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This pond belongs to John Mak, contains 5500 gallons, and has two sets of showers (1.5 metres long) fitted, pumped directly from the drains at approximately 5800 gallons per hour. The pond was built by a fellow Koi keeper Steve Symmonds. This pond is pushing this configuration to the limit, as it really should have been built with a higher turnover rate. The original design was to include two vortexes. But, after John and Steve became friends with Ian Graham, they decided to pump directly from the drains. Four months later, the pond is running admirably well, with wonderful water chemistry, and wonderful clarity. The Bakki Showers will be completely hidden with a false wall, bamboo screening, and oriental decoration. John is indeed a happy man, and so he should be, for he can watch his Koi, and forget about maintenance! Just a simple top up (to overflow) of 100 gallons a day, keeps everything running wonderfully.
These Showers are fitted to the 5000 gallon pond of Craig Attwood, and are fed directly from the bottom drain. Additional filtration is also used on this pond but Craig says that, "My water has never been so good. My Koi are much happier and hungrier than they have ever been. My Koi have also grown much more, which I am sure must be because of the Showers. My UV has been turned off ofr months. Bakki Showers are excellent, they do everything... they take care of biological filtration, aeration, and even got rid of my blanket weed. I am so pleased that I am going to fit another set, and discard all of my other filtration". Craig now only buys Tosai Koi, as he can grow them to become as fast as most of Japan's breeders. His aim is to demolish his existing pond, and build a new one that will be optimised for Shower-only configuration. But in the meantime, he will concentrate on getting the existing one 'Shower-only'. Craig recently removed much of his pre-existing filtration, and to his surprise, his water parameters and clarity remained unchanged!
The system on the left is fitted on the pond of Keith Harris. This pond contains 1700 gallons, and this set of Bakki Showers is the only filtration on this pond, and has been fitted to replace the previous filtration system, and is now powered by a Sequence 1/4+ pump. Keith appraisal is, "I wanted a filtration system that was maintenance free, and was told that there was no such thing with Koi! After reading about Bakki Showers, I visited two ponds running them, and decided to try it. This filter has been running since September 2003, and matured in less than 5 weeks. The water parameters are perfect, and I couldn't wish for better. My only concern was waste getting thrown over the shower, and fouling the media, but this isn't the case. I think the shower is very good, and I wouldn't change anything about it! I wouldn't change it for the World! My Koi eat a lot of food, and there is always food floating on the surface, which the Koi continually eat. With my previous filtration, I always had problems with nitrite levels, but now they are zero all the time. I used to keep and breed Discus, so I am very fussy about water. Bakki Showers are everything I could dream for in a filter!... maintenance free, all water parameters taken care of, and perfect clarity! I'm very pleased indeed!"
This is the 18,000 gallon pond belonging to Cliff Neale, owner of the BKKS 2003 'Grand, and Baby Champions' (supplied by us). This pond now incorporates 4 sets of Bakki Showers, and Cliff is currently trying to decide how to best configure extra sets of Showers, that can be sited below water level, to replace the existing filtration altogether. Cliff is a man who searches for scientific answers to explain how everything works. With the Bakki Showers, he doesn't quite understand 'why' they work, but fully understands the results of these systems, and has hence now built two more ponds to run solely Bakki Showers! Cliff is very impressed with the Bakki Showers, and also the fact that this year is the first year that his Koi have shown significant growth. He also said that the showers make the water look brighter and cleaner.
Cliff's new pond. This is a hybrid of two designs. Three years ago, I visited Cliff, and told him about a new pond design that I was going to employ on my next pond. This design was nicknamed in Japan as the "Totorri Onishi Streamflow", and Cliff was so taken by the 'fast low' idea, that he built a group of small ponds that loosely used the technique. These ponds produced good growth, and hence Cliff decided to build this new 8000 gallon pond, using the 'fast flow' technique, but with Bakki Showers as the sole filtration. The pond is two metres at the shallow end (where the showers are, pictured), and 3 metres at the deep end, where there are 4 aerated bottom drains. These drains cause an uplift, whereas the showers fire downwards against the wall of the shallow end, creating a very fast water movement, and already, phenominal growth! At present, this pond utilises 6 seys of Bakki Showers, but only 3 tiers high.
On the left, is the pond of James Carter. This is a wonderful pond of 10,000 gallons, in a big 'walkaround' fishouse. The pond features two sets of Showers, but double width, with double spray bars. Two spray bars are fed directly from two drains, and the other two are fed via two vortexes. Turnover rate is 12,000 gallons per hour, which is a little low, hence the two vortexes. Nevertheless, this pond should prove to be very proficient at raising high class Jumbo Koi, from a small size. The pond has only been running for about three weeks (as of 18th Dec 2003), so it is a little early for appraisals. But, James is extremely pleased with the pond, and the gallonage gained by the space savings of the filtration.
Here is Ian Graham's second Bakki Showered pond. It contains 3800 gallons, and has been running since early October 2003. Two Sequence 1/4+ pumps are connected directly to the two specially made 3" air diffuser drains, courtesy of Alternative Aquatics. The pumps push the water directly over the showers, and no other filtration, or U/V filter exist. The pond comletely matured in under 5 weeks, and Ian is a very happy man, as this pond is virtually maintenance free. Only a small trickle top up is needed (to overflow), to keep everything running smoothly. The pond is turned over at about 5800 gallons per hour, and is 2 metres deep. This pond has been built for raising Tosai, and is giving incredible results! The pond contains 10 Koi, which measured between 23 and 28cm at the end of Feb 2004. As of June 10th 2004, these Koi now measure between 40 and 48cm, at just one year old! Ian is one of several people that are now convinced that is is possible to raise Koi from Tosai, to over 80cm.