In mid 1986 – I first came up with the idea of adapting a horizontal-flow water pattern and using it in a pond filter system.

In order to prevent any tracking through the filter I added periodic aeration to the water.

To achieve this, I used a mixture of turbulent flow together with laminar flow.

In late 1986 I advertised my ‘Budget Filter’ for sale.

This next shot shows one of my Budget Filters that is still filtering a Koi pond and has been doing this since 1989.

I cannot recall how many Budget Filters I sold from 1986 to 1999 but I didn’t get a single complaint about them from any of the owners.

In short – they worked and they also worked extremely well.

In 1995 I gave my Budget Filter system a good deal of page space in my first book ‘Koi Kichi’ where I explained it all in great detail.

On reflection I should have realised just how important my basic design really was but perhaps I was busy attending to other matters – at a time in my life that was extremely hectic.

At the same time, I had no doubt that the filters worked very well – but I really could not fully grasp as to actually ‘why’ they worked?

Moving on to 2002, here are shots of a much larger Budget Filter that was installed on a pond in the Lake District. Instead of brushes for the mechanical stage ‘The Answer’ was incorporated.

The outer box was fabricated from stainless steel but it was basically the very same filter system.

By 2008, I found myself with much spare time on my hands and decided to spend some of this time attempting to try and unravel some strange things in the Koi hobby that always led me into brick walls.

Hikui and Shimi posed the main problems and were also the prime reasons that many high-end Koi collectors had chosen to leave the hobby. I won’t relate the full details again but I reckoned these problems could be to do with filthy filters and that probably my Budget Filter system could be of some assistance here.

I had all the details about my Budget Filters and decided to bring them back up to date with some modern-day improvements.

In early 2009 I produced a two-channel Budget Filter and took it to a couple of Koi shows to display. This was the first to show filter brushes fastened into a box instead of being suspended from above.

The outer casing and the division wall were made from glass fibre. I quickly noted how the filter bowed with the weight of water and this caused the division wall to shift position.

I needed another material for the outer box – after some thought, plastic seemed to be a much better option. It would be more costly to produce than glass fibre but it would be far stronger and I also had the option of producing some in clear PVCu for demonstration purposes.

This next shot shows the first clear filter I produced in early 2010.

By then I had discarded biological blocks made from Japanese filter mat sheets that were 38mm thick and had replaced these with eMat sheets that were much stronger and were only 19mm thick. The outside of the filter was strengthened with steel frames.

I also knew that the new version of the Budget Filter was so far removed from the original design that it deserved a new name. Most people by now know the reason for the name Eric.

Many people in the Koi hobby are sceptics to anything new or ‘different’ that comes out and I understand why because I’m one of the sceptics concerned and I do view new methods with great suspicion.

My Eric Filters were also viewed with great suspicion and in some quarters were met with mirth, but it was expected and I just soldiered on.

Thankfully, my filters started to sell.

This next photo shows four E3 units ready for delivery and installation on a Koi pond in Cheshire in 2012.

In 2013 I launched my first pump-fed Eric filters that turned out to be a welcome addition to the gravity-fed ones.

In mid 2015, my filters received a total re-model after putting them to the test on my own pond.

This is the latest pump-fed E3 filter system comprising of only a single brush box and three eMat cartridge blocks.

I am using the identical gravity-fed version on my own pond that holds – wait for it – 17,500-gallons of water! It has now been running for just over two years and I can give it a thorough clean out in less than four minutes.

Many enthusiasts visit me here for a live demonstration of the filter on my pond.

They see it with their own eyes and they also ask many questions, but I’m sure that when they leave they are still scratching their heads?

The eMat cartridge blocks have been halved for much easier handling and periodic removal; the eMat sheets are now only 10mm thick and 25 sheets are required to make up one cartridge block; standpipes have long-since been removed in favour of ball valves; steel frames are also redundant making the filters lighter and cheaper to transport; the bases are simply flat and
this makes for much easier installation and finally the single air connection supplies aeration to a concealed perforated base under the eMat blocks.

Finally, there are no real cures for Koi that show signs of Hikui and Shimi and Eric filters cannot do anything about existing problems.

But folks have been using my filters since 2009, on ponds that do have Koi with these problems; still no new cases have been reported.

And it’s still the same basic idea!

Waddy 10/03/16.