7/11/11

Some background first.

I set up the first ‘Koi Only’ outlet in the world outside of Japan in 1979 and gave it the name of ‘IN-FILTRATION’ – not ‘Peter’s Koi shop’ or any other name – I named it In-filtration and there was very good reason to do so.

In the same year I invented and produced the first bottom drain; then followed the first glass fibre filter unit.

In 1984 I introduced filter mat cartridges and high-output air pumps from Japan before designing and producing the first Vortex unit and a little later my first ‘Budget Filter’ that is the forerunner to the Eric filter systems you can see today.

The reasons I have been involved on a daily basis for the past 32 years with Koi pond filtration is because I have also designed and installed more high-end Koi ponds in countries all around the world in that period of time than any other individual or company I know of.

In short, I think I am reasonably qualified in matters relating to Koi pond design and Koi pond filtration – please bear with me, there IS a point to this blog.

Additionally, I’m also the very same person who has supplied 18 out of 26 BKKS National Supreme Champions over the past 26 years (which, incidentally is THREE times more than the SUM total of Supreme Champions supplied by ALL the other Koi outlets that have been in existence in the UK over those 26 years of National shows.)

How many other filtration manufacturers today really know anything at all about Koi?

Add to this my visits to Japan since 1977, if these days are totalled I have actually spent seven years of my life there in ALL the major Koi areas and there are few who know the breeders and the geography of the Niigata Koi area better than I. Over all these years there have been many Koi dealers and enthusiasts coming along to Japan with me to find Koi and many of the Koi purchased later went on to take major awards in countries all over the world.

These are simply my credentials and not self-promotion.

The subject matter.

The reason for this blog is important to everyone interested in keeping Koi but especially to those considering a change of filtration systems.

Over the past decade there have been various items produced in an attempt to prevent mechanical debris from passing through the mechanical stage and into the biological stages of the filter.

Items such as the multi-cyclone filter designed for swimming pools; various sieves; belt filters and drum filters (both originally used in industry) as well as bead filters and sand filters.

Many enthusiasts today place great importance on this aspect and use some of these items in an attempt to keep their biological stages ‘clean’ today by preventing mechanical debris from the pond out of them and some do the task quite well.

Now to the meat of it all, let’s go back to ’86 when I put my first ‘Budget Filter’ to the test.

(Apologies, this is the only shot I have today and was taken in ’96 but the two Budget units to the right had been on demonstration for ten years by then linked up to ponds with Koi inside them.)

These Budget units were nowhere even near the efficiency of Eric units but they did the job and I never had a single complaint regarding them from anyone.

The transfer from the mechanical stage to the biological stage was simply a 4” socket that could be closed with a rubber pipe stop if needed so a great percentage of the water entering the biological stage tracked directly through the filter mat cartridges to the suction inlet of the water pump.

However, when the air was switched off periodically for demonstration purposes there was a yellow sand-like dust on the base of the units, which actually felt like sand to the touch.

Staff would siphon this away periodically but it always returned.  Whatever it was being produced was being produced WITHIN the biological stage, as there were neither traces on the floor of the mechanical stage nor any signs of it on the filter brushes.

In early September 2011, I received an email from a lady who has an Eric Four unit on her pond and had no complaints about the performance but mentioned that, after a discharge had been made and the pump was switched back on, initially there was a cloud of ‘brown dust’ entering the pond for a few seconds only.

It sounded strange to me and so I asked her if she wouldn’t mind stopping the system, lifting out the three cartridge blocks and taking a shot of what was below in the empty chamber.

After a day or so the photos came and the lady showed her concerns regarding what she had discovered.

Here are the shots and it does look pretty grim on first view doesn’t it, especially as the discharge should remove all debris found in both mechanical and biological stages of the filter?

I contacted the lady immediately and asked if she had touched these deposits with her hand and thankfully she had.

She said it felt like sand, which was very ‘gritty’ to the touch but, just by the colour alone, I already knew exactly what it was and I also knew these yellow deposits had not entered the biological stage from the bottom drain of the pond.

However it certainly explained the ‘puff’ of brown water being returned to the pond immediately when the water pump had been switched back on after the discharge had been completed.

I was deliriously happy to see these deposits once again although they were a thousand times more in volume than the ‘sprinklings’ I had often witnessed forming on the base of the early Budget Filters.

However, there was no doubt at all in my mind that it was exactly the same deposit, which leads onto other matters I will explain later in detail.

The first thing that had to be resolved was why the discharge had not removed all of these deposits to waste every time the unit had been discharged?

It only took a few minutes to see that the baffle plate that allowed the water to pass into the biological stage was at fault.

I don’t know if you can see it on the shot but the only way that debris forming on the very base of the biological stage is via the semi-circular half-hole dead centre of the plate.

Any other debris forming on either side of the centre could not find an exit path and thus it remained inside the box.

Yes, it was only possible to detect all this from a mistake but it’s a VERY valuable mistake if the truth is known.

(The transfer baffles have all been adjusted since then and now any debris formed in the biological stage will be flushed to waste perfectly with every discharge.)

I have always insisted that the biological stage of ANY filter should be cleaned just as often as the mechanical stage because the biological stages (IF working perfectly) are producing just as much debris and possibly even more debris than the mechanical debris entering from the pond itself.

Even if NO mechanical debris at all could possibly pass into the bio section of an Eric unit, this yellow debris will still shed in the mature bio stage every single day because those cartridge blocks are doing exactly what they should be doing.

Namely ‘heaving’ with new biomass and the more they ‘heave’ the more they ‘shed’ and it isn’t black, it’s yellow just like you can see in the shots!

And this gives a perfect indication that incoming water is passing through the media surfaces evenly and constantly.

The more this debris is shed in any biological stage, the better the biological stage will perform.

All those mechanical add-ons mentioned earlier will have not one single jot of effect on the shedding actions of a perfectly mature biological stage!

Again, ALL biological stages must be flushed to waste regularly and if nothing is seen to be coming out of them then there’s a SERIOUS problem that needs addressing!

Some very serious food for thought……

Waddy.