Bio-filtration system in your ponds..

Artificial pond...Needs an artificial lungs?

Green concept, eco-freindly, eco-city and a host of other ‘green’ terminologies must come with an underlying approach towards all things natural. Any pond or water bodies design in a project must consider a ‘breathing system‘ for the aqua life. Water, if it is not killed with toxic chemicals is considered a living body. It supports lifeforms like plankton, fishes and a mass of bacteria… beneficial bacteria.

So, how much can a pond owner or even a contractor understand the natural cycle of life in a pond? What does it means to have a pond in your home other than just being aesthetic and attractive? Like those who keep pets, having a living body of water like a garden pond or a large recreational lake in your project is a  R E S P O S I B I L I T Y !

Whoever designed, built and own the pond or lake must take full charge of what being created as flirting around with aquatic nature can bring about misery.

In the market today, companies selling aquatic gardens promised their clients more than they can deliver. You may have heard of the heavenly described pond systems, eco-friendlyapproach, bio-system, heroic bacteria, pure water and lots of wizardry chanting but, the basic master and mother of all pond system is none other then the biological filtration system.

What is a biological or bio-filtration system? Yess… everyone knows by now that it is about gravel, sand, pipes , nettings and a few a pumps will do the act. WRONG..!! it is about the Nitrogen Cycle. The pipes, nettings, gravel are just an innovation by thinking people.. they can also build a bio-filter system without all these but with balls, mud or even old rags…..

For the bio-filtration to work, it has to walk along other components of the aquatic world like fishes, plants, oxygen level and etc. With a well balanced system… a house garden pond can look wonderful with crisp clear water and a lake looks like what nature intended for us.

Ah Kong is about 65 years and very experienced in the construction field. He installed our bio-filtration system in ponds and very amazed by the low maintenance system which gives a crisp clear water pond. “I still cannot understand how your bio-filter system works but I am impressed by the clarity of the pond water!” he said to me one day. I smiled and in my thought, “…because you cannot feel the Nitrogen cycle..but it is always in the air Ah Kong.”

25 years ago I should have tried to use craps of plastic or even wood shavings instead of gravel for the bio-filtration system! Probably today I can do a lot more with these re-cyclable  items than granite gravels that being used everywhere by the so-called bio-filtration experts.