Best Koi Pond Filter System Reviews
When you’re creating and maintaining your own Koi pond, you can’t just use the same things you would with every other type of fish pond. Koi fish have weaker immune systems than other fish, so it’s important for you to get the best Koi pond filter system you can to avoid any trouble with your collection. After all, these fish can be very expensive!
Contents
Benefits of The Koi Pond Filter System
If you get the right filter system for your pond, you could experience these benefits:
Clear Water
There’s no use in spending so much money and time maintaining your fish pond if you can’t even see the fish inside. Installing the right filter will keep the water clear, so you and any guests will be able to enjoy the beautiful Koi swimming around in your pond.
Healthy Fish
Like I already said, Koi fish tend to have weaker immune systems than other types of fish, because they are bred together so many times to get the right color patterns. Sacrificing immune strength for beautiful fish means you need to get a filter that will help to protect the fish from biological threats in the water. A good Koi pond filter will be very effective as a biological filter, not just a mechanical filter for particles.
Clean Environment
Having clear water and healthy fish are great things, but you can also count on a good filter making the whole environment of the pond very clean and attractive. No more gunk and debris around the pond, but a neat and tidy underwater home for your fish to enjoy.
Top 5 Koi Pond Filter System Reviews Comparison Table
Product Name | Image | Filtration Type | Feed Type | Filter Capacity (With Koi Fish) | UV Sterilization? | Above Ground or Under Water Above Ground | Our Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Biological and Mechanical | Pressure | Up to 900 gallons | No | Above Ground | #1 | |
 | Biological | Pressure | 1500-2500 gallons | Yes | Above Ground | #2 | |
 | Biological | Gravity | Up to 1000 gallons | No | Above Ground | #3 | |
 | Biological and Mechanical | Pressure | Up to 1560 gallons | Yes | Above Ground | #4 | |
 | Biological and Mechanical | Gravity | Up to 500 gallons | No | Above Ground | #5 |
How to Choose The Koi Filter
To get the best Koi pond filter system, you can just go and buy anything and hope it works. It’s a good idea to look at system reviews (like the table above), and to know what you need ahead of time. With that in mind, here are the features to look at:
Filtration Type
For Koi to live a healthy life, there should be both mechanical and biological filtration, although biological filtration is arguably the most important type. You can get both of these by using two separate filters, a filter pump with an external filter, or a filter that incorporates both filtration types. At a bare minimum, it’s best to have a filter that has an effective biological filtration system, because this is what will help to keep your fish healthiest.
Keep in mind that biological filters aren’t as effective against particles and debris, so they won’t be able to filter out the organic materials expelled from a chipper shredder, lawnmower, weed eater, or any other lawncare devices when you do your regular landscaping maintenance.
Filter Capacity
Not all filters can handle every size of pond. Ideally, the filter will be able to completely turn over the water of your pond every few hours. This means you need to choose a filter that’s compatible with your pond size and fish load. The heavier the fish load, the stronger the filter will need to be. For example, if the filter is rated at 5000 gallons without fish, it might work for a pond of about 500-1000 gallons with a normal fish load.
All of this is because fish produce a lot of waste. Koi fish are especially bad when it comes with waste, because they excrete a lot of ammonia as well as solid waste. This means Koi ponds usually need even more powerful filters than regular fish ponds.
Feed Type
No, this doesn’t mean “feed” as in feeding your fish, it is referring to how the water will get back into the fish pond. Filters can be pressure or gravity fed. Pressure fed filters use a pump to forcefully push the water back into the pond, meaning you can place them anywhere outside of the water and still expect them to work well. You could even place them 50 feet away and use a garden hose to get the water around. (But, I wouldn’t recommend this.)
Gravity feed filters send water back using just the force of gravity, so there is no secondary pump used for pushing water. These filters need to be placed higher than the pond water level, so that filtered water can easily flow back into the pond.
UV Sterilization
If you want clearer water, a UV sterilizer is a great addition to your filter. It uses powerful UV lights to clarify the water by bunching up algae bits together, so they can be caught in the filters more easily.
Above Ground or Under Water
This feature has to do with where you will install your filter. Some filters are submersible, although this is not very common for Koi pond filters. Most are installed above the ground externally, making them easier to clean and access when necessary. This is a great feature for convenience, because filters can get dirty and need replacement or cleaning every month or so in most ponds.
If bugs are a problem in your area, you should protect your above ground filter with a cover and make sure it’s sealed against mosquitos. Otherwise, you might need to break out the mosquito fogger in the spring and summer!
Conclusion
Finding the Koi pond filter system is part of investing in your fantastic Koi pond. From the selections above, I would recommend Sun Grech CPF filter. It’s got both biological and mechanical filtration, making it effective against particles while maintaining quality water. You can maintain this pressure filter fairly easily, so it’s good if you don’t want to spend too much time doing your maintenance every time.
