PART TWO – What’s available today in 2013?
Most of the systems already mentioned are available today, from Nexus to Sieves to Beads, to Showers and various Multi-Chamber units.
Recent newcomers not already mentioned are Roto-Concept Gravity Shower units introduced in 2010, Bio-Qube bead units introduced in 2012 and my own range of Eric Units introduced in 2009.
As mentioned earlier, Drum Filters are increasing in popularity as mechanical units and are said to allow no mechanical particles to enter the biological stages.
So with all these systems on open offer to both experienced enthusiasts and newcomers; it’s not surprising that the final choices are ‘difficult’ to make.
I must point out that with the exception of my Multi-Chamber units originally designed in 1981, I have no actual hands-on experience with the other systems mentioned, but I do understand the principles behind them.
The first time I really had the opportunity to sit back and reflect in some depth on the Koi hobby from the outside was around 2008.
One of my major concerns was the fact I personally knew of many high-end enthusiasts who had entered the hobby with tremendous enthusiasm and also had no monetary restrictions.
These same enthusiasts built state of the art Koi ponds with the most expensive filters money could buy and then filled these systems with truly wonderful Koi to enter into the major Koi shows.
Then, after a short three years of experiencing the hobby, they threw in the towel and took up another hobby!
And the reason for this?
They had a wonderful collection of once valuable Go-Sanke and now the effects of hikui and shimi had rendered them to be almost worthless.
These problems have cost the worldwide Koi Industry fortunes over the years resulting from lost customers and lost business.
These problems have been around for many decades and yet there had only been one single attempt to rectify the situation by way of an Izeki product known as ‘Billion Liquid’ and that sadly resulted in failure.
I first highlighted these problems in my first book ‘Koi Kichi’ published in 1995 but had been asking many questions about these problems since 1982.
