When we keep fish in ponds, we are copying a natural system. In natural systems, there are processes that regulate the levels of waste in the water. There are vertebrates and invertebrates that break down solids into smaller particles that are then broken down further by bacteria and fungi.

These organisms are not present in a man made system. To compensate for this, new generation filters such as the Pond One brand was developed. These filters work in three stages: mechanical filtration, biological filtration and ultra violet sterilisation.

• Mechanical filtration removes solid debris and detritus such as dead algae, insects, fish wastes etc. In other words, mechanical filtration gets rid of all the stuff that you can see.
• Biological filtration is the opposite. It gets rid of all the stuff that you can’t see – the poisons that are dissolved in the water of the pond. These poisons are produced by the fish themselves and also by the decay and rotting of the solids that are not adequately filtered out.
• Ultra violet sterilisation removes the single-celled algae from the water. This is the algae that are responsible for the green water. While in natural systems fish are quite happy in green water, we want to see our prized fish and the sterilising unit makes this possible.

In the past three separate pieces of equipment were needed to achieve the same results that new generation filters now offer. These new generation filters are easy to install and to maintain.