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  1. #1
    Junior Member Rank = Tosai Acro_Bob's Avatar
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    Next best thing to Bakki Shower / BHM

    Hi Folks

    As the name implies, I'm wondering what the next best thing is to BHM in a Bakki Shower. The reason I ask is that I want an in ground system and am figuring that won't work well with a Bakki Shower. The other thing is that a Shower is very much akin to a cooling tower and would shed heat in a big way.

    So, Jap Mat looks good, but would I want to push water through or round it? K1 seems interesting, but is exxy for something that is simply a substrate for bacteria...so very much to learn.

    FWIW, I'll have a drum filter in front of whatever I end up running...

    Cheers



  2. #2
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Nanasai Fishplanetkoi's Avatar
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    Well for me Jap Mat and K1 is the only alternative really, all the other media comes second to that combination.

  3. #3
    Moderator Rank = Supreme Champion Feline's Avatar
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    It sounds to me like you are not wanting a shower, and not wanting BHM. You are wanting to get a different filter altogether, not an alternative to a Bakki?

    What aspect of what a bakki shower can do are you looking for?
    Is it just that you've heard they are a good bio filter, or are you wanting nitrate reduction in addition to good bio? If you are, then an anoxic filter could be worth considering. Otherwise you have the choice of various aerated plastic media options, or a bead filter, or a bay filter with jap mat etc. in it. If you are putting a drum in front that you don't have to worry about too much cleaning of the media, so it's a matter of personal choice, available space and budget really.

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  5. #4
    Junior Member Rank = Tosai Acro_Bob's Avatar
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    The main thing I dislike about the Bakki Showers is the value / cost and that they are tall (read: difficult to hide) and ugly.

    Am I being stupid? A filter is only there to host bacteria that will process waste down the nitrogen cycle to NO3. After that, Nitrate removal is the next hurdle. I treat that as a different thing as its anaerobic

    Cheers .

  6. #5
    Moderator Rank = Supreme Champion Feline's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Acro_Bob View Post
    The main thing I dislike about the Bakki Showers is the value / cost and that they are tall (read: difficult to hide) and ugly.

    Am I being stupid? A filter is only there to host bacteria that will process waste down the nitrogen cycle to NO3. After that, Nitrate removal is the next hurdle. I treat that as a different thing as its anaerobic

    Cheers .
    No, I don't think thats stupid at all- I have a Bakki shower but I also think they are fugly so I put mine inside the filter house where it can't be seen or heard and it returns to the pond via a spigot tray. Gets round the chilling problem too. But it does dictate the height of the filter house (I have 3 trays not 4 for that reason).

    One of the advertised benefits of Bakki showers is they are believed to help reduce nitrate levels. They have to have a very fast flow rate for this to work. Not sure of the chemistry of it- but on a kind of 'bash the ammonia out of the water' type thing, hence the ammonia doesn't all have to be processed to nitrates. I have absolutely no idea if there is any truth in that or not and haven't had my shower long enough to be able to judge.

    I actually believe in not putting all my eggs in one basket in terms of bio media. So I have a large moving bed of plastic media after my drum (its an Aqua Combi Drum 55) followed by the shower with BHM. In my last pond nitrite could be a problem with plastic media alone. Bakki showers can sometimes be annoying in what they do to the pH by forcing a lot of CO2 out of the water, which pushes pH higher than it would be at any given KH. So by running the shower and moving bed I am planning to get the best of both worlds. I've seen it done very successfully by a very experienced member on here who doesn't really post any more. If I can grow fish as big as his I will be a happy bunny

  7. #6
    Junior Member Rank = Tosai Acro_Bob's Avatar
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    That would be air-stripping and independent of the BHM. Rummage in head for some long unused physics knowledge around vapour pressures and Henrys law.... A big problem with using air stripping would be that the same droplets that make for a large surface area through which the NH4 can depart, also make for large evaporation and heatloss.

    However.... A protein skimmer would not only remove crud before it decayed into ammonia, but it seems would also cause some of the Ammonia to 'gas off'. That might be a happy mid point, if not for the relative cost vs more media and traditional nitrification.

  8. #7
    Have you considered a Roto shower?

    It's (thick) pastic with a lid which keeps the light out out and heat in

    Will hold 100 litres of media

    It's tall and has to be gravity back to the pond but at least that can be "remote" via pipework

    new-filter.jpg

  9. #8
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Kyusai TinyTony's Avatar
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    site the bakki away from the pond with under water returns if you want it hidden . box it in , like I have , if you want to heat all year round or save heat loss

    run 1 for a while .there is no better alternative imo

  10. #9
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion Bigmel's Avatar
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    A couple of S/H old multibays with cartridge style jap matting plus a TT with CB is all i use , ammonia / nitrite nil but the TT does not get rid of the NitrAte .

    For the price and the amount i can feed i,m made up ......the cleaning of the brushes i could do without but the sieve helps .

    If i had the cash i would feed the multibays via a drum and have a TT fed from a chamber in the multibay , if i started again my filter would be block built running the length of the pond and have a veggie filter it for phosphate removal

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  12. #10
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Gosai Designer1's Avatar
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    Not wishing to hijack your thread, but something i've been considering (and i may get berated for this) but would there be any mileage in adding BHM (or similar, at half the price) into the bottom of the moving bed modules.

    My system is similarish to Feline's without the shower! The Oase modules have a recessed section in the bottom either side of the air stone, which may work for neatly stacked blocks of media perhaps?

    Keen to get general opinion on this - it maybe a non starterll!
    I dont check the pond water as often as i probably should (not overstocked, and don't over feed) so touch-wood don't have any issues, as over filtered - but just thought it may help in our quest for perfect water !!!!

    May also offer a solution to you - Acro Bob?

    thanks....
    Its a hole in the ground where I throw my money!

  13. #11
    Senior Member Rank = Kyusai Sim's Avatar
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    I the oase units not sure there would be benefit in just putting it under the k1 you wouldn’t really get any amount to benefit.
    i think I would rather fill one completely with siporax.
    at the moment I have one running K1 and the second with jap mat.
    im only putting air into the K1 first bay.

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  15. #12
    Senior Member Rank = Kyusai Sim's Avatar
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    Also like to say I run a bakki with hi flow bhm and I have no nitrates when testing.
    also have no nitrite or ammonia and with only two bays of media I think the bhm must be doing a lot.

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  17. #13
    Senior Member Rank = Adult Champion Twhitenosugar's Avatar
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    Hi Bob.

    If it's the cost, try a diy shower with grog rather than bhm. I found a thread on here how to build your own. There's a video of it on YouTube too. I've got a 4 tier shower (It's technically more of a trickle tower but better than nothing - although probably won't remove nitrates).

    I just dropped a jebao tsp 10000 vario pump (which was about £115 off amazon) into my bio filter which runs at 30% so about 26 watts. This then pumps up to a diy spray bar in the top box. The filter is made out of 18 litre really useful boxes (about £10 each) with a filter grid (to stop the base of each box bowing in the middle) at the bottom and 10mm holes drilled out at equal distances in the bottom of each tray.

    The final tray has a tank connector and the water just pours down that back into the bio unit rather than the pond. By having it that way, its out of sight, can't be heard outside of the shed, is generally a bit warmer than outside air temps and it helps increase dwell time in the filters too.

    Below is a pic of it before I added another tier and more filter media.

    With hindsight I wish I ordered the extra strong version. Just to improve the longevity of the boxes. But otherwise I'm pleased with the filter.

    Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk
    13,000L fibreglassed raised pond with window

 

 

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