Koi pond filter consist of mechanical, biological and chemical chamber. In the biological chamber must not have debris as dirty particle.But Even biofilters get dirty. This can be in many forms and of many descriptions. In the most fundamental case, 'dirt' is macro debris that is carried to the biofilter from the greater pond environment. This can be leafs, seeds, acorns, fish pellets , insects and feces. These really should never get to the biofilter ( which is more accurately called a bio-reactor and not a filter at all) as every pond should have a first line of defense in the way of a skimmer basket and pre-filter. A prefilter is a concept more than a piece of equipment. The WAY your prefilter words and how efficient it is, further describes want you prefiltration approach is.
You can have :
Mechanical filtration - an actual physical filtration using a permeable material that allows water to pass thru but not solids. Depending on pore size, the mechanical filter can be just a plastic cage and go right down in size to micron spacing in a paper or plastic membrane.
This technique is tricky in that, if the pour size is large in order to accommodate large water flow, some material will get through. If, on the other hand, the pour size is very small to accomplish maximum protection and entrapment, the filter quickly clogs. In addition, a weak point about physical filtration of any kind, the fact that things become trapped against the force of flowing water and this tends to pulverize and liquify trapped organic debris. This then cause fines that remain in circulation and also causes an accumulation of dyes and stains within the water column itself.
A second mechanical filter type is the combined mechanical/bio design. Sand filters, bubble bead filters, stone filters, peagravel filters. OK as an old style approach but ultimately the mechanical function gets better at the expense of the biofilter function and thus requires serious maintenance or huge surface to overcome this design flaw.
Passive filtration- in many forms- cyclone filters, vortex filters, settlement chambers, baffle filters, etc. This systems tend to pull out circulating waste by employing several creative scientific/ physic’s principles. In general these are efficient and tend to avoid many of the short comings of true mechanical filters. The one weakness of these filters is that they are only as effective, in terms of the overall pond system, if what they trap is routinely removed.
This often requires a substantial amount of water . But still they are easier to clean than the true mechanicals. The material they can remove are all of the macro material mentioned and additionally- do not create the pulverizing effect of the mechanical F.
So with all these designs, why do biofilters STILL get dirty?? The answer is simple. First a small percentage of particles still gets through all the above mentioned devices. Secondly many types of organics actually RE-connect and accumulate as they settle on biomedia and attract other like particles. Thirdly, The biofilter itself produces waste over time.
This comes in the form of dead biofilm, dead bacteria, processed fish slime coat, process particles, dead algae content and particle formation of all this material. Often it takes the form of a green or brown paste-like muddy material. And often, this media becomes home to protozoa , worms and fungi.
This material also must be removed - but not too often as the biofilter has an ecological balance of its own. It is the gross accumulation of macro material and the use of biomedia that encourages trapping that should be avoided. The slurry you may see that accumulates is to a degree, alive and will ‘live’ as long as the microbes within it stay alive. This is a layer of controlled anerobic activity.
Source:
http://www.canadiankoiandpond.ca/articles/article19.html
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