My Outlook quit twice, loosing my reply twice, so I'll make this brief, as
dinner is cooking....
1) Excellent reply Rich!
Folks:
2) Older BF were hour glass, and have different mechanics than newer BF that
look like pool filters externally. We are talking the newer designs, but
older ones will work fine with proper attention to maintenance as well..
New BF, despite appearances are internally different from the pool sand
filters. If you would like to learn how they differ (in flow, lack of input
restriction, etc) pickup last year's Koi USA (not sure of issues number..
maybe someone can help me out). It has a great article on conversion of pool
filter to BF filter. After reading it I sold my old pool filter and bought a
BF. I didn't want to do all the conversions necessary.
3) You can't add beads to standard pool filter and make it a BF, it doesn't
work that way..
4) ANY filter, can develop anaerobic conditions in it, (yes, even
nonpressurized, despite what you may have heard). It depends on channeling,
which occurs in all filters, if not maintained. For a great reference go to
the following website:
akca.org , then go to KHA section (at bottom of page), then read/download
the section on filters. You'll get your questions addressed there!
shoot called for dinner... will end repost now.
Good Koi dealer to start with is Koi by Kerin.. Uses strictly BF.. saw that
personally during our wetlab. Also major importers/dealers, esp. on West
Coast use same.. Ko iUSA will have a number of examples..
Later,
Greg


"RichToyBox" wrote in message
news:wkv9a.332828$tq4.6355@sccrnsc01...
The original bubble bead filter was gravity cleaned and if left uncleaned
would glue the beads together in the top, making it very difficult to get
a
good cleaning, and this may have led to the problems that Jo Ann found.
There is a simple method of plumbing the bubble bead filters that makes it
a
pressurized water cleaned system, and I have been using this system on my
bubble bead filter for four years and feel that I am getting good service
from it. The newer style filters are all designed using the swimming pool
sand filter tank. They have pressurized backwash, sludge valves in the
bottom, and a rinse cycle that expels anything that was light and loosened
during the cleaning cycle and sends it to waste. The H2S would either be
expelled through the bottom during backwash or through the top during
rinse.
Most of the new filters have a blower attached that uses air to bubble the
water to thoroughly clean the beads using much less water. I am getting
ready to get one of these newer filters for my large pond and move the old
bubble bead to the smaller pond.

Everyone overstocks their ponds. They don't set out to. The fish grow.
They use rules like one fish per hundred gallons. I have one fish per 200
gallons in my large pond. Most of these fish are between 6 and 10 pounds.
That makes my filter have to filter the waste of about 150 pounds of fish.
My small pond is on a gravel bed veggie filter. It has about 3000 pounds
of
gravel that has to be cleaned about twice a year. I am not as young as I
once was.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


wrote in message
...
I identified Jo Ann as the person who said this several times. She was
reporting
that more than just a couple people were bringing her their defunct bead
filters and
dying or dead fish. that is part of what she does for a living, she is
a
fish
diagnostician.

not a veggie filter with no gravel ... mine cannot go anaerobic, the roots hang down
in the water. Ingrid

4) ANY filter, can develop anaerobic conditions in it, (yes, even
nonpressurized, despite what you may have heard). It depends on channeling,
which occurs in all filters, if not maintained. For a great reference go to
the following website: