Installing Japanese matting to filter bay.

This page updated January 2004


Installing Japanese matting to filter bay
When I built my three bay filter twenty years ago the media used in all the bays was gravel. In the last four years I have changed the first bay to large Flocor, and the second bay to small Flocor. I was not happy with having gravel in the third bay as I was able to clean out the first two bays at regular intervals, but the gravel was only back flushed twice a year. It was decided to change the last bay to Japanese matting, and how that was done is shown below.
	This is the third bay with the water drained out. The gravel in the bay was very deep, and there was 14 inches of water above the media. The depth of the filter matting is 13 inches, and so six inches of gravel was removed. It was decided to keep the gravel in the filter for the rest of the season to enable the matting to become seeded and working as a bacterial filter media before the gravel is removed.
	The matting cartridge was made up by the koi dealer to the size required. The cost to do this was only £10 so was worthwhile as they have the cutting tools required, and it saves a lot of time. The size of the filter bay is 62 inches x 35 inches. This photo shows the cartridge as it was delivered.
	The plastic cover has now been removed. The matting is not glued together, but is held in place by the string. The cartridge has to be cut to allow it to fit in place over the 110mm pipe, and this is easily done with a Stanley knife. Two additional lengths of string is put in place to hold the matting together when it was cut for the pipe.
	This photo shows the matting after it has been put into position. Although it is quite large two of us were able to do this without difficulty. The string was removed shortly after this photo was taken, and the matting sprung open against the sides of the filter, and so became even tighter in the filter bay. For this matting it is essential to have a large amount of oxygen. In this case the bay is supplied with air from a Hi Blow 40 serving ten air stones which are lying a six inches below the cartridge.
This page updated January 2004
This website started with a booklet which I made up originally for the help of those members of the BKKS - South Wales Section who were intending to start building a koi pond, and as the website has expanded more information and articles from other people have been included. This is for general guidance only, and we do not take any responsibility for problems that might occur by following these ideas. It is important that you check out everything in your area, and check on local laws and rules that may apply.
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