Simply Koi and More Koi

I am thinking of buying a bakki shower to connect to my skimmer.
Does anyone know what turn over would be required for best performance of the shower and what pump I would require?

My pond is 5000 gallons and at the momment I have 2 bottom drains that are linked to a Ultra sieve then onto a BBF7.

I have been using the Kusuri sieve with an aquamax 10000 on my skimmer, but would like to add a Bakki instead to the sieve to the skimmer.
Also were would the best place be to purchase one?
I am located in essex.
Cheers
Roy

Hi Roy,

I'll leave the technical stuff to those that know, but I know Darren at A4koi has bakki's in stock.

Cheers

If you fancy a trip up to the Yorkshire Moors, [url=http://www.yorkshirekoi.co.uk/_forum.php?to ... n=9&page=0]try this[/url], well worth the money with 50kg of BHM.

Roy in general the more water you put over a BHM shower the better. Simply said, you can't have too much. I would use as big a pump as the skimmer will handle. I'd say 2000 gallons an hour through the shower itself would be a good jumping off place.

B.Scott

The size of the shower depends on the water flow but i don't think you can have to much to be honest as if your going to use BHM it loves the fast flow

When speaking with Mike Snaden ( www.yumekoi.com ) about my small growing on system (500gls) i have an Aquamax 8000 on it which i will probably up to a 12000 this year as Mike said try to get 1500gls an hour over it and its only a mini shower

Roy,

If you were purchasing a single 4-tier Bakki shower, you should be putting a minimum of 3000 gallons/hour of dirty water over it. There are people using these showers putting less over it and some people put pre-filtered water over them as well at lower rates. But if you spoke to Mike himself, he would recomend 3000 gallons as a minimum.

Thanks for the replies.
I was thinking of using a Sequence 12000 pump. I dont think my Aquamax 10000 would be sufficient. I think they only pump around 1800 galls an hour.
was hoping for around 2500 or 3000 gals an hour over the shower, but must make sure my skimmer would be able to cope as well!
don't want to suck my fish into it the skimmer:shock:
I was told that the Bakki Media breaks down into a powder over time and can end up in your pond? is this true
Regards
Roy

kingmoaner wrote:
I was told that the Bakki Media breaks down into a powder over time and can end up in your pond? is this true

No

You may get some dust in the pond at the start though

whats the benifit from a Stainless steel Bakki compared to a fiberglass one
I know its the cost aspect and as long as you use bakki media is there any real difference.
Cheers
Roy

Hi Roy,

I wouldn't worry about the fish being pulled into the skimmer i run an Aquamax 16,000 on mine and that pipes directly from the skimmer to a large TT full of BHM and it works great

As Bob has said the BHM can give you some dust at first but it doesn't break down mine has been in the TT and never been touched for years i was actually thinking of taking the media out this summer to see what it all looks like

kingmoaner wrote:whats the benifit from a Stainless steel Bakki compared to a fiberglass one
I know its the cost aspect and as long as you use bakki media is there any real difference.
Cheers
Roy

No benifit really

The Stainless units Mike sells he has made and sells at cost, for the amount of stainless in them and the time taken to make them they are great value.
I havent seen fibreglass ones for sale as strong as the stainless ones, which are roughly the same capacity. There are some about but in general smaller. Therefore if you wanted something off of a skimmer, a smaller unit with less flow may be more suitible.

Another question that I have is.
I am running a Badu Speck Top 14 pump that pumps 3900 gallons a hour at a 4 meter head. This is supplying my BBF7 Bubble Bead filter that will take at max flow of 5600 gallons a hour. I do need to bypass the filter by around 10% as recommended by bubble bead to prevent over pressurisation of the filter.
I have a Ultra Sieve 2 as a pre filter that can take a max flow of around 4500 gallons.
I would like to change my badu pump for a Sequence 18000S Pump total flow of 3960 galons a hour.
The total head i need to pump is about 9 feet.
What I would like to know is do you think the sequence pump would be able to cope
I know that it dosent have as much power as the badu, and i do espect to loose some flow using the sequence pump. The turnover of the pond is around 1 1/2 hours at the moment, but i would expect it to drop to around 2 hours using the sequence pump.
The benefit of doing this would be to lower the cost of electricity. Badu pump 780 watts against sequence pump 270 watts.
Plus with buying another sequence pump for the Bakki shower should total around 500 watts when using sequence pumps instead of 1 kw with a sequence and badu pump running together.
Also using the sequence pump may give the water a little more time in the filter instead of being pushed through at such a high pressure.
Cheers
Roy

Roy,

I have tinkered with a firend of mine's Aquadyne bead filter a bit over the past couple of years, trying various lower wattage pumps. None of them worked properly and he put his Badu back on and all was well again. The downside of bead filters is the need for a powerful pump and therefore a high electrical consumption. That's not to say it wont work on yours of course.

Hi,

I have also tried lower wattage pumps on both my aquadynes and they just dont seem to be up to it As bob said Des is back with badus,im now back on with the pressure pumps as well and alls now fine

I think your top 14 is about right for your filters max flow once youve taken head loss and friction loss out.

Could you not pull water from skimmer via 10,000 over the shower and also return some from the bead over shower as well, as this would also aid in replemishing the water from the bead as bead filters do tend to use all the O2....

Sounds a good solution Dan