| I added My 3 tier Bakki shower 2 years ago. I took water that was gravity fed
into a central vortex from the bottom of the pond and then drawn by pump to a three chambered vortex j-mat filter system set up in series. and gravity fed back to the pond. I wanted water for my BH that was fed with water that had the heavies already settled out of it so i valved off some flow from my feed line from pump to j-mat filters and fed into the the shower. After I robbed about 20% of the previous flow from the vortexes ( 250 U.S. Gals each ) I put a 40 high blow air blower with 6 stones underneath the j-mat on each filter unit. looks like a jacuzzi in there...BTW the air is not drawn from inside the pond room but outside so that there is no chance to contaminate
the water with something harmful from inside where the air does not exchange.(this is no small deal make a note of it)
I did it this way because I had all my outside koi inside in 2,000 gals which was plenty overstocked so i wanted the extra filtration. Also I wanted all of the wastes eliminated so that the new filter would not have to deal with it. I have been more than satisfied with the results...
I would reccomend based on my experience taking water to the BH after all the heavies have been removed. Keep in mind that if your water will be turning over so much faster that eventually your system will catch up very quickly if your original system was not or marginally doing the job.
I don't read much about this anymore but I keep my vortexes covered so no light gets in. The bakki shower is open to light and natural UV. IMHO these different conditions encourage different bacteria to thrive rather than more of the same stuff in different filters.
I drain my central vortex twice a day, and filter vortexes once every 3 days
(one each day ) and I have never cleaned the Bakki. I have examined the media, looking smelling breaking in half etc but find no reason to be alarmed.
I run a 10% water volumn change continuously thru a trickle of conditioned water.
I'm accused of overkill which is probably true but then on the other hand I have no health isssues which me and the koi both appreciate!
Hope something in my rambling will help with your decision making...
someday I'll have to tell Joe about my homemade soil mix for my bonsai which is equally as elaborate and includes 5% charcoal in the mix.(LOL) |