Pond water contains many different chemical
elements, some naturally found within tap water, some from the waste products of
fish, frogs and plants, and some from the mineral elements within the pond such as rocks
and cement. This section concentrates on waste products and how they are converted
into safe products by a filter system creating a safe ecosystem for your pond. This
is called the nitrogen cycle, nitrogen is a gas that makes up 80% of the air we breath and
when it forms compounds with other chemicals it plays an important part of many living
tissues.
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Ammonia (NH3) is the waste product excreted by fish and created by decaying
plant life within the pond and it is toxic to fish. When passed through your pond filter
along with the oxygenated water from the pond they flow through biological media which
over a period of time has developed the beneficial bacteria which converts the ammonia
into nitrites.
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Nitrites (NO2) are also toxic to fish, but other beneficial bacteria in the filter
will convert these into less harmful nitrates.
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Nitrates (NO3) are used by pond plants (including algae) as food, these nitrates will
naturally convert into nitrogen.
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Nitrogen is the gas that makes up 80% of the air that we breath and that our pond
needs to contain life.
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As well as beneficial bacteria within the ponds filter there are many single-cell
organisms and various larger creatures such as daphnia that also feed on the waste
products travelling through the filter these also help to remove fine particles such as
algae from our pond water, but
these methods of filtration cannot remove everything
and so we must perform regular water changes and filter maintenance to prevent any build
up of waste and minerals.
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