bead filters as the only BIO filtration?

[mike]

anybody here use bead filters only as BIO filtration? (of course there will be skimmers and bottom drains and vortex chambers)

i plan to use two 30" hayward sand filters filled with ultra bio media and one 24" hayward sand filter filled with the same media for a 14000 gallon pond.

do you think that is enough BIO filtration?
(space is very limited)

[Mike T]

Aragorn:

Not sure about the volume of you bio media filters however, why not send the water to a Bakki Shower set up...Trays will be over pond so will not take any extra space... If noise is a concern place bottom tray 1-2" above surface of water and noise will be minimalized... My Q tank is set up this way and you can hardly hear the water... If you have any questions re: bakki showers go to Maurice Cox's thread "In prize of Bakki Showers" I think he actually meant "Praise"..

Aloha! Mike

[ChrisC]

Mike--while we are on Bakkis--do you run the water from your bottom drain directly into your Bacteria House media/shower setup? Everyone who is doing this now talks about it, but I don't exactly get how it handles all of the solid wastes. What are you seeing?

OOPS--sorry Aragorn, didn't mean to hijack your thread....

[Mike T]

Chris:

Water goes from bottom drains to pump to bead filters to Bakki Showers...Turn over is 3.0 times on 900 gal. pond and 2.5 on 1700 gallon pond... BacHouse Media turned a light beigh after 3 months and has remained the same for a year now, except for the top layer, in the top tray exposed to direct sunlight, which turned black...no clogging.

Water goes from bottom drain directly to Bakki Shower in Q-tank but tank is only 150 gallons and there's no fish in it yet...am seeding with backwash water from bead filters

Aloha! Mike

[Werner]

I use and install Bead filters with their "Biological filter only" reputation in mind. They work very well in this application, but then, they are designed and plumbed for beads unlike the swimming pool filters you mention.

Reading up a little on "Ultra Bio Media" sounds like a lot of marketing hype and little scientific fact. "3-5 times the surface area from other media? Poppycock--show me the tests. Or this blurb" Additionally, beneficial bacteria is able to build up into a bacterial matrix due to the excellent interstitial spacing within the media." Really--they reinvented the wheel?

You may want to look at this page for a fairer comparison http://www.wernersponds.com/biofiltermedia.htm

Since I have no personal experience with BAKKI and far infrared rays, I'll leave it alone for the users to decide wether it's worth the money.

[dick benbow]

here's my opinion of Bubble Beads. They are not biofilters! they are mechanical.
do they grow bacteria? yes? if i run them and allow them to build up bacteria will it offer bio filtration? yes. If i back wash them will i get rid of the good bacteria.
not completely but it will adversely affect it's colony.


here's how i operate mine. back wash every day. If i pay all that $$$$ to catch organics and debris do i want to keep this stuff in the system day after day?
I don't!


my advice is to have a mechanical system and a bio system. anytime you expect one or the other to do both jobs you compromise each one to less than full efficiency.

and yes I run a bakki shower. right after my settling vortex. If it claims to do a great job with all the gunk you can feed it, can you imagine the job it could do if it didn't have to deal with a heavy mechanical load?

just my point of view. In addition to these items I also have 3 large tony prew vortexes with heavily oxigenated j-mat ( that I drain daily). yep your right the guy is fanatical...but the koi's health is never compromised, they look great and like my bonsai, I like hands on daily to care for my charges! ( our cat gets treated pretty good also-he's a maine coon from show bloodline)

[mike]

well, i got the idea from aquaultraviolet.com re: ultima II

http://www.aquaultraviolet.com/filtration.html

they (AquaUltra) claim that the ultima II units need only a vortex before it for it to act as a biofilter. if you check their sizing, you'll see that they have this UII 20000 rated for 20000 gallons, (they explicitly claim that this is not an overexaggeration of capacity) of course i dont believe them and i proceeded to add to my layout two units of the same size and then another the same size as the UII 10000 - thats 30000 "capacity" on a 14000 gallon pond. im thinking of putting japmats in the vortex themselves as "backup" i can aerate these too. but i figure i can put no more than 10 jap mats in the vortex units 1meter diameter by 1meter-4feet deep.

this is a pretty big pdf file but on page 8 of 22 (page 5 actually) is where they claim that their filter capacity are not exaggerated.

http://www.aquaultraviolet.com/instr...aIIInstall.pdf

[mike]

bakki showers.

im sure they are very very efficient but i really dont know how to hide one. this is an aesthetics priority pond.

besides the fact bacteria house is not available here. i can use other media though, and use some sort of basket as a shower, but again, its terribly ugly

[Mike T]

Aragorn:

Tried to post picture of invisible bakki shower without success...If you email me at: thompsonm002@hawaii.rr.com I'll email you two different pictures of bakki showers that you can't see...

Aloha Mike

[mike]

ive sent you an email ...
thanks a lot for the help!