The Origin of Bakki Showers?

[Koimann]

Mike,
My Bakki shower have been running for almost 2 years and I never clean them.Herewith attached are pictures of the BH that I took out from my 8'X4'X2.5' fiber tank with 5 kois ranging from 45cm to 70cm.The BH are exposed to direct sunlight for 5 to 6 hrs a day and been there for a year.The 1st picture is the top layer exposed to the sun.2nd picture is the underside of the same piece of BH.And the last picture shows the inside of the BH when broken into half.

[MikeM]

This weekend is too loaded up with tasks to "clean" a tray of BH, but I'm going to get to it soon. When I do, I'll take pictures.

[MikeM]

While there was no time today to clean the media in a tray, I did pull out the mats I put over the media in the top tray for cleaning. It has been 3-4 weeks since they were last cleaned. Prior to puttling the mats over the media, all of this algae glarf would be caught in the Bacteria House in the top tray. (The Bakki is fed by a skimmer. Two leaf baskets and a filter mat precede, or the Bakki would be a huge debris catcher.)

I'd suggest that anyone with a Bakki-type filter and much algae in their pond consider how much gunk gets caught in the media.

[MikeM]

With the long weekend, I had the time today to check out the Bacteria House media in the second tray of the Bakki shower. I have the Bakki covered to minimize the leaves and such that would otherwise fall in.

[MikeM]

Here is the media in the second tray before I rinsed it. You can judge for yourself how dirty it is.

[MikeM]

Here is some media taken out of the tray.

[MikeM]

This is the tub with pond water in which the media will be rinsed.

[MikeM]

Here is the tub after the media has been dropped in, but not yet rinsed.

[MikeM]

Each piece of media was swished in the water for a couple of seconds. Here is a piece of Bacteria House before it was swished around, and the same piece afterwards.

[MikeM]

After this rinsing, the tub of pond water is, well, not clear.