Assess Pond Water Flows
Keywords: Koi & Goldfish pond and water garden filtration and Koi filter flow rates pond filter residence time turnover water polishing water clarity water quality optimal flow rates through filter

There are actually two elements of this assessment. The first part is to know that Koi and Goldfish are riverine fish. This means that they are physically and intellectually engineered for a river environment. Not a pond environment. This doesn't imply that they can't live in a pond. It just means that's an adjustment. Koi and Goldfish have a torpedo shape, barbels, and are egg-scatterers. All these are adjustments to surviving handily in fast moving water, which may be turbid prohibiting sight feeding, and where nests would not survive the river's passage. Your pond should have considerable water movement to approximate the natural requirements of the fish.

The second component is the filtration. No filtration system works "up to par" unless the filter is presented with the entire pond's volume every 2 hours. Faster is even a little better, for in all but the largest ponds, "once an hour" is an excellent ideal. Turnover rates through the filter close to once an hour will give clearer water, higher oxygen levels and better quality in general. So assess the water flows of your pond for turnover on par with these concepts and subtract 15% from your "Chances of Success Score" in fish-dense ponds with turnovers slower than once every two hours. Add 15 percentage points to your C.O.S.S if the pond turns over every hour.

Go To Step Eleven