The Start...

kimr · Post by **kimr** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 2:23 pm

Hi Al
I like the new addition, I have a bakki but it only contains alfagrog at the moment but hopefully in time I will be able to get it filled with magic BHM. Can we please have some more piccys of your gorgous koi and the window

I am so pleased it is all up and running you worked hard so I hope you can finally get some time to enjoy it.

Al · Post by Al » Thu Aug 03, 2006 5:55 pm

Thanks again all,
Gazza, no problems as yet, pond went a little dusty over weekend, BHM settling in i would think, its crystal again now.
The feed rate has been kept low whilst everything matures, currently on 200g a day, no where near enough but i dont want to rock the boat.
The filters a coping fine, im flushing the Nexus once a week but theres hardly any muck in them, i used to do (had to do) the 1 on the temp pool twice a day!! The rest is all done via the uplifts, ive had some fun tinkering with the timers for this, i think after 4 weeks ive got it sussed, all 6 flush for 14 seconds every 3 hours, that gives me 100gal in 24 hours, which is about spot on for me.
I'll go get Kim a couple more pics....

Cheers guys.....

Still not enough hours in a day tho.....

Gazza · Post by **Gazza** » Thu Aug 03, 2006 7:02 pm

Hi Al,

Thanks for taking the time to post the results and pictures of you lovely pond.

Yes the cloudy stuff is the dust and bits from the BHM but once it gets going in the shower your be OK especially in your system it will be gone in no time

Al · Post by Al » Thu Aug 03, 2006 11:43 pm

Cheers Gazza, no problem,
yea, thought as much, pond floor was covered with a white coating of BD (bakki dust) when i got up Sat morn, i was expecting this tho, floor was clean by the afternoon, still some very fine fines tho.....
After you added your 'bin' to the growing-on set up, did you monitor the orp? just curious, ya-know....

Here you go Kim, a couple taken earlier, i need to sort the reflection out from the window, and no, polorisers dont do it.....im on it...

[img]http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f143/Stre ... 2152-1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f143/Stre ... CT2170.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f143/Stre ... CT2179.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f143/Stre ... 2148-1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f143/Stre ... b6a4a8.jpg[/img]

Graham. · Post by **Graham.** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 8:48 am

Stunning pics !!

3rd photo down, the white Koi with three red patches and black bits what is the name of this Koi I would love one in my pond... truly beautiful.

Thanks

Graham

Al · Post by Al » Fri Aug 04, 2006 12:31 pm

Cheers Graham,

Shes a Maruten Sanke from sakai, just over 4 years old and a midges under 70cm, AKA-giddy, as every time anyone passes the window, shes sets of like a stream train thinking its food time....

[img]http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f143/Stre ... 70copy.jpg[/img]

Gazza · Post by **Gazza** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:47 pm

Hi All,

Absolutely beautifully mate and cracking set up and as Ive said before one that will be working great.

No i have not kept a log on the ORP on the tank but it normally runs around 280-300ish but it gets a fair lot of food to cope with

Thats why i am sorting out the new monitors so i can do 24.7 on the QT

estanque_koi · Post by **estanque_koi** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 3:26 am

Hi Al,
I recently joined Koi Quest Forum, and have just read your thread "The start..."
First of all let me say you have done an impressive work

,
congratulations! Your Sakai maruten sanke is superb

I understand the principle of streamflow, and saw the video showing the purge. Yet I'm still not sure how the water is actually purged. Just "air lifted"

If I understand correctly, the air pump switches on pumping air down at the base of the discharge pipes. Is just that forcing the water moving up and out to waste? Its that right? How high is the level of the discharge pipes off the pond in relation to pond water level?

Is the following summary correct?
total pond volume aprox. 26000 gallons
total water flow is aprox. 10000 gallons/hour
I think I read something about a sieve, have you got one?
you have got two Nexus 200 fed by two skimmers, plus one Bakki Shower fed by...? I missed this point -or I can't remember right now
I'm interested in your current filtration setup, also what kind of pumps are you using.
Sorry if this is too much asking

.
Diego

Al · Post by Al » Mon Jan 01, 2007 11:41 am

Hi again Diego,

Thanks for your comments, this pond is based on a few other similar type set ups. There are a couple of different ways of doing it, this is the way i choose.
Yes, you have the air purge about right, in each of the 6 uplift pipes is an airstone approx 6.5 foot (2m)down, when the airpump runs the water is displaced and purges out as in the vid.
The top of the uplift pipes are at water level, i run a constant trickle of water in the pond so these also act as my overflow.

Total UK gallons is 5800 (26000 litres or just over 26 tonnes of water)
Pond turnover is approx 8000 uk gallons per hour.

The 2 nexus are fed via the 3" side feeds located below the skimmers, each nexus is powered by an aquamax 10,000. This water returns at the base of the shallow end through the 4 returns giving a push along the pond floor towards the 6 drains.

The bakki shower is fed from the 2 skimmers with a sequence 10,000 on each skimmer. The sieve was replaced with the shower.

The air curtain is fed via by an 80l airpump and fits the width of the pond, this helps return mid and surface water back towards the shallow end inlets. The uplifts are powered by a 40l airpump via the timer set up. Each nexus has 60l of air.

approx 75l of K1 and 15l of biochip in each nexus, and 50kg of BHM in the shower.

This pond has been running for 6 months now and apart from having to raise the air curtain up a little ( it was causing to much disturbance) im pretty chuffed with it. The only maintanace required is to flush the easys in the nexus, oh and keep filling the food container up....

I think thats about it, any more questions, fire away....

estanque_koi · Post by **estanque_koi** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 12:46 am

Hi Al,
thanks for the info, now I can see how the whole system works. It seems to be efective, and needing very little maintenance, is that right?
It seems to me that you have quite a lot of filtration with two Nexus plus one Bakki shower. How many koi do you keep in your system?
I like your system.
Do you think it is more costly in terms of electricity and water than other systems?
Thanks again for sharing all the useful info and pics.
Diego

Al · Post by Al » Tue Jan 02, 2007 1:16 pm

Thanks again Diego,

You can never have too much filtration.....

, but yes, i could probally get away with less. The concept was to have 2 banks of filters which mirror each other, this way i could if nessesary shut one half down and not cause any upset in the pond. I could have run a couple of vortex contverted to K1 in place of the nexus, but i already had a nexus on the previous pond and liked the simplicity of it, so i added another. I could of done the same with 1 nexus 300 but it wouldnt fit where i wanted it.
The other way would have been showers only, but this would require more wattage to run.
In theory the 4 pumps use just over 400w, the air pumps another 150w. I have a 55w UV which has never been on, it just isnt needed, oh and the heating side of things. I consider this reasonable for this system.
As for water, i would use the same amount anyway 15-20% weekly, which is about what most folk use.
The maintance is low, a couple of months back the feed was just under half a kilo a day (16 fish) with no problems. I was flushing the easys every other day, they only really collect the fines being side fed, as the main waste is purged via the uplifts. I could no doubt leave them a bit longer....but i like to keep things as clean and stable as i can....

Heres a little more light reading for you.....

slightly different to mine, but the same principles apply....

[url]http://mauricecox.proboards54.com/index.cgi ... 1146781513[/url]

estanque_koi · Post by **estanque_koi** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 4:43 am

Hello again Al,
thanks for the link, I read Stuartt thread "Pond breaks a man"
Good stuff, including of course some of your posts as usual

!
The Onishi "streamflow" principle applied as shown by you and Stuartt is very exciting

and I think it deserves consideration as an alternative way of building ponds.
If you don't mind, I really would like to collate the most important pieces of useful info and pics and publish a sort of article in spanish, in the A.E.K. web page (www.elkoi.es), given adequate credit to authors (ideas, pictures, etc.) and citation (forums and threads where the original story was posted)

.
Our association is still young and small, and most associates get in trouble trying to read english

(most of us studied french as foreing language...). So making all this info readily available to them is a way to furthermore promote koikeeping in Spain

. What do you thing, Al? Duncan?
Please let me know your thoughts,
Diego

Al · Post by Al » Wed Jan 03, 2007 9:28 am

Im glad you found this of interest Diego, the original idea came from Mike Snaden of Yumekoi, i based mine on a pond he designed for a guy in WSM which appeared in the Koi carp mag around Jan 05' and a later pond built by Jules of JPG, which again was tweaked slightly.
These ponds are an adaptation of Momotaro's bakki showered ponds with the odd tweak, it all started from there. There are some more articles written by Mike on his site....[url]http://www.yumekoi.com/appraisals.html[/url]
You may gladly use any of my pics etc...i dont think Dunc will have a problem with this, like you say, it only goes to help premote the hobby and show an alterative way of doing things.
I have taken a look at the site you mentioned, but only a look as i dont speak spanish

, some nice BIG ponds over there....

Daz 1 · Post by **Daz 1** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 2:08 pm

Hi Al,
Stunning pond there, i hoping to get the stuff together to do a growing on pond of about a thousand gals and have liked this idea for doing a pond for along while now.
If in hindsight what would you tweak on your pond ?
Where did you get your bottom drains from?
Cheers dave.

Al · Post by Al » Wed Jan 03, 2007 8:01 pm

Hi Dave,
Cheers, hindsight eh....Mmmmm.....

Not much really at the mo, the pond has only been running for 6 months so far, but handles the amount of food i feed well.
I had to build around my existing ring beam which was a pain, i would have liked a clean canvas really, and another couple of foot either side

.
The flow along the bottom has been throttled back on the valves as this was causing fines to be kept in suspension, so maybe 2" returns as oppose to 11/2", or swap the 2 aquamax 10,000 for something slightly less. Maybe if the pond was a little longer this wouldnt happen, im waiting to see how Stuart's(pond breaks man) performs to see if his runs any different.
I guess there are no hard and fast rules on this set up, its a matter of suck it and see, then tweak it a bit from there. I likes tweaking anyhow....

The drains came courtesy of brother Jules, (JPG) these are swimming pool items.
Its a little more finished off now, note i said "a little more" still not finished fully but im getting there, a couple of pics taken earlier.....and no, there not my hands feeding em...

[img]http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f143/Stre ... CT2552.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f143/Stre ... CT2548.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f143/Stre ... CT2543.jpg[/img]