bakki towers

[MikeM]

Nice arrangement.

When you say "shock load" of fish, just how many/size are you putting in?

[shiromujigirl]

By shock load I mean 10 26-29 inch fish in each 3700 gallon tank. The experiment has been running for a week, see koivet.com

I think I have found out the secret of BH media. It is clay mixed with sawdust, or in this case likely ricehulls, and fired to the point of becomeing glasslike (vitrification).

I am going to try to replicate the media. To gain access to a kilm I have to take a ceramics class at the local Jr. college.

While others in the class struggle to make vases and bowls I will be cranking out what looks like poo poo after poo poo.

Modern art. Or Performance art

[MikeM]

SMG: Great to have you back.

Interesting how all the boards are big on Bakki Showers these days. They should be thanking K-B for giving them a topic to exhaust.

The Maeda system has become more complex than this thread has contemplated. With the removal of matting from the filter channel leading to the Showers, and replacement with submerged BH (heavily aerated), Maeda-san has created a tremendous submerged surface area prior to reaching the BS. The role of the showers changes from that described in the initial explanations. I am increasingly seeing it as a de-gassing finale to a complete filtration system. I expect nitrification is completed long before any water reaches Maeda's Showers. The Showers are performing another function. ... Not to say that they will not nitrify if given that role. Just that Maeda is not having to use the BS for that purpose.

But note that his latest innovation is reminescent of the in-pond gravel filters eliminated from most ponds when J-mat was developed 20+ years ago. BH is lighter and has all those grand crevices for capturing glarf, and allowing anaerobic activity in the internal spaces, but otherwise it is like gravel when used in a submerged state. Curious. I'm hoping Brian will give us the scoop next Fall when Maeda has had a year of operation of the new configuration.

[Maurice]

Mike, don't get the Maeda opperation of Bakki Showers wrong.
All of their new ponds are Bakki Shower only, no settlement or submerged filtration.
Bakki Showers only.
We have been talking their older ponds, with regard to submerged filtration.
They are at this time building more greenhouses, I don't expect to see any media under water level.
Maurice.

[MikeM]

Maurice: Comparison of the two will be very interesting. It seems to me that these are entirely different concepts, since the new ponds apparently rely on the BS for de-gassing/nitrification, while the old lake of a pond would have thorough nitrification before water reaches the showers.

[sundan]

Would like to ask all you out there in Koi land that have install a bakki shower if you are having problems with your water being clear? I found I had to install a aquadyne 2.2 prefilter to polish the water and then on to bakki shower. Any comments?

[shiromujigirl]

The water in both my test tanks is totally unclear but they have only been running for less than 2 weeks.

No other filters.

[dick benbow]

Hi All,
Mike your right it is great to have SMG back! What i would give to be in her ceramics class! (lol) ( I'd be firing bonsai pots! )
Sundan-from a theory point of view the reason why the BS is established as an in and out system with nothing before and after is that it is expected to build a colony so strong that it supercharges the effort of waste consumption with turn over and a high degree of oxygenation.
Over the years, with theory aside here's what I've learned from practical application. By trapping
wastes before the filter you rob the filter of food not allowing it to reach it's full potential. if you operate a BB filter as it should be (strictly as mechanical to waste) you don't allow the helpful bacteria to build up in any amounts. if you buy into the BB claims of bio activity and don't backwash then you allow the trapped material to break down into harmful waste. yes i own a BB and backwash it every day. if I'm going to pay all that $$$$ to trap something harmful, I'm getting rid of it the same day. I also do this with my filter vortexes. they're designed to catch waste and I'm getting rid of it daily. your bubble bead cannot compete with the oxygenation levels of the BS/trickle tower/ aireated below the J-mat media in upflow application. This heavy air also makes k-1 become more effective as bio media.
While we're on the topic, I built my pond over 25 years ago. I never felt I could afford to tear it down and rebuild properly so I have spent the past several decades retro fitting new innovations. when I started I had dozens of koi. now I have 6. you'd think with kind of light load and all the extra filtration and backwashing every day, i'd gone off the deep end. and maybe I have. but my koi are always happy and never sick. that is worth it all to me for that reason. My grandmother koi who has been with me since the beginning is over 30 (akemae kigoi)
Please don't feel my comments to you are anything but me being passionate about this topic and trying to help (you!) if you review
many of Brian's wonderful article in KB ,you will see that the japanese do use a type of
mechanical filter-BUT IT IS never before THE BIO! But rather an independent system. (see winter 2004/no 6/pg 52)
I have many Brits whom I consider special friends with several years of experience with the BS system. They started thiers in addition to thier regular system and then after a proven period switched over exclusively to BS. My advice for any lurkers would be to do the same. do it conjunction with your sucessful system. I am in that process as we speak.

[Maurice]

When I started my Bakki Shower up, within two weeks I had lost the perfect clarity I before. The water took on a brown tinge.
I did nothing, just kept on my usual maintenance, slowly the pond cleared again; I think it was at around week six.
Stayed crystal ever since.
Maurice

[gknight]

Maurice,

As you know I am currently testing a small amount of BH media, I too have lost the good clarity that I had. I have had my foam fractioner on the pond for around 6 weeks now, this was constantly producing some DOC extraction. This extraction has now stopped. I trying to resist the temptation to “tinker” and try and get my clarity back to how it was. But then as we know clear water may not be “good” water.