Hi all,
Was having a little old think today. Nothing new there. It is said that BHM works equally well submerged as in showers! With many of us having to watch our pennies (WATTAGE) how about a gravity fed system with settlement tank/chamber etc then XXXXX amount of BHM loads of air underneath to stop settlement and the air uplifts shifting incredible amounts of water through the BHM???? OK still the expense of buying the media, but!!!!!! Is anybody already doing this or similar?
No noise of water gushing to upset the neighbours.
No chilling effect of water.
What are your thoughts if any?
PS. Sorry if this subject has been done already....
Submerged BHM isn't that good it can bee done but you need a massive turnover rate to stop any waste getting trapped.Momotaro do it but you have to actually stand and see the flow of water to believe it its massive did i say massive I used to run it in my system when i first set it up and didn't feel it worked that well and when removed did have a build up of waste on it and found it woks much better in a shower without doubt.
If your going to run BHM bung it in a shower and have done with it
Going along the same lines Colin, I've reduced the height of my DIY showers in my QT tank to reduce the head and get more turnover for less power.
I have two stacks of two, rather than one stack of three (but the same amount of media). I have to say I reckon it's working better now than it did before but that's because I put a larger pump on too to up the turnover. It's reduced the height by a third and I've also reduced the pipework as much as possible and added loads of slots in the spray bars so that there's no back pressure (I added a slot to the top too so that if they block I can see water coming out of the top and I know they need a clean!).
Of course the downside of less but larger trays is that while you have the same amount, or even more media, you've reduced the contact time with the media. With the rate and the force the water splashes over the BHM though I'm not sure this is really much of an issue. The spiel about needing four trays so the water will accelerate as it falls is just that - the water is actually often fastest as it leaves the spray bar! I reckon the biggest plus of more trays is more media and more contact time. Longer, wider trays give you more media so I reckon might work as well. It's something I'm going to try when building the next pond as I can always add a third tray if need be.
The key thing is does the contact time really matter in a system like a shower with such huge turnover rates???
Colin submerged BHM certainly does work and although not as good as in a shower it does still work. You will get a collection of waste but if you hose it down with pond water like Momotaro do/did every 3 months for their size, once a month in a smaller UK system then you will be fine.
Thank you Jules.
So even with heavy airation underneath you still get settlement?
I did try it myself some years ago but it wore the media away big time. That was before BHM 2 came out!
Cheers Gazza it was a tad busy! Never feels like enough hours in the day at present!
Colin I would not use too much air as you have found out to your cost. It is not the most economic way to use BHM but in a smakk system it is another option to consider.
I ran Bakki submerged in a simelar way to Gazza. Another point to note is that when you heavilly aireate as you need to do, the bakki in my fibreglass vortex nearly wore through the side of the chamber as it was moving against the side in 4 months. The stuff is incrediably abbrasive so watch out.
Did work though, but K1 did the same and is much cheaper..
did i say massive 
