Japanese Matting, Koi Ponds And Pond Air Pumps

The vast majority of smaller fish ponds do not need a pond air pump as the oxygen demands of the pond fish and pond filter system are not as excessive as those of a large Koipond.

Oxygen is critical to the effective functioning of bacteria, responsible for breaking ammonia in pond water. These bacteria live in a biological pond filter

If you were to attach an analyzer to your pond system and measure the levels of ammonia and oxygen before the pond filter and after the pond filter, you would see something along the lines of the following ...

Just before feeding your the ammonia levels and oxygen levels at the intake of the pond filter would be be low and high respectively. The level of ammonia leaving the filter would be minimal and the level of oxygen would be lower.

If you were to repeat the measurements above for fish ponds after feeding a much higher ammonia level with a normal high oxygen level would be observed. On the outlet side of the bio filter you would see a much lower oxygen measurement and a significantly lower ammonia level.

What has happened? The beneficial bacteria consumed as much of the ammonia as possible and absorbed lots of oxygen from the circulating water to be able to achieve this. The Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter bacteria, however could not convert all the ammonia this time around, as the amount of oxygen was depleted too quickly.
In order for the bacteria to convert the ammonia the next time they require as much oxygen as possible. That it why you should use an air pump, or incorporate a waterfall into your pond system.

Based on the above discussion it is obvious that filter bacteria need lots of oxygen and that oxygen is removed in the bio-filter continuously in the bio filter process itself. The best place to place the air pump is directly into the pond filter system as close as possible to the nitrifying bacteria. For this reason Japanese matting and vortex filters are probably the best pond filtration system available.

Do yourself a favor and add as much oxygen into your Koi pond as you can. An air pump with air stones is definitely a recommendation I would consider.

The full article can be read at http://www.garden-pond-filters.com/garden-pond-japanesemattingairpump.html ...

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