Waterfall Filters Explained - All About Bio Filters

Waterfall filters, or bio-filters are more or less gravity fed overflow tanks. Generally positioned at the beginning of your stream or waterfall, designed to house the ponds filtration media. These are some of the most cost effective and low maintenance systems available. In today's video, we're going to review the Atlantic BF1000 model.

How it works: water from the pond is pumped into an inlet on the filter. The water then fills from the bottom up, flowing through the filter, overflowing from the spillway and eventually returning to the pond- via gravity. The spillway offers you a nice, even cascade to start things off. Obviously, you don't simply want tubing laying over some stone. That would not look natural and honestly unpleasant.

Let's breakdown the internal components. Inside you'll find a filter pad and media bag. The pad is mechanical filtration, designed to physically trap debris. When it clogs- pull it out and simply rinse it off. What you'll put inside the media bag is ultimately up to you, but its purpose is to house biological media. We recommend plastic bio-balls. Bio-balls are molded plastic spheres with tons of surface area. On these bio-balls is where the majority of beneficial bacteria is going to colonize. Depending on your area, you'll rinse these off about once a year. A tip, before putting the bag in, place a small stone inside the bag. Otherwise, it tends to float.

This specific unit can handle ponds up to about 1,000 gallons and has a nice 14" spillway. Some larger units can handle up to 15,000 gallons with up to 50' wide spillways. So, the spectrum of available sizes is pretty large making it almost impossible to not find a unit for your application.

Article Posted: 02/08/2017 05:00:04 PM