How long can it possibly take – continued 21/01/12

Apart from exposing a wall that looked like a wall at ground level, when exposing it we discovered there wasn’t a wall below it anyway. Add to that a week of some of the foulest weather imaginable, well enough of all that!

Ian Miles worked with me at Infiltration for many years and thankfully he was the guy who did the entire breakdown and installation for me almost unaided.

It’s impossible to predict what’s below the ground when an existing system has to be removed before a new one can be installed and this was no exception, some parts of this were a doddle and others were pigs!

The ‘doddle’ shown here was that it only took the depth of three concrete blocks as a base for Eric Three to give us perfect water level to the millimetre.

The ‘pig’ was the special fitting seen on the right that had to be hand-fabricated in order to give us the correct angle and correct level in order to get water supply from the 6” outlet of the vortex into the 4” inlet of Eric.

The 90-degree bend in brown soil pipe is the 4” waste line taken directly to the sewer.

A clearer view of the 4” waste from Eric, the existing drain line from the vortex unit to the sewer was retained and one of the filter chamber drains has been used for the system overflow to the sewer.

Bearing in mind the new unit is 12” above the old base of the original filter there’s now less than 50% of the space being taken up by the Eric unit.

There are four EricMat blocks running this system and a quick calculation tells me that if the 48 individual sheets in question were stacked on top of one another, this would represent a block measuring 500mm x 190mm x 912mm or 20” x 7.5” x 35” only.

To compare this volume with the volume taken up by the media removed from the two boxes earlier it represents about 10%!

AND for the first time in 15 years, this Koi pond will now become a ‘proper’ Koi pond!

Waddy

How water actually moves forward constantly as a ‘block’ in Eric Filters is something that’s hard for many readers to understand.

In truth the reason for this is a combination of the narrow width (20” or 500mm), the shallow water depth (20” or 500mm) and the 9” dia/23mm central end baffle set off the end wall only some 1”/25mm from the suction inlet of the water pump.

However, despite the detailed verbal explanation on my part, many have still questioned the theory and have indicated that photographic or video evidence would be much easier to grasp.

I have often wondered how this evidence could be shown but hadn’t any real idea as to how to go about it.

Two days ago Les Bean, an Eric owner, who posts on several Koi forums as ‘Chag05’ came up with this video that demonstrates the moving block perfectly and I have his permission to put it onto the website – Les, thanks a million!

Experiment on water movement through filter. from chag05_Les on Vimeo.

Aside from Les’s choice of 70’s background music (and of course, that particular song was there for obvious reasons) the video shows off the theory perfectly without any media barriers or aeration – just the simple flow-pattern that’s achieved in all Eric units.

The idea behind it all is to pass that endless forward-moving block of water, aided by vertical turbulence, through these EricMat barriers along the travel.

Within Eric boxes and in this situation, I really do not know of any other media that can be anything quite like as biologically active!

The unit in question was an Eric Three, which holds only 84 gallons or 385 litres of water and it took 4.5 minutes for the entire 84 gallons of cloudy water to exit the box and be replaced with new water, which indicates that the water pump was operating at a 1,120gph flow-rate and this was also confirmed by Les.

I hope the video also demonstrates how quickly and easily the brush box and EricMat blocks can be removed and replaced to show the box below to be perfectly clean.

Waddy.

The water is absolutely crystal clear.

pH is perfect.

Nitrite is zero.

Ammonia is zero.

Dissolved Oxygen is 7.2.

The pond is heated.

The pond has two bottom drains.

The filter is gravity-fed.

Alas, despite these ‘perfect’ conditions the Koi inside the pond are not exactly perfect so perhaps it’s some kind of disease?

Well there is ‘shimi’ showing clearly on 50% of the Koi for starters.

Not to mention ‘hikui’ showing clearly on almost all the Go-Sanke.

Not true ‘diseases’ as such, but problems that are impossible to rectify once manifested and problems
that also make a once-attractive Koi now totally valueless.

The pond looks fine visually so let’s check out the filter stages.

Here is the mechanical stage of the filter, it is a proper vortex unit copied directly from my design back in ’85.

I say ‘proper’ because the outlet transferring water to the next stage is placed centrally at the top of the unit, which is the only place an outlet must go in circular units to ensure the gentle spin takes place. It is also correct that the bore of the exit tube is larger than the bore of the inlet pipes as transfer takes place by ‘head’ being almost on the surface of the unit.

However, the many copiers of my unit decided it was far too complex and far too costly to do all of this. So they simply linked them to the next stage with a surface overflow positioned at water level and called them a vortex when really it was only a round box.

You can see in this vortex the stainless steel coil heat exchanger that controls the pond water temperatures from a natural gas boiler.

As far as mechanical stages are concerned it looks clean enough – although there are better options available today, however this pond was ‘professionally’ installed some 15 years ago.

Moving on to the biological stage now.

This type of biological filter is still BY FAR the most popular choice of the vast majority of Koi keepers around the world today but to confuse the matter it goes under a huge number of completely different titles.

This one here is a two-chamber unit made from glass-fibre. It could be a single chamber or even a five-chamber unit if desired.

Others are single or multi-chamber versions made from concrete block, rendered and waterproofed and often referred to as ‘block-built’ when they could equally be made from polypropylene or even carved by hand from bedrock – there is absolutely no difference.

All of these are merely water containers and that’s all.

There are others made rectangular.

There are others that are circular.

Some are even made octagonal.

Some are supplied water from the pond by gravity whereby a water pump sucks water from the surface of the boxes and then pumps it back to the pond.

Others pump water from the pond below into them and the water then returns to the pond from the surface of the box by ‘overflow’.

Some are heavily aerated whilst some others are not.

There isn’t a scrap of difference in the actual operation of ANY of these boxes but the name that should be given to ALL these boxes (in order to save much confusion) is the accurate term of ‘Upward-Flow Boxes’ and this is simply because water enters around the base of the box and exits at the surface of the box.

Now back to the filter in question –

This shows the filter after the two chambers have been emptied after opening two 1.5” ball valves fitted to the sides at the base of both chambers.

The first chamber, which is supplied water from the vortex, is the one on the left.

There were two sacks of Flocor and one sack of Alfagrog but when these were removed the entire chamber was crammed with Japanese filter mat.

The second chamber to the right contained only Flocor and Alfagrog.

Note also that the transfer port dividing the two boxes also had filter mat to contact the water as it dropped from the surface of the first box to the base of the second box.

Next followed the removal of the media.

And stacking neatly it to be loaded onto the waste skip later.

This didn’t look exactly ‘good’ to me.

But this was only the tip of the iceberg.

The wisdom of wearing gloves cannot possibly be stressed too much in these situations.

Nice isn’t it?

It was estimated that some 10 gallons of this foul-smelling mess was removed before the box could be cleaned.

And here’s a perfect example of how NOT to use Japanese filter mat.

However, the next time you see forum posts that praise ‘block-built filters’ or others that urge innocents to ‘Get some Grog mate – you won’t regret it’! – You will also realise that these armchair filtration experts are shooting this sterling advice directly out of their own ar*es!

Please do not think even for one moment that this pond is an exception to the rule because it’s more likely the norm if the honest truth is known. And the honest truth is that ALL upward-flow boxes are out and out liabilities.

There are untold thousands of other similar ‘filtration time bombs’ in this world ready to go off at any time.

‘Perfect water readings’ mean even less than zero when the Koi have to face all this cr*p and the pollution it gives off – day in and day out!

And many STILL wonder as to why shimi and hikui completely wreck their Koi?

I’ll continue this in a couple of days because it’s FAR from over yet.

Waddy

Wishing a very happy new 2012 to readers of the Eric Pond Filters website and an extra-special thanks to the ever-growing band of contented Eric users in many parts of the world today.

I have always known my filters are the very best that money can buy and that’s why I continue to make the statement on here.

However I’m also more than aware that the Eric concept is totally unique and fiercely contradicts all the other ‘more popular’ methods of producing and maintaining water in fishponds.

It’s generally also true that Koi enthusiasts are very wary of ‘change’ and there are many good reasons for this attitude, especially when it comes to anything that could affect the water that keeps their precious Koi collections.

It is simply this website alone that advertises Eric systems, I refuse to waste money on glossy magazine advertisements simply because they are not profitable. The only real proof of whether a product is worth its salt or not is ‘word of mouth’ and nothing else if the hard truth is known.

Only one year ago, there were few who had ever even heard of Eric Pond Filters let alone owned and used them; of the ones that did, they were the pioneers, almost like members of some strange ‘secret filter society’.

Thankfully it is thanks to these pioneers who were more than happy enough to kick-off the ‘word of mouth’ that convinced even more pioneers to prove to themselves that

Eric units actually DO exactly what Waddy says they do.

As a result of this, this website is now actually on fire with daily hits from just about every country in the world even including Alaska, Kyoto, India, Uzbekistan & Israel!

With feet still firmly on the ground, Eric Pond Filters are still in their infancy but the signs now say that they are slowly but surely ‘getting’ there’.

If you need Eric in Norway contact – Charly at www.Koi.no

For Denmark there’s Lars www.edokoi.dk

For France check out Jean Francois www.akoitique.fr

For Holland, Belgium & Germany there’s Geert at www.coweko.nl or Sam at www.koiservice.nl

In the USA contact don.chamberlain1210@live.com

In the UK there’s Waddy on www.ericpondfilters.com

Or John Cook at www.shirleyaquatics.com

Or Anton at www.japanese-koi.co.uk

Here’s the latest from ‘Rose Cottage’ a very secret location ‘somewhere in the UK’ where water-tested Eric units are taken for finishing which means installing the air system, fixing the nameplates and fitting the EricMat blocks which are all assembled here.

As you can see we are working around builders and decorators all who have signed the official secrets act…..

Waddy.

Sole ERIC distribution for Holland, Belgium, Germany and (I think Croatia)? Is to be handled by a joint partnership of Koi Service and Coweko – both based in Holland.

The initial order will be over there in mid to late January 2012.

Full contact details will be given in advance.

With a bit of luck Eric filters will be seen actually working on a display Koi pond at the Holland Koi show in 2012.

More later, Waddy.

Good news for Koi enthusiasts ‘Darn Sarf’!

The Japanese Koi Company will soon be the distributor for Eric Pond Filters in the south of England.

Please keep an eye on updates because soon there will be an Eric Four unit working on one of their sales ponds where you can see it demonstrated.

If you have not yet visited this outlet then trust me, you are missing out!

I visited this outlet last Tuesday where I met Clive and Anton for the first time.

Anton kindly gave me a detailed tour of the place both inside and outside and well….. I can’t possibly describe what I saw – just do yourself a favour – go see what I saw!

It’s near Itchin’ or Scratchin’ or somewhere below Watford…… and don’t ask me where Watford is – I haven’t a bloody clue!

The Japanese Koi Company Ltd. – Hitchin Road, Henlow, Bedfordshire, SG16 6BB

Waddy.

Several who read this website are now asking me how we go about cleaning the EricMat blocks in the Eric units because they say they need to clean their media chambers regularly.

If anyone gets a build up of fine dust/debris on the top of filter mat or indeed on the top of ANY other biological media which needs to be cleaned off from time to time then that’s a PERFECT example showing that the areas where the dust is collecting are also the areas that have NO water flow at all which also means those surfaces also hold NO biomass!

The dust that forms on the surfaces of the media has been forming in single or multi-chamber filters for as long as I can recall.

It’s nothing to do with filter mat, it could be alfagrog or flocor or even gravel but it only takes place in upward-flow chambers so please do bear this in mind.

It’s commonly known as ‘tracking’ and it occurs in all upward-flow boxes, heavily aerated or not, of course the dust will not settle in heavily-aerated units but do bear in mind, the tracking still remains.

The simple reason why EricMat will never become dirty – (and I had it made in a colour which easily shows up dirt to prove the point) – is simply because all the surfaces are getting a constant flow of water and these very fine particles of dust simply pass through, which is proof that all surfaces are also biologically active!

No one will ever have to clean EricMat blocks because they will never get dirty as users will confirm!

Waddy

The idea behind perfect biological filtration in any box or container is to get ALL incoming ammonia-laden water to come into contact with ALL media surfaces present in the container before exiting and then continue to supply these all surfaces constantly with a steady supply of more ammonia-laden water.

Once this is achieved, the entire media surfaces will house a perfect biomass that is in a permanent state of life and death and that’s about as good as it gets.

Be under no illusion though that the dead biomass simply vanishes, it does not, so it needs to be removed in exactly the same way that mechanical debris has to be removed.

In Eric units with mature cartridge blocks, by placing a temporary barrier to block the letter box slot at the base of the transfer baffle so that any bottom debris will stay within the biological stage you will eventually start to see yellow-ish gritty deposits forming on the base of the box and this is the waste matter given off by the cartridge blocks by way of dead biomass. This has nothing at all to do with the black-ish brown mechanical waste matter entering the box from the bottom drain and is trapped by the brush box. The production of this yellow-ish gritty deposit is absolute proof that the media is alive with biomass and that the biological filter is operating exactly as intended.

However, I seriously doubt we will ever find this matter in containers that adopt other water flow patterns simply because water flow is extremely difficult to harness properly when asked to flow un-naturally either by pump or by gravity.

The vast majority of boxes used today for Koi pond filtration are upward-flow boxes that are square, rectangular or circular; some are single boxes whilst others are several boxes linked together.

I have to admit that for many years I was a serious champion of the upward-flow principle but after closely studying the dust forming on the media surfaces on many occasions I finally realised that only a very small part of the media was actually being supplied with the flow of incoming water and the vast majority of the media surfaces were simply gathering a thick brown dust that could be clearly seen. This dust would not be allowed to settle in areas where there is water movement and it is a perfect indication that there is no water flow at all in these areas. In the small areas where the dust was not seen and the media surfaces appeared to be new, this was where the incoming water was tracking to the suction inlet of the water pump or exactly around the points where the water flow was passing from chamber to chamber by gravity.

In short there was no water movement in these boxes apart from the small areas where water was tracking through to the outlet, hence the reason that no yellow-ish gritty deposits will be seen.

In downward-flow applications such as showers this is a much better method for the incoming water to come into contact with the media. However it is impossible to control with any real certainty and as certain ‘easy ways’ out of a tray become blocked then other new ‘easier ways’ are found. The more this takes place the less the usable surface areas are available for the water to contact.

In the long run it’s far simpler to let water flow as it does flow naturally instead of attempting to try and make it perform completely un-naturally and then face the consequences when the end results are not even nearly satisfactory.

This is the new EricMat block, an incredibly tiny affair with total dimensions of only 500mm x 500mm by only 190mm deep.

However, when placed in the path of a wall of water that’s heading slowly towards it and then the block of water is buffeted by vertical water turbulence just before it reaches the block, the usable surface area in respect of the biomass it supports is positively frightening.

That single block is FAR more productive than ALL of this –

Think about it!

Waddy.

Eric filtration systems are soon to be distributed throughout the USA by Great Wave Engineering in San Jose CA.

The man to contact is Don Chamberlain – 408-594-4161

don.chamberlain1210@live.com

Don spent some time with me recently looking at existing installations and getting an in-depth understanding as to how they operate.

The first order will be shipped to arrive just before Christmas.

Waddy.