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| I've been researching them online and it seems that these foam fractionating things would remove the foam and otherwise increase the clarity. It would reduce the brown color in the water.
Some have made their own protein skimmers and added them to their filter barrels. Here is one thread about it. http://www.koi-bito.com/forum/pond-construction/4487-protein-skimmer-a wesome.html Should I have someone make one for me? Does anyone here have one, either the very expensive bought ones or the homemade ones? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Hi Foam fratitioners require a denser medium such as salt water to work well. If the FW is dense enough to make it work it's way to dirty anyway lol. I'd spend the money on a better bio filter especially for a pond. You can certainly use activated carbon to remove discoloration though as the pond reaches equilibrium it will clear up anyway. Wouldn't run a marine tank without one but for a pond not too useful imo gary |
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| Hawkiefriend, I have been using foam fractionators on my koi pond for over 15 years. I have two foam fractionators that I built based on an article that Steve Meyer wrote for Aquarium Magazine back in 1993. Yes salt water works far better for foam fractionators but they still work in very clean pond water. One of the ways to measure the DOC's in water is ORP. The higher the ORP the less DOC's in the water. Most garden ponds have an ORP reading of 100 or less. An aquarium with good activated carbon will have a no higher than 295 ORP reading. I installed Ozone on my pond about 9 years ago so I can bring my ORP reading up as high as I want it. The foam fractionators usually stop working when the ORP is up at 280 or higher. It would be very hard to get the ORP that high in an outdoor pond with just activated carbon. So yes they can work and can do a lot. Mike |
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- Posted by hawkiefriend (My Page) on Thu, Oct 8, 09 at 4:35
| I did read that they are supposed to work best in salt water, but that MANY people are having wonderful success with them in freshwater ponds too. The premade ones are prohibitively expensive. My water is still brownish and unclear, though any particulate is very fine and "invisible" except that we cannot see even the top step. Before we started filtering with the biofilter we could see the top step very well because of all the plants in the steps area (previous life as swimming pool). Yet there was foulness to the water that filtering removed. Now the pond smells like a nice healthy pond. It's just brown and we have no idea what fish are even in there. The hint as to what is causing the brownness is the constant white bubbles from the waterfall, that spread across the surface of the water no matter what. Tonight I was reading about the bentonite koi clay and how that may also be beneficial for removing DOCs. I do not think I could make one of the foam fractionators myself. I'd have to pay to have one made. Maybe I should start with the clay and see what that does. Everything I have read about the bentonite clay says that it's great for everything, fish, water, and plants. (If you do enough reading on it you are sure to find that there are PEOPLE EATING IT for their own health, and bathing in it in their own tubs. Not sure I am ready to go that far... LOL.) |
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| Hi can you find directions for making one for FW,particularly a pond?? Always a lot of controversy about them even in marine aquariums. I keep only tropical fish and plants in my ponds so eliminates a lot of problems . The most useful piece of equipment I've ever added was a rainwater collection system get automatic water changes for freee!!! lol. Would love to keep African rift cichlids but don't want the hassle of maintaining water parameters. Good luck with whatever you decide!! gary |
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- Posted by hawkiefriend (My Page) on Sun, Oct 11, 09 at 3:40
| Check out the address in my first post -- there are some directions for a DIY filter. I'm working with the clay now to see what it does, if anything. Good luck! |
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| I looked into building/using a foam fractionater but decided against it. a.) I had measured the ORP (oxidation reduction potential) several times in our pond using a YSI 650MDS meter equipped with a 600-QS-BCR-C-T-PH-DO probe. Results were in the range of 300 to 380 mv so didn't look as if it would help. I don't bother to measure it these days. b.) The prices for the ones that appeared to produce very small bubbles (the key to how they work) were about $1000 or more - some slightly less - plus the energy costs to achieve good performance in freshwater was rather high (some units require pumps to produce water pressures on the order of 100 psi or higher). There wasn't much performance data on the DIY units to indicate effectiveness at the time I was looking into these. c.) The information at the time seemed to indicate that they were a bit on the finicky side to get them to operate well. d.) I'm not carrying a very high fish load in my pond nor do I feed them excessively (about 30 pounds of food a season). I do get occassional bouts of foam but usually it coincides with FF phenomena (in case you don't know that acronym - Fornicating Fish). I agree that the devices will help clear out quite a bit of dissolved organics as well as strip out ammonia from your pond and help bring the dissolved oxygen levels to near saturation. They will also help remove phosphorous (by stripping out organics from ruptured/lysed/dead bacteria which contain phosphorous - not by acting on phosphates directly). Bottom line...decided to save the money and invest it in shares of Lehman Brothers! LOL! Actually, all I did was build a larger biofilter in the first place. |
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| I built a homemade FF out of leftover bits of pipe and fittings. It did improve clarity, and it cost me basically nothing. I run it now and then. It doesn't need to be run all the time--after about 48 hours, no more foam.
After the foam breaks down: |
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- Posted by hawkiefriend SoCal (My Page) on Sun, Oct 18, 09 at 19:49
| David, LOL about the stock! Maybe Google would have been the better bet?? :) OK, Hoovb, PLEASE tell me how you made yours and how hard it was to make! If I can't do it, I will pay someone to do it. On the original Aussie site I quoted, they were attaching it to the side of their biofilter, coming up out of the top of it. How I would love to do that. I cleaned my filter --- NOT cleaning it for 6 weeks did NOT cause clarity. I was happy that nothing in there smelled bad - a little "pondy" but not bad. But after the cleaning, and then adding almost 2 cups of koi clay to the water, I have even MORE DOCs in my returned water. I think I could really use a foam fractionator. Please let us know how you made yours. |
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| hawkie, if you google up "DIY foam fractionator", there's some excellent information out there. If you understand the principle, making your own is simple and you can tweak it until it gives you good results. The basic principle is: breaking up the water enough to create foam (the dirt clings to the bubbles) and separating the foam from the water going back into the pond.
Water running down a 4" pipe to a 90 elbow, a "T" after that, a short piece of pipe after that, inclined upward so there's an airspace anding at the "T". The foam exits the "T", the water goes back into the pond. A soda bottle cut to sit on the top of the "T" lets you see foam buildup. A flexipipe attached to the top of the soda bottle so the foam can run up there and out to a waste bucket. Or as in the photo, another elbow on top of the T so the foam exits that way. |
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- Posted by hawkiefriend (My Page) on Wed, Oct 21, 09 at 20:36
| Thank you hoov, I will try adding another filter to see if I don't even need one, but if I do, I am going to have one made. When you say water level, do you mean in the pond? I am so un-mechanical. |
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| no, the water level in the pipe. you may need to valve up or valve down either the input or the output to most efficiently force the foam out the top of the "T". Use ball valves for that. |
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