Mathew Grafton Only thing I suffered was ..wonky water readings ..but still fed 8 feeds a day heavy ..koi never blinked a eyelid ..In fact they was crawling up my arm at every feed ..I’ve never owned another filter and manufacturer say do this as usually they have you hardly feeding till (what they call) maturing the filter ..i didn’t have to do that I just plugged the Eric on and fed like it had been on years ..
PW’s comment – I’m glad I demo’d the filter to you before you took it away Mathew.
Mathew Grafton In the koi world I’ve learnt its hard to prove something. One thing I learned though is ..that the Eric filter made me a better koi keeper ..I had no drama at all for the duration ..and once my new house is sorted and pond dug ..there’s only one filter i will use.
PW’s comment – that’s nice to know Mathew!
Leon Soudet It’s a fantastic piece of Filtration and a must for any koi enthusiast. Loved the demonstration and will post a video of it running on my pond when the build is finished. Videos can be altered, and photos can be doctored, but the Eric is truly a marvelous piece of engineering that works.
PW’s comment – Leon, the true test of your filter will be after it’s been running for six months – then it will perform even better!
Tony Fannon what can’t speak can’t lie. it was a simple fool proof demonstration.
We seen the ponds and the filters and the proof we enjoyed the visit thanks.
PW’s comment – Thanks Tony I’m glad you enjoyed the demo.
Mathew Faulkner It was an interesting day out. I have some minor alterations to the pipe work to plumb in and just waiting for a smaller pump to arrive. Not a complex bit of kit and using the clear models you can see the proof of how the water tracks through the filter.
PW’s comment – Mathew, it doesn’t ‘track through’ the filter – it simply passes by the eMat surfaces – aside from that, thanks!
This filter is absolutely fantastic.
The cleaning regime takes me only a couple of minutes a day.
Once a week I hose off the brush boxes, as I’m very meticulous!
This takes a bit longer…about 5 minutes.
I also love the fact that I can see for myself if things are clean or not.
All I have to do to check is lift out the brush boxes and the E mat cartridges!
No dirt of any sort can be hidden in the filter.
My water is as clear as a bell, my readings are 0 on all accounts, with the exception of trace nitrates.
I have 22 big Koi, most of which I bought in Japan 4 years ago as Tosai.
Most of these are now well over 70 cm…a few are at 75 cm.
My pond holds 3000 gallons of water.
My fish are healthy, happy, hungry and bursting with energy.
I wouldn’t change over to another system for anything in the world.
Susan Campbell – Montpellier, France.
PW’s comment – Susan you have one of the first Eric filters I ever sold and it still has standpipes – but I don’t think you’d want to change it?
Since I installed my Eric 3 filter on my 13ton pond, i was able to do regular maintenance by doing daily flushing and discharge of the Eric chamber.
The brushes are very effective In capturing waste that I seldom need to do cleaning on the bio Chamber.
Cleaning is very simple and easy can be done in around 5minutes.
As a result of being able to do daily flushing, i noticed water quality and clarity has improved, resulting in better koi appetite and movement.
I am also more aggressive in feeding now since I know the filters can handle the load. Cheers!
DT, Philippines.
PW’s comment – I’ve seen your set-up personally DT – I’ve also witnessed the quality of your Koi collection. Don’t worry; Eric will take care of them!
We made our first koi pond in 2010. It is 13,000 liters. We were very unsure of which filter that would fit our pond. The local koi dealer had many different filter for sale.
We were most interested in Nexus that this dealer did use in their ponds. But he would not recommend these, when there was much fuss about them. Difficult to go away for a few days, as they often went tight because algae etc.
He told me he would start to sell some new filter from England. The filter named Eric. We struck and ordered one of these new filters unseen? We bought an Eric 4. overkill for 13000 liters but that’s how we like it.
We did had some problems in the beginning, when we mounted a to big pump . But after a few conversations with PW then we got track of this.
We had not at that time even the slightest knowledge about water quality. Everything, absolutely everything, had to be learned. And we still have a lot to learn?
We found, however, that we should have the fish indoors in the winter, and built a indoor pond of 6700 liters.
From England an Eric 2.5 P was ordered. Believe that this was one of the first 2.5 P that was made. This works great.
But again overkill but that’s how we like it. More water should we have in the garden, we thought, and built 2014-15 a new pond at 40,000 liters.
New orders to England. 2 pcs 4 Eric was ordered. PW was beside himself, and called us several times and would only sell us 2 pcs E2.5 More than enough he thought, then the new 2.5 had the same capacity as Eric 4?
But we insisted on buying Eric 4 this time. These works also as expected. The last filters have 10 mm filter mats. Very (Very) overkill said PW.
So today we have 4 pieces Eric filter and we are very satisfied. The main reason why Eric filters were purchased is, usability?
I am away up to 3 weeks at a time in the summer so then I must have a filter that is easy to maintain.
Stop the pump, drain the filter, fill up the filter again, start the pump – finished work? My wife can do this if necessary – easy peasy!
Summer of 2015 we were away on vacation for 3 weeks. Not touched filters in this period. And we come home home to crystal clear water and happy koi.
A trickle is on of course in the ponds 24/7
Ottar Bang Norway.
PW says – Thanks Ottar for always being a firm believer!
For some years now, I have been trialling a gravity-fed E4 filter and a gravity-fed E2.5 filter on my own outdoor pond – more recently, I have been trialling a pump-fed Compact filter on my indoor pond.
I had these three filters fabricated from clear PVCu to be able to demonstrate them to myself, others and to see if any modifications could be added to improve the performance of the units.
Many of the modifications made have been most successful but there were others made that didn’t live up to my expectations and were scrapped. However it has been easy to see reasons for and against – especially when viewing the insides from a clear box on my own pond.
Early problems were the standpipes used – some folks had difficulty locating them easily and many ‘O’ rings had to be replaced for free. For some time now the standpipes have been replaced with valves that make discharge and re-fill rapid, more efficient and with much less labour.
By dispensing with the standpipes, the ‘IN’ and ‘OUT’ sockets on the base of the filter could also be dispensed with and now that no pipe joints are required under the filter, all units have a perfectly flat base – so they are much easier to install.
Another major leap forward has been the 10mm thick eMat sheets that allows me to get far more surfaces into a biological cartridge block. These cartridge blocks have double the surfaces that the early 19mm sheets had.
I reckon the 85% of the success enjoyed with my filters revolves around horizontal flow water and the eMat sheets.
The spin-off for this alone and the testing that followed, made it easy to see that the huge E4 unit with six 19mm cartridge blocks has no more biological capability than the new E3 unit with three 10mm cartridge blocks.
Again through continued testing of the clear units, it has easily been possible to reduce the length of all filters with no adverse effects – the spin-off here means I don’t need steel support frames – now they are lighter to transport and much lighter to carry.
One-piece lids are now supplied with all units and the pump-fed and gravity-fed models all have the same end price.
Efficient aeration has always been a problem, not just the costly PVCu pressure fittings required, but also the labour required for assembling and fitting.
The aerated base was a truly wonderful idea from Ian Miles that replaced all these pipelines, but originally there were complaints that the weld holding it in place had cracked in places and needed repair.
The weld now has been strengthened significantly and all filters today have an aerated base.
It’s not easy to wax lyrically about my own filter system to others and this is the part where I need some photographs with which to back up thoughts.
It was quite difficult to squeeze inside that filter house.
These alone cost £6K to run per year.
I designed all this for my own pond in 1992, it started running in 1999 and continued running until 2007.
One tiny Eric filter replaced all the earlier filtration.
This now costs me £312.00 to run per year.
With the original filter system, to make a total clean out – it took two men two whole days to do the job every two weeks.
I do a total clean out of my system – that’s the pond and the filter – every single day and it takes me less than two minutes to complete.
Do remember it’s exactly the same 17,500-gallon pond with four bottom drains that I started up originally in 1999.
If you require sparkling water quality – then why not pay me a visit and take a close look?
Peter Waddington.
Bury, Lancashire
Having been the happy owner of an E2 unit for some years now, when I set up a smaller pond (just over two ton) I chose the Compact ERIC for two simple reasons: ease of maintenance and bio-capacity.
The gravity-fed unit was easy to install and matured surprisingly quickly. The pond was highly stocked from the get-go with 30 tosai averaging 26cm. As I use this tank for growing Koi they are fed fairly heavily and I do stick to the ‘daily dump’ – I perform this as I do the last feed of the day. The ease of this action along with the thorough clean it provides is what impresses me most about the unit.
I turn the waste valve and let the filter drain and because I like things ‘squeaky clean’ I then quickly blast the brush-box with the hose.
The whole process takes me about two minutes and thirty seconds. The reason I am such a fan of these units is that I can visibly see how clean they are both before and after maintenance has been carried out and to me this is vital, no hidden waste. I can’t think of another filter that allows this to be practical on a daily basis – and I’ve used a few!
The Bio-capacity of these units is quite simply unique and rather difficult to explain without sounding as if I’m exaggerating.
Peter uses the term ‘Koi Water’.
At first I had no idea what he meant but over time I came to appreciate that the ERIC provides exactly that and although I still don’t know exactly what ‘that’ is – I am more than happy to accept the FACT that my koi continue to thrive in water maintained by my ERIC Compact filter.
‘Give it a go.’
PW says – Liam the bio capacity is all courtesy of the eMat block.
Liam Bessel – UK.
Many many moons ago I was looking for an explanation why my Gosanke were suffering with the dreadful disease commonly referred to as ‘Hikui’.
My search brought me on to your excellent Koikichi website (a must read for any enthusiast in my humble opinion). We got in contact and soon after we revamped my filtration system for, at that time, “unknown” system called ERIC.
Now, with some five years of track records, I would think I have a pretty good understanding how ERIC’s work and what, again in my humble opinion, produce excellent results they have produced on my ponds.
Because besides the main pond of 65tons with 4xE3, I have built a “boys” pond of 18tons for my males, over-filtered by an E4 and I’m also looking after a 32tons pond with an E3 & E4 of a nearby friend.
The previous filters on both ponds were Nexus and Beads.
Below I’m summarising the “likes” and “dislikes” of ERIC as I have experienced them and in comparison to the previous filters.
Let’s get the dislikes out of the way first:
- Steel Frames: early models had a bad coating against rust. The later model is better, but eventually it’s giving up as well. The galvanised frame on my QT E2 is still fine. Obviously this doesn’t affect performance of the filter, but it is an eyesore and just doesn’t match with a hobby where aesthetic and beauty are central.
- With our water supply, the newer PVC Air bars need maintenance in terms of de-blocking the holes every now and then. Not a big deal, but I prefer the original Air bar with a quality rubber membrane. Just “squeeze” them once in a while and they perform beautifully.
That’s about it what I don’t like and you will note that it all can be fixed easily.
Now, more important, the things that I truly like about with ERIC:
- Performance: without going into numbers, the “bio” is much stronger and better than the previous filters. And even more important, it is always stable.
- Maintenance: it is a manual system, but it’s a doodle to service within minutes. The smaller cartridge blocks, and brush box are a big improvement and the full service has become even easier.
- Stand alone system: the brush box as mechanical and the cartridge blocks as bio.
- Simple, efficient and does the trick for me.
- Fish health: probably because of the very stable water parameters the immune system of the Koi is stronger as none of the ponds have required treatment for about 3 years.
- I have added 3 Gosanke since the change to Eric and fortunately none of these have developed Hikui.
In summary I can only say that I’m very happy that I have switched to ERIC and I know my friend here feels exactly the same.
PW says – Marco, point taken about the steel frames, the early ones were not galvanised but the later ones were. However, the problem will never arise in the future – because I’m no longer using steel frames. Many thanks for your continued support.
Marco, Gibraltar.
Thanks for reading, Waddy.