Myth:
I don’t need an autofill. I will just top off the water every week with a garden hose.
Fact:
Too often you hear of someone turning on the hose to add water and then forgetting to turn it off only to later find all their koi dead. This is because whenever you replace more than 10% of your pond water at any one time, with city water, you need to add a dechlorinator to neutralize the chlorine in the water which is toxic to fish. With an autofill you don’t run the risk of forgetting to turn off the water. Under normal use it is generally not necessary to add a dechlorinator to the pond each time the autofill comes on. Because you are replacing such a small percentage of water, the chlorine evaporates before it can become a problem.
The autofill comes with a built-in overflow capability. This is important for two reasons. The first is that whenever the pond overfills, such as during a rainstorm, the excess water will exit through the autofill instead of allowing the pond to overflow. Sometimes, when a pond overflows, the fish are prone to jumping out of the pond. The second reason is, if the autofill water valve were to ever stick open, once the pond level raised to the overflow level, any excess water would flow out the overflow instead of back into the pond. This could save your koi from a chlorine overdose.
Overview:
If you have an autofill installed for your pond, you will love it. It makes maintaining a pond so much easier. An autofill does just what the name implies. It will automatically keep the pond water at the same level all the time. As water evaporates, it will automatically replace it. They are especially useful if you have a bead filter, because each time you backwash the filter, the autofill will replace any water used during the process.
Best Practice:
Install an autofill somewhere around your pond close to an active water line.
We typically recommend 1 autofill per 10,000 gallons of water.
Recommended Autofill- Model #T40FBK
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