It has been a while since I have queried professor Novak since KKU disappeared...

Just received this email from the Garden Pond Forum from a fellow with a user name of: crsublette on that website. Whenever anything is said about the AFS I’m notified by email.

Quote:

It has been a while since I have queried professor Novak since KKU disappeared, but it appears Novak did the same for his Anoxic system that Waddington has done for his ERIC system. They have created them self a website, that is entirely dedicated for them to share their system unopposed and moderated entirely by them self, which quite fine. Hopefully, this will a nice safe place for Novak so he can feel comfortable in sharing much more information.

Here is the new home of the Anoxic Filtraiton System.

Also, another thread has been started to further discuss Novak's invention, that thread is Anoxic filters?

Ed:

The fact is I did not take the same path as Waddington did with the Eric Filter website. The difference is: I do not sell a product to the hobbyist to make money off of them. In fact, I sell nothing at all…but what I do is educate the hobbyist to make an astute decision on filtration methods, bacteria colonization of filter mediums and the dynamics of ponds and filters alike. It really doesn’t matter to me if you use an AFS or not, it’s your money so spend it the way you please. What matters to me that you educate yourself in pond dynamic so others don’t take advantage of you during a pond/filter sale and preserve the wellbeing of the animals that you’re playing God over! Remember these Koi did not ask to be your pets; you made that decision for them without their consent. Waddington on the other hand, is trying to sell you his filter to feed his family; I’m not!

I don’t mind having to answer true questions that pertain to ponds and filters, if the quarry of the question is not associated with an agenda of badgering or trying to undermine what I say with inappropriate, misleading and nonfactual questions that tries to discredit the science that is being taught in universities around the world.  It is not my job to take those that think they know everything in aquatic microbiology and bring them up to speed with a college level of thinking. Many hobbyist(s) use anecdotal information incorrectly formatted to show others their intelligence. Hence, the name saying, badgering and intimidation to others persist when they do not get their way on Internet forums. Though some may look at this blog as a safe haven without reprisal or opposition, I look at it as a tool to educate those that want without disruption from those that can.

Read my blog below and see how bad it can get:

http://anoxicfiltrationsystem.blogspot.com/2014/03/ive-read-what-i-can-find-online-about.html

As humans we like to look important in the eyes of our peers, even if it cost the embarrassment of those we are trying to belittle in the process. The Internet now endows those with very little power, with cyberspace power of unlimited quantities of self-indulging manifestations by super über egos.

Science is always open to discussion and debate but only if the right periodical and fairness is applied to that questioning. A lot of questions and demands have been made of me that the same hobbyists would not get from a manufactures of filtration systems that they paid good money for. Try to get information about what kind of bacteria is in that little bottle/plastic container you just bought to inoculate your pond with. They will not tell you that it has coli forms of bacteria in it along with salmonellae pathogens, which fall under the facultative anaerobes! Because of the endowment of power that filter manufactures have, they will not give anyone the time of day just because you ask. However, these same hobbyists expected…no, demanded it of me! When their demands aren’t met, then the ignorance of trying to belittle me starts.

One hobbyist told me just last weekend that hobbyists did not want to  educate themselves by reading, but to remain ignorant, so other hobbyists could show them the way of ponding and forgo the latter. If I really thought his statement was true, them this blog is useless and I shouldn’t squander my time writing another word.

Remember Charles Dickens quote: Beware of these two children, this boy is ignorance and the girl is want, but most of all beware of this boy. The internet can turn too many hobbyists into that boy of ignorance or that girl of want if we let it! After 25 years of fighting with that boy and girl, I have decided to take the path that leads to people that really yearn for knowledge of what science has to offer them and not what someone thinks you should know because they, not you, can't embrace thinking out of the box. Albert Einstein said: “The significant problems that we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.” An AFS is a new answer to a very old problem, but it is the hobbyist(s) that needs to change their way of thinking, not I.

 

Our anachronistic ways of ponding must come to an end, e.g., Veggie filters, Bog Filters 1, Bio Fall Filters and others that do not meet the standers for Koi ponds but only those of water garden ponds. Nevertheless, with slick sale pitches and advertising the hobbyist will never escape what they think is new with what is really the same old product just in a different package. For example: Ceramic filter medias 2 under several different names (Much like that of a sponge media but made instead of ceramic, at least with a sponge you can wring it out, not so ceramic.) that have been brought out several times now in the past 40-years in the hobbyist world only to fail each time with clogging and disappointment in the end. Ceramic Rings, ceramic bricks, or whatever new shape they take on it’s all the same. The argument of these filter mediums will continue on forums both aquariums and ponds for years to come if a hobbyist just doesn't start thinking out of the box.

1) There are no real Bog filters in pond use today, it is a misnomer for a Veggie Filter; bogs are not fish friendly environments because they are just too acidic. For those that have never seen a real working Bog Filter, contact your local university or community college. Most botany departments will have a working bog on hand as a learning tool and once you see how it works and why, you will never call your Veggie filter a Bog filter again.

2) Here is a quote from an Internet site about ceramic media. The last paragraph says it all-"if you have a good cleaning routine"- and also don’t forget you must and this cannot be emphasized enough, "have a good mechanical filtration to prevent that gunk from coating (clogging) the ceramics."

 

QUOTE:

 

"The challenge with ceramic rings and porous material is keeping it clean from gunk, so that water can still pass through, that is why you need good mechanical filtration to prevent that gunk from coating the ceramics.

Most manufacturers will also recommend changing out ceramics, although in most of our experience it's not really needed, but again if the ceramics are getting clogged, the effective surface area gets diminished over time. If you have a good cleaning routine, and a good layering setup in your filter, this should keep your ceramics usable for many years."

[Ed: I like the usage of the word “challenge” by the hobbyist in this quote. Keeping any ceramic clean and free from detritus is quite a challenge at that. Whenever you see the word challenge connected with a filter media, that’s a red flag to stay away from it unless you’re willing to dedicate some time with that media keeping it clean.]