The Origin of Bakki Showers?

[JasPR]

Great Mike! Now where were you that year of introduction when I was getting savanged by Tewa, Jungle George, Maurice and a few others when I spoke 'sacrilege' by referring to the 'new' bakki shower as an evolution of a common principle here and in Japan? I posted a picture from the 1970s then and was jumped all over as someone rocking the boat!

You're forgiven, JR

[MikeM]

The media in the second tray did not look particularly dirty when looking at it in the tray. But, there was a lot of gunk in it.

My Bakki has now operated continuously for two years. I had not cleaned the media in the second tray at any time before today. I cannot say whether the gunk was harmful. A good deal of it was old bacterial film. There was also residues of decomposed algae. I plan to clean tray 2 again in a couple of months to see how much gunk builds up in that time period. I also will continue with rinsing the remaining trays over the next couple of months. It is a time-consuming job. Reaching in to get the BH is a tight squeeze. And each piece is individually rinsed. Next time, I'll wear playtex gloves. The ceramic material made thousands of little cuts in the skin of my hands... no blood, but they are very rough now. Did not feel a thing... until afterwards.

[MikeM]

Ah, JR, time does tell.

[JasPR]

Indeed it does--

Ueda San did a great survey of the evolution of the 'Intermittent Sprinkling filter' in 1982. He talked about how the concept had been used since the beginning of the Taisho Era. Ironically it was an American country that, in 1951, introduced the ' High Speed Sprinkling filter'. That changed everything as the high speed flow reduced anaerobic pockets.
He points out that the concept was then continually improved using different media ( the first media was stone layers) such as plastic and then the shapes and finally materials were changed.
In one quote he says " the strong points of the HSSF were that it could cope with contaminated water of any degree and also any amount of the water."
He goes on to say " Its worst point were the BOD of the treated water was high at 30-60 ppm, and the water could not be perfectly purified with some floating substances mixed in. For reference, when BOD is as low as 20 ppm, the water is satisfactorily purified."

Everything old is new again ( where did I hear that? ) JR

[weesec01]

Quote: Originally Posted by 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.

Hi Koimann,

Wish to see how's your Bakki Shower? (Any picture), just a fiber tank but you are managed to grow your kois ranging from 45cm - 70cm. How do you do it? Can you share?

[MikeM]

In another thread farne230 has asked about the importance of cleaning the media in a Bakki Shower. I have purposefully not expressed a direct opinion on whether it is harmful to leave Bacteria House uncleaned. I do not like the amount of debris captured in the media. I see nothing good about it. At the same time, I've not done a study of whether the BH has become a breeding ground for noxious microbes. There is a lot I do not know. However, I do not plan to get rid of the BH or stop using the Bakki Shower. I have been very happy with the operation of my filtration systems and consider the degassing effect of the Bakki very important. The nitrification occurring is quite redundant to other systems, but certainly does not hurt. I'll be studying on it in the months ahead. I have concluded that without some mechanical pre-filtration and protection from leaves and debris falling into the shower trays, I would have a rotting mess of algae glarf and organic matter. I expect to conclude that I should rinse a portion of the media at some regular interval. I do not know what that interval will be, but I think it will be more frequently than every couple of years.

[JasPR]

Hi Mike. It was always troubling to me that BH was promoted as turning organics into 'nothingness'. It just wasn't local. You could aerate organics, you could trap them and you could keep them isolated from the pond with 'zones of air/atmosphere' between trays. But nothingness? I could not accept that. So I decided to place some BH in a submerged filter ( sump of a 180 gallon aquarium full of fancy goldfish. This is the result after 40 days.

[farne230]

Mike I too am curious about the proper operation and maintenance for my BS/BH. I have noticed that a good quantity of coarse bakki house debree discharges to the pond and is also collected in my vortex prefilters (if I had the space I would have opted for settling chamber type prefilters and screens before the bs. Also my setup is such I can not easily inspect the trays. I wish I had added viewing windows to the bottom tray if not all of them. Flow meters may have been another way to judge condition of debree buildup. I have thought about adding long air stones under the bh, but this would also be a major overhaul. Keep us posted, there is so much more we need to know about using BS/BH in our pond filtration.

[PapaBear]

Quote: Originally Posted by JasPR Hi Mike. It was always troubling to me that BH was promoted as turning organics into 'nothingness'. It just wasn't local. You could aerate organics, you could trap them and you could keep them isolated from the pond with 'zones of air/atmosphere' between trays. But nothingness? I could not accept that. So I decided to place some BH in a submerged filter ( sump of a 180 gallon aquarium full of fancy goldfish. This is the result after 40 days.

Am I missing something??? I don't see the results... Inquiring minds want to know

[Koimann]

Quote: Originally Posted by weesec01 Hi Koimann, Wish to see how's your Bakki Shower? (Any picture), just a fiber tank but you are managed to grow your kois ranging from 45cm - 70cm. How do you do it? Can you share?

Hi,
You can go to Pond Construction under Pond Upgrade.I have posted the pictures there.As for the fiber tank,I just used it as a holding tanks.
Koimann