydrogen sulfide that is best wasted. -- RichToyBox http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html "Rhino" wrote in message ... I have a question to a problem. The breaker that my pump is on keeps tripping. I know the reason and I have an electrician coming on Monday. As it happens I have been able to discover when it trips fairly quickly and so far no harm no foul. The pump is on another circuit for now. Once before when my pump cratered and for the four days before I got a replacement I keep airstones going. My academic question is: How long will the bacteria in the filter system live without constant aeration. I an using an up flow water column that flows through window screen media then through a heavily planted top layer "veggie" filter then to the waterfall outflow. The incoming water water had a venturi to add O2 before it reaches the filter media. When the pump goes off, the filter is still under water and in the dark. At what point does the bacteria start dying and your filter is set back along with the attendant problems? How long without constant water/O2 movement before the filter is toast? Rhino See my pond www.htcomp.net/rhino_4_good/index.htm "Without the second ammendment, the others are just suggestions." |
#3
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Oxygen in biofilter
Rich,
I would just kill to have the water quality that shows in your pond pictures. As I mentioned in another post, this is the second year of my pond and I am dealing with the pea green water issue at the moment. I am only beginning to figure out what to do to correct this and one step looks possibly to be adding some anacharis to the pond. The pond was great last season, but I am really struggling with the water clarity this year. Also, how expensive is it to run the heaters and thermostats that you use through the winter? I am in Michigan and was really intrigued by your setup. ------------------------------ Barefoot Malithorne |
#4
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Oxygen in biofilter
Barefoot,
With the lean-to covers, I use 2 15 amp electric immersion heaters on the 4000 gallon pond and one on the 2000 gallon pond. The lean-to covers keep the heat in, and keep the cold winds away, so the heat in the soil and water tend to have a slow heat loss. For the first few months, October, November, and December, the solar gain is enough most days to keep the water temperature above 70 degrees, but by late December or early January, the solar gain is very small and cold weather has moved in and the pond starts to try to cool. For January and February, the heaters run almost non-stop and the temperature will drop to around 65 by March 1. I find that it adds about $150 per month for 3 months to the heat bill. I started it after the summer from h*** when every fish got injections multiple times. Found it was cheaper to heat than replace koi that at that time were about $100 each. My price range has gone up considerably per fish, so now one fish cost more than the heat bill. I have a much shorter and milder winter than I would suspect you have. Thanks for kudos. The filter system has undergone an upgrade every year since I put in the pond. The fish keep getting bigger. I buy a new one, and have to get rid of one, but the fish size just keeps getting bigger. -- RichToyBox http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html "Basil Malithorne" wrote in message ... Rich, I would just kill to have the water quality that shows in your pond pictures. As I mentioned in another post, this is the second year of my pond and I am dealing with the pea green water issue at the moment. I am only beginning to figure out what to do to correct this and one step looks possibly to be adding some anacharis to the pond. The pond was great last season, but I am really struggling with the water clarity this year. Also, how expensive is it to run the heaters and thermostats that you use through the winter? I am in Michigan and was really intrigued by your setup. ------------------------------ Barefoot Malithorne |
#5
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Oxygen in biofilter
Barefoot,
With the lean-to covers, I use 2 15 amp electric immersion heaters on the 4000 gallon pond and one on the 2000 gallon pond. The lean-to covers keep the heat in, and keep the cold winds away, so the heat in the soil and water tend to have a slow heat loss. For the first few months, October, November, and December, the solar gain is enough most days to keep the water temperature above 70 degrees, but by late December or early January, the solar gain is very small and cold weather has moved in and the pond starts to try to cool. For January and February, the heaters run almost non-stop and the temperature will drop to around 65 by March 1. I find that it adds about $150 per month for 3 months to the heat bill. I started it after the summer from h*** when every fish got injections multiple times. Found it was cheaper to heat than replace koi that at that time were about $100 each. My price range has gone up considerably per fish, so now one fish cost more than the heat bill. I have a much shorter and milder winter than I would suspect you have. Thanks for kudos. The filter system has undergone an upgrade every year since I put in the pond. The fish keep getting bigger. I buy a new one, and have to get rid of one, but the fish size just keeps getting bigger. -- RichToyBox http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html "Basil Malithorne" wrote in message ... Rich, I would just kill to have the water quality that shows in your pond pictures. As I mentioned in another post, this is the second year of my pond and I am dealing with the pea green water issue at the moment. I am only beginning to figure out what to do to correct this and one step looks possibly to be adding some anacharis to the pond. The pond was great last season, but I am really struggling with the water clarity this year. Also, how expensive is it to run the heaters and thermostats that you use through the winter? I am in Michigan and was really intrigued by your setup. ------------------------------ Barefoot Malithorne |
#6
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Oxygen in biofilter
Well not to argue with RTB, who is a pretty smart cookie.....but, it has
been my understanding that bacteria starts to drown after 20 minutes, depending on the outside temp for total death, in the hours I suppose. What I do know is, if my filter is off for more than an hour I pump to the grass for the first couple hundred gallons to get rid of the HS, even at 30 minutes I try to catch the first gallons that wash down the stream & waterfall in a bucket. If it's hot, after 20 minutes I pump to the grass. ~ jan On Sat, 19 Jul 2003 21:05:25 -0500, Rhino wrote: I have a question to a problem. The breaker that my pump is on keeps tripping. I know the reason and I have an electrician coming on Monday. As it happens I have been able to discover when it trips fairly quickly and so far no harm no foul. The pump is on another circuit for now. Once before when my pump cratered and for the four days before I got a replacement I keep airstones going. My academic question is: How long will the bacteria in the filter system live without constant aeration. I an using an up flow water column that flows through window screen media then through a heavily planted top layer "veggie" filter then to the waterfall outflow. The incoming water water had a venturi to add O2 before it reaches the filter media. When the pump goes off, the filter is still under water and in the dark. At what point does the bacteria start dying and your filter is set back along with the attendant problems? How long without constant water/O2 movement before the filter is toast? Rhino See my pond www.htcomp.net/rhino_4_good/index.htm "Without the second ammendment, the others are just suggestions." See my ponds and filter design: http://users.owt.com/jjspond/ ~Keep 'em Wet!~ Tri-Cities WA Zone 7a To e-mail see website |
#7
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Oxygen in biofilter
toss in a half dose of PP and that will inactivate all the H2S.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List http://puregold.aquaria.net/ www.drsolo.com Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the endorsements or recommendations I make. |
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