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Below is what les & carol thaught of bakki showers 

 

 

BAKKI SHOWERS

 

I already had an established pond of 4000 gallons utilising a pump fed Nexus 300 of which I was reasonably happy. I had chosen the Nexus purely because of ease of maintenance as I was away from home from 6am to 6 pm weekdays.

Then in July 2007 disaster struck, we had a flood and 4 feet of water engulfed the garden and the pond. The 24 fish escaped in the murky depths of raw sewage.

Two days later with the flood water starting to recede, we were getting messages that koi were swimming in the next road. We soon realised that these were our fish and set about capturing them. We accounted for 22 and after having to put some down due to their poor condition we ended up with 16 fish. Fortunately two weeks prior I had purchased a temporary vat and quickly set that up to hold the fish.

Not only had I to contend with the sewage, my neighbour had a large drum of used engine oil that also contaminated the pond etc.

I quickly set about draining down the pond and cleaning the waste oil from the surfaces. The Nexus had become submerged as had the pumps etc.

Whilst all of this was going on, we had to vacate the house and move into a top floor flat some 2 miles away. These meant returning to the house every evening and by torchlight making sure the fish were ok.

I then decided that I needed a filter system that could look after itself and after a bit of research discovered the Bakki Shower.

I quickly contacted my local dealer A4KOI and purchased a single set of 4 showers, a spigot tray, and 5 boxes of media which I later increased to 8.

I installed the shower system in a shed with a simple tee from the 4” bottom drain and installed an extra Sequence pump. The return was via a 4” pipe over the side of the pond wall.

With all of this installed I was reasonably happy that I had done all I could to keep my pond ticking over whilst the house was being renovated.

It was only a matter of days before I noticed that the water appeared to sparkle; the fish were more active and were constantly hungry. My fish also seemed to change colour and in a matter of weeks I was starting to notice growth, which I had never experienced before in my 3 years of koi keeping. I had also inherited some koi that were 20 years old, and even these had started to grow and become more active…..what had happened? After all, all that had I had done was to introduce a set of Bakki Showers.

I returned to the house after 6 months of renovation and quickly sought ways of increasing the flow over the showers and soon realised that 27000 litres from a 4” bottom drain was probably the limit. In May 2008 I managed to scoop the A4KOI grow and show award for a fish that had been found ¼ mile away swimming in raw sewage for 3 days some 10 months previous. I don’t think I would have achieved this with my original set up.       I had the “Bakki Shower bug”!

 I then had the dilemma to either put another set of showers on the pond, or build another pond based purely around Bakki Showers. I decided on the 2^nd option and set about the plan. I had watched Darren at A4KOI build his pond utilising showers and asked him to plan and build my new pond. The criteria, “IT MUST HAVE BAKKI SHOWERS AND BACTERIA HOUSE MEDIA (BHM)”

The build started in Feb 09 and the fish were moved into a temporary swimming pool and a single set of showers using two trays was adapted as sole filtration.

By May, the new pond was completed. It is 7000 gallons built within a conservatory. It has two sets of showers, one double set of four trays containing 16 boxes of BHM and a single set of 3 trays (restricted by roof height) containing 6 boxes of BHM. The flow over both sets of showers is 40000 litres/hour. If you think about most other filter systems, the more you try to pump or pull through them the least efficient they get, but this is the reverse for showers, the challenge is to pump as much as you can.

 I also have two Nexus 200’s used for water polishing, all contained in a separate filter/pump room.

 

Within days of transferring the water from the holding tank the media was beginning to mature and the growth and quality of the fish again began to be noticeable with an amazing increase in appetite.

 

What can I say about Bakki Showers that has not already been said?

My PH from the tap is 8.5 this gets reduced to 8.0 through the showers, plus I do not need added oxygen in the pond as I get this for free from the showers. I can also introduce new fish without any noticeable increase in ammonia or nitrites, and I have all but given up on testing the water as I never find a problem.

 

One other added bonus I have discovered is that our large “over amorous” male Chagoi caused quite a bit of damage to the females in the pond. Whereas normally I would have removed the fish for treatment, I genuinely believe that with Bakki Showers, the healing process is far quicker and requires no human intervention.

 

Don’t forget that I started to use them for their nil maintenance due to my circumstances, but I can’t imagine running a modern pond without them.

 

Am I a fan? You bet !!!

 Regards Les