Thread: Help with Bottom drain

I may be a stick in the mud, but I hate aerated bottom drains.
They ruin the surface tension of the water and spoil the view of the fish, So you can barely use them anyway.
...and for the money, they are ridiculous just for adding a 1inch junction and a rubber diffuser.

Food for thought:
Nowt wrong with Kockney Koi £30 drain.

...and if you can see some sinking black airline going over the side of the pond? Will that bother you,
Or could you drill through, somewhere just above water level?
It's all horses for courses, but Aerated BD's certainly are not the 'no brainer' that everyone says you need. That's just the gimmick of good marketing and everyone on YouTube brainlessly copying each other. Just have a look at almost all the ponds on YouTube with the air drain on. Can you see the fish?

The latest thing is pond detox clay.
Will that turn out to be as useless as Evolution Aqua bio balls, in the fullness of time... probably.

I have an aerated Bd and wouldn't change it, but I don't run air through it on a day to day basis because like you say, you can't really see the fish although you can get around this by having aa valve with a silencer on and then adjust until you just have a small amount go through the BD which is enough to then push any debris to the outer edges and down to the skimmer if yours is in the corner like mine is. This is how I ran mine for a while but now not at all as all the air goes through the moving bed and therefore I don't need any further aeration.

The good thing with having an aerated BD is should you be doing work on the pond and have the water pump off or if the pump fails, you can stick the air through the BD whilst the water is not flowing and keep the water moving with plenty of air. This is also handy for treating the pond for parasites as I will turn the pump off when adding a treatment and close the valves for maybe 4-6 hours so the fish get a good blast of the treatment without the filters breaking it down. With PP I will do it for the first 3 hours then circulate through the filters for the last hour before neutralising it and have the air running through the BD the whole time. So as you can see it does have it's benefits. Would the fish survive or be comfortable without the air through the BD? Possibly, but in the height of summer for example I would certainly not want to risk it without the air.

As for the detox, I know the Lincolnshire fish health one is well received and have used it myself, the fish definitely seemed happier when using it. It is supposed to neutralise heavy metals/pollutions etc and as I don't have any carbon currently I'm sure it is beneficial. There is a newer version from someone else which has also got some good reports and I'm sure its much of a muchness, I noticed when using it the water seemed clearer as it also has clay like properties. If it does remove pollutions etc from the tap water then it can't be a bad thing as we certainly know how poor the water quality is these days.

It's each to their own, in this hobby, but you can run more air 100% of the time if you don't use a aerated BD. Just use an air bar at the far side of the pond.

As for detox products - in my limited experience, something that binds elements will only last so long before it breaks down and releases those things,.now in greater concentration.
...So how do you flush out the bound up clay?
...water changes?
...that would be back to square one , surely.

Something like zeolite works on a similar principle, but binding up different elements, but you can remove that and "reset" it's properties, then place it back in the pond.

Don't believe everything on YouTube - hands up who's scooped buckets of EA bio balls out of their bio chamber.
Everyone on YouTube told you you needed those too...

Yeah you aren't wrong, you could use an air bar but I guess it don't really make a difference where the air is coming from so long as its going in and an aerated bottom drain is neat and tidy with no air lines hanging over the side of the pond which again don't really matter but I personally am not a fan of seeing all kinds of stuff hanging over the pond including showers. As I mentioned before, I run all the air through my moving beds and none through the BD, only when the pumps off and running a treatment so I have zero disturbance in the pond.

People say the mushroom affect helps to draw the crap into the bd, I don't know how much I believe that but I did used to find the pond floor cleaner when I run the air on the BD all night then switched off in the morning. Was this the result of the aerated bd or was it because the fish were moving more and rummaging about as a result of the air pushing the water around a bit more causing the crap to clear? I'm sure someone who knows more about physics than me would have a better idea!

I have a drum and if it binds the particles then most of it will get pulled out by that, not all no doubt but there will still be a percentage that is removed so still would be helping in my opinion. I never used the bioballs though I have always thought thats a myth. I think the difference with the detox is Paula at Lincolnshire fish health is Dr in fish medicine so it would hopefully be backed with some science rather than a load of YouTubers spouting rubbish. Again, it's each to their own but offering an alternative view

In designing a Koi pond that doesn't look like a Koi pond I went to some lengths to hide any of the usual plumbing/pipework - even my auto feeder dispenses in the filter shed.
As a consequence there is no aeration at all in the pond itself unless the water feature is running.
The bottom drain can't get blocked in the normal sense because it's my own "inverted" design (not suitable for a flat bottom), so no diving required.
Aeration happens in the filter; firstly in the "normal" moving bed bio chamber, then the air lift system providing water circulation is the "mother of all aerators" and for good measure I have more aeration in the outlet chamber. I know, my system doesn't follow the usual rules.
If I need to provide extra aeration to the pond itself during treatments or if I need to isolate the filter I have a spare air pump, "heavy" air hose and a 250mmm aeration disc to drop in which "boils" the water nicely.