The first consideration when building a fish pond filter is SSA, or specific surface area. See the chart below, where SSA is measured in square feet per gallon of different pond filter biomedia. A high number here is best. For example, if an SSA is 1, then an SSA of 8 will hold enough surface area to contain 8 times as many important bacteria inside a pond filter.
Pond filter biomedia
You can use SSA to classify all biomedia that can be used in …show more content…
If you run the calculations, you will find that the SSA is roughly 40 square feet per gallon of biomedia. This is another way of saying that if your fish pond filter is filled with plastic tubes, then for every gallon used, about 40 square feet of surface is provided for colonization by the …show more content…
But this is misleading at best. In practice, a small fish pond filter box will work quite well for a large pond as long as the biomedia is selected carefully, and the outlet from the box is large enough to allow water flow out at the same rate that water is being pumped into the box. If you're building your own biofilter, and you're short of space, this secret will allow you to make a fish pond filter that's adequate for your needs.
Now don't confuse biofilters with UV filters. A UV filter, when used in pond filters applications, is designed to remove the green, pea-soup appearance to your pond water. UV filters do not purify the water in the way that a biofilter does. But UV filters are often used in conjunction with biofilters, so that your pond water is crystal clear as well as clean and healthy for your fish. You can save time and money by installing both at the same time.
A Cyprio pond filter, like most other types, can be improved by the selection of good pond filter media as well as changing existing pond media. Or you can suppliment your existing media with a high efficiency pond media like