Anyone know anything about sand pool filters?

[tallfreak]

I purchased my house about 8 months ago. The previous owner had a koi pond built but never put any plants or fish in it. It has a pool pump and sand filter. She treated the pond like a small pool by using pool chemicals to keep it clean. I intend to use it as a koi pond however pool filters clog too easily. I have been researching koi pond biological filters. One type of bio filter is called a floating bed filter. Water is pumped up through the sand making it churn. This promotes healthy bacteria to grow and consume harmful materials making the water clear and fish friendly. My understanding of my filter is that backwash mode pumps water much like a floating bed pond filter.

Is there any harm in running my filter in backwash mode indefinitely? I don't have sand coming out of my backwash hose. The pressure is lower in backwash than in filter mode.

 

[velocicaur]

I'm not an expect on this subject by any means. However, when you backwash a pool filter, it flushes out all the crap in the sand with the water in the system. If you were to backwash indefinitely, you would run out of water(?) unless you were to continuously add water, but that would mess up the chemistry.

The pressure is always lower when you backwash. When the pressure is too high, it is because it is too dirty/there isn't enough flow, so you backwash to clean it out. This usually takes a 5-10 minutes and you're set.

I've done it for an hour or two accidentally (walked away and forgot about it) and the water loss is pretty severe.

I'd talk to someone that knows all about ponds, water chemistry, pumps, and the fish before I started to tackle this. I think it's going to require a lot of work either way.

 

[tallfreak]

I guess I should have mentioned that I want to run my backwash hose to a waterfall. It will still be recirculating water.

 

[STAMPEDE3]

It should not harm it but not sure it will work as you intend it.