

In the picture below you can see bio balls that you can make yourself and use in the biofilter of your koi pond or aquaponics system.
These bio balls are made of netting that is used to wrap fresh produce (see pictures below). You can buy the netting in a roll as can be seen in the pictures below. You can also source it from fresh produce markets. Huge bundles of the netting is thrown away daily at these markets where you can obtain it for free.
The process involves taking the netting and rolling it in balls of roughly 75 to 100 mm in diameter. You don’t have to roll it tightly and want it to be loose inside so that there is enough place for the bacteria to form inside the ball. In the picture below you can see the start of the process where pieces of the netting are loosely rolled.
The next step of the process involves heating the partially finished balls up with a heat gun and loosely rolling them until the outer part sticks together. Use protective gloves to protect your hands in the process. The finished balls do not need to be the same size, but we have found that balls of between 75 and 100 mm in diameter works well.
The outside of the balls are now fused together but the inside is still soft and loose. Try not to compress them too much in the heating and rolling process.
Water will easily flow through the completed bio balls. It is extremely important that the biofilter is after the mechanical filter so that no solids will enter the biofilter. The aeration in the biofilter will move the balls up and down through the water column and this will form a desirable aerobic system. Bacteria will quickly populate inside these balls and as there is a lot of surface area for them to do so.
I am an electronic engineer with more than 50 scientific publications. My motto is “if you can not explain it simply, then you do not understand it well enough”.
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