Momotara Pond Design with Bakki Shower

[charlieliu]

In the Koi-bito DVD on Momotaro, Mr. Maeda said the simple design is the best design. I quite agree with what he said. It made a lot of sense intuitively.

I would like to get a good understanding of how the 1500 ton pond was designed, built, etc. Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to go to Japan yet, so, please, those who are had been to Momotaro, share your understanding.

Thanks in advance.
charlie

[aquitori]

As far as my understanding the pond has a water runway built around it in the runway are the smaller sized bacteria house. Since the video there has been more bakki showers installed on the other end of the 1500t pond. Mike Sneaden is more informative on this you might want to PM him in regards to this in detail. The key to this system is massive water changes everyday and the more flow you get on the bacteria house the better it works.

[charlieliu]

Hi Aquitori,

Thanks for the info. When I built my first major pond(about 10000g in 2001, due to budget constraint at that point in time, I did it pretty much DIY except pumps, uv and liner. It was a 30'x11'x4' liner pond with a concrete block filter bank with 4 chambers. Two 4" bottom drain goi into the first setltling chamber. Now I recently moved and building a pond, it seems to get more complicated.

charlie

[keokoi]

When I was walking on those runways I had though they were all full of Jmat. Along with bakki showers... ????

Joe

[aquitori]

Quote: Originally Posted by keokoi When I was walking on those runways I had though they were all full of Jmat. Along with bakki showers... ???? Joe

Naw I don't think you'll find one piece of JMAT there. I could be wrong but when I was there didn't see any.

[keokoi]

When I was there I didnt look. Too busy trying to look at koi. But I had thought I heard JR say something about Jmat. Anyhow could be wrong lets let Mike Snaden tell the story after all he is adopted brother.... LOL

[aquitori]

Quote: Originally Posted by keokoi When I was there I didnt look. Too busy trying to look at koi. But I had thought I heard JR say something about Jmat. Anyhow could be wrong lets let Mike Snaden tell the story after all he is adopted brother.... LOL

Me I was looking at koi and got kinda tired of the prices, I went to go look for some BBQ and found bacteria house as far as the eyes can see. Mike Snaden Maeda should break it down for us...

[JasonS]

Didn't Brian mention (on the Koi-Bito DVD) that the side chambers were originally jmat but were being converted to all Bakki?

So they might have been jmat in the past (traditional design) but are now Bakki.

[dinh]

Quote: Originally Posted by aquitori Naw I don't think you'll find one piece of JMAT there. I could be wrong but when I was there didn't see any.

A friend in Bay Area just installed the Bakki Shower 2 weeks ago.
There is no JMAT at all.

Thx --Dinh

[estanque_koi]

If this is of any help, following this link you will find and article by Mike Snaden on this subject
http://www.tewakoi.com/Articles.htm
I can see some constraints to apply Maeda's design by ordinary hobbyist.
His 1500 tons system seems to work pretty well, but is protected by a huge greenhouse (from low temperatures and inflow of dead leaves, dirt etc.)
Bakki showers will lower the water temperature significantly in an outdoor pond, that is a big shortcoming when applied in countries like UK, Germany, etc. Conversely, I guess it can be excellent for ponds in countries having a tropical climate.
Besides, the function of the system seems to rely in two critical points: massive water circulation and water changes. The first point seems to imply a higher conpsumtion of electricity, the second a higher consumption of water, but maybe I'm completely wrong.
I wouldn't feel happy witnessing a trend of increasing energy and water consumption in our hobby nowadays. I'd rather prefer to think about sophisticated (if necessary) but efficient systems that might be considered enviromentally friendly and sustainable. If Mr. Maeda ideas of pond and filter design really help to progress in this direction, then that's GREAT. But please explain it to me, I can't convince myself.
I believe that for one standard hobbyist pond, a filtrations system composed by an eficient sieve + a efficient bead filter and optionally a trickle tower would do a pretty good and efficient work with very low maintenace and small footprint. But please correct me if I'm wrong.
One interesting point is that Mr. Maeda recomends to place the UV clarifier before the biological filter. According to him, this way the beneficial bacteria in the filter may colonize also the pond, and bad bacteria in the pond or in the settlement chamber wouldn't reach the biofilter. I understand this is a hypothesis, to my knowledge nobody has carried out true scientific and well designed experiments to check whether it is better to place the UV clarifier before or after. You know that most type of bacteria are extremely abundant and widespread. As you know, many precautions are taken to avoid bacterial contamination in labs and operating rooms in hospital.
On the other hand, it has been claimed that bacteria house breaks water clusters by virtue of infrared radiation emited by the ceramic material. I can't understand this. As far as I know, any solid is able to produce infrared radiation depending on its temperature. A rock or a wall heated by the sun will do it, sometimes even hours after the sunset. Some kind of internal heat is neccesary to produce infrared radiation.
If this is correct, I can understand that the ceramic material produces infrared rays when it is still hot after coming out of the kiln. However I can't see how bacteria house that has been soaked in the bakki showers for hours can keep producing infrared radiation once cooled.
Can someone with direct experience with bakki showers explain this?
Diego