Remove ammonia from your Koi Ponds

A recent study conducted in Britain has show that up to 50% of ammonia can be driven out of a pond within a 48-hour timeframe by using nothing but fresh air. We’ve long known that aerating your Koi pond has benefits for your Koi, but it now appears that it also helps to drive out ammonia.

It is important to note that aeration is more effective when the pond water is circulated through an aeration tank. Surface aeration is useful for increasing dissolved oxygen levels nearer to the surface, but bubbling the whole pond through an aerated vessel is far more efficient. This is because all the pond volume makes intimate contact with the aeration bubbles and it is the oxygen that causes a reaction with the ammonia, reducing it to free nitrogen.

Aeration is not a certain cure for removing all ammonia. The reaction process is slow and, as the concentration of ammonia drops, the reaction slows down. But any ongoing reduction of ammonia by aeration means that there is less work for the bio-filter to do. Don’t make the mistake of using a smaller bio-filter though. Remember the golden rule – you can never have enough filtration, only too little.