I have started to do an experiment to compare the benefits, if any, between a Bakki Shower/Bacteria House (BS/BH)(250kg BH equivalent to about 150% requirement at a recommended amount of 10kg/ton) filtration system versus my large conventional submerged filtration system (150% of pond surface area).
Allow me to describe my filtration system so that we can have a good idea how I plan to do the comparison. Attached is a diagrammatic not-to-scale plan of my pond. As you can see I have 2 gravity-feed filters, one of which is feeding the 2 above-ground filters, and 2 hydroponics ponds. My filter materials consist of brushes, Japanese mats, matala and Izeki nets. In terms of tonnage, my main pond is 18 tons while my filters have a total of 24 tons. I siphon my sedimentation chambers and change 10% water daily. I have 3 pumps running with a total flow-rate of about 40 ton/hr, and 4 Hi-blows to provide aeration (2x100W and 2x80W). I generally tend not to overstock my pond. I have just "culled" my kois in preparation for my kois coming back from Japan. At present I have 9 kois (one Sakai kohaku (56cm), one 65cm Ogata shiro utsuri, one 66cm Momotaro sanke, two Dainichi showas (43 and 51cm), and four homebred 13 month-old kohakus (about 50cms). This system has served me well for about 5 years now. Water quality has always been good with crystal clear water, kois with excellent appetite and good growth rate (I feed 9x/day with a total of 600gm of pellets and silkworm pupae).
What do I hope to achieve from this experiment? Well, besides satisfying my curiosity and my never-ending tinkering of my filters (how else do you think my filter has reached this size? Drives my wife crazy! LOL), I would like to know how and what else BS/BH can offer me. I must add here that I am a hobbyist and has no vested interest and with noone to please but myself. I will post everything I find. Period.
I will categorise the parameters I will be monitoring into 2 big groups i.e. subjective and objective parameters. The subjective parameters I will be monitoring include:
- Change in appetite
- Growth rate
- Water clarity
- System’s response to challenges e.g. thunderstorms, heavy feeding etc
Eventhough I have indicated these are really very subjective parameters I am very in-tune with my present system and I will know if there are any extraordinary changes.
The objective parameters that I will be monitoring are:
- pH
- TDS
- ORP
- Nitrate
- GH
I have converted one of my above-ground filters (the one right next to the main pond) to house my Bakki Shower. The filter materials have been shifted to the other filters. I have measured the objective parameters over the past few weeks prior to setting up of the Bakki Shower to get an indicative range of objective parameters. Below are the average readings prior to setting up of the BS/BH system:
- *pH 7-7.5
- *ORP 320 (dropped to 200 after I redistributed the filter material)
- *TDS 80-85 (dropped to 60 after I did the redistribution…I wonder why)
- Nitrate 12.5mg/100ml
- GH 3 dGH
- Temperature
*meters calibrated weekly
I added the BH on the 6th of October. I added a Tsurumi pump (15ton/hr) to increase the flow-rate to my BS/BH system (see diagram). My plan is to gradually bypass my existing filters so that the BS/BH will eventually take over full responsibility. I know this experiment will take a long time. So sit back and join me as I go along.
I have been monitoring the parameters since then. Before I post the findings it will be fun if any of you are keen to guess what will happen to my water/kois. Please feel free to give your comments. For those who are in/going to Japan maybe we can meet, as I will be going to Hiroshima/Niigata next weekend.