The Pond Doc's Dream Pond Filter System

             

 

ProBead™ Biological Pond Filter
Essential Component to The Pond Doc's Dream Filter System™ for Koi and Goldfish Ponds and Water Gardens

 

 

Why choose a Bead Filter as the main source of mechanical and biological filtration for a dream pond filtering system?

The object of building a low-maintenance pond is to build it so that it takes as little effort as possible to maintain while keeping a pond that is clean and healthy.  Some filters are easy to maintain but don't do the job of cleaning the pond water.  Some do a great job of cleaning the pond but are cumbersome to work with.

A bead filter gives you the luxury of a 5-minute per week (during pond season) backwash that cleans the filter media inside the tank with a simple turn of a handle.  You don't even get your hands wet!  Try that on old-fashioned pond filters that use pads, sponge, lava rock or brushes  ---  It literally takes 10 times the amount of time to clean the filter media by hand - or more, depending on the filter - and it's a dirty job to boot!    

When you examine the choices of filters available to place on goldfish ponds, koi ponds and water gardens, there is NO OTHER type that can give you results that you get with a true* bead filter.  Sure, there are back-washable pond filters out there that look exactly like bead filters but they don't do the superior job of removing organics (mechanical filtration) or housing healthy bacteria (biological filtration).   

* The term "true bead filter" is used because there are filters that aren't bead filters but look like them on the outside.  These other filters are built using the same tank and valve systems.  They are not, however, designed with the same advanced technology as a true bead filter.  A true bead filter uses floating beads and incorporates an advanced plumbing scheme inside the tank for optimal mechanical and biological filtering capabilities.  The other filters are not engineered with the same plumbing, use sinking beads most of the time and may cost slightly less (but not that much less than a ProBead™ biological pond filter).

Put it this way - at the garden center we only had one employee responsible for keeping our show ponds, quarantine tanks, and koi and goldfish sale tanks clean and free of ammonia and nitrites.  That would have been impossible if we did not place bead filters on them.

 

Why choose a ProBead™ Biological Pond Filter instead of a another brand of true bead filter?

The ProBead™ "came to be" because the Pond Doc needed it for his water garden center.  He tested all the different bead filters on the market but each filter had its good points and bad points.  He wasn't totally satisfied with any of the bead filters he tested so he took the good points from them and combined them, making adjustments until he was finally satisfied. 

The ProBead™ has one HUGE advantage over competitive bead filters.  The Anti-Clogging Multi-Bead Feature of the ProBead™ keeps the beads from caking and channeling pond water.  What happens with other bead filters is the beads clog up eventually with the heavy organics present in koi ponds, goldfish ponds and water gardens.  When the beads clog, channeling of pond water around the beads and not through them occurs.  Nothing is being filtered out and if the clogged beads are never broken apart and backwashed properly anaerobic (very smelly and unhealthy!!!) bacteria grows within the clogs and actually defeats our aim of cleaning the water and keeping the pond fresh and healthy for our koi and goldfish.  This simply does not happen inside a ProBead™.  T

Another advantage of the ProBead™ Biological Pond Filter is that it's plumbed inside with 2" plumbing instead of 1 1/2" (like other bead filters) and the laterals contain a full 5 inches of slotted piping on the intake and outgo sides of the plumbing (unlike the common practice of less than 2 inches).  This makes all the difference in water flow inside the unit.  Better water flow through unclogged beads is the magic key to ProBead's superiority with both mechanical and biological filtering capabilities.