Hi Kevin,
I've been asked a question about
anoxic filtration that I'm afraid I can't answer. The person who
asked the question has always praised water parameters produced by his
anoxic system even though he is overstocked and feeding as much as he can
for maximum growth. His question is about whether the anoxic filtration
system can reduce pheromones, in particular, growth suppressant pheromones
associated with overcrowded ponds. He says he has sixty biocenosis
clarification baskets for 40 koi, 20 of which are 65+
cm but he still gets good growth even though his pond isn't really
large enough for that level of stock. I'm sure that bacteria would
break down these compounds but I can't say for sure if they would be drawn into
the baskets.
Can you shed any light on the
situation?
Best regards
Syd
Hi Syd, I wrote this little article up to try and explain
to you why this Koi growth phenomenon is happening with the AFS.
pheromone |ˈferəˌmōn|
noun Zoology
A chemical substance produced and released into the
environment by an animal, especially a mammal or an insect, affecting the
behavior or physiology of others of its species.
It eats ammonia for breakfast. Lunch is a simple bit-size
snack of Nitrites. And for dinner it's Phosphates, Nitrates and many other ions
that most hobbyists wouldn’t think of as real food for bacteria. This has been
the routine these pasts 30-years now for the Biocenosis Clarification Baskets
(BCB’s) inside the Anoxic Filtration System (AFS).
In that time I have reviewed and analyzed over 60
different filters ranging in price from $40 to over $45,000 in cost. Have
written over 350 articles and publications with over 250,000 words spilled on
this subject about Facultative bacteria and the Anoxic Filter. You’d think by
now my pen would be running dry-especially if you feel, as some do, that all
pond filters are pretty much the same. If that were the case, I could have
written just one simple paper, for that very first filter I analyzed, then cut
and pasted it for all the rest of the articles I have written on the subject of
the Anoxic Filter. What was I thinking?
Of course, all pond filtration systems are not the same
in their ability to clean water. One good reason for their differences is that
the filters themselves are not the same in their ability to take ions out of
the water body. Some hobbyists like to think that all filters contain, say, a
working anoxic zone and will more or less work alike, yet this could not be
further from the truth, and for the simple reason: Anoxic zones do exist but
not in significant numbers to really make an impact of the Eco-system they are
trying to clean.
One of the more fascinating facts about pond filters or
aquarium filters is revealed when you talk to their designers. It's fair to say
that each filter are the topology du jour,
some filtration designers depart from this crowd in search of what they feel is
a better way.
The Anoxic Filtration Systems handles foodstuffs and the
pond insults progressively different and more inline with Natural Systems and
how they utilize ions in their open systems. Rather than using the same
reconstructive filters provided like other filters do, others, like Nexus,
implement their own filter medium in a churning sump. Then there’s the motionless
filter medium school of filters in which ions are converted to harmless or at
lest in some conversions, to ions that are non-toxic to our animals but are
limited in this process too by making more byproducts than we started with.
Among all these ways, are any right or wrong? It depends
on whom you ask. Objectivity is not to be found among designers, and if it
were, what a monotonous world it would be, don’t you think? As hobbyist we want
our filtration systems designers to be passionate, searching the Holy Grail,
driven by a near-mad desire to give us the cleanest water possible and all its
glory…at least that’s what I did with the AFS.
We can look to measurements for better bacteria to
foodstuff insults. But, as we all know, measurements can’t tell us how
something is working if we can’t measure it simply and perceptively. More
important, no set of measurements can tell us how something will affect the
animals if elements are missing from those measurements.
Hobbyist test kits will only go so far in their class and
then something like pheromones, in particularly, growth suppressant pheromones
associated with overcrowded ponds comes up, that we can’t explain why they do
or do not exists in a given system. Distressingly, this short-coming also
applies, more or less, to subjective hobbyist reviews of what their ponds are
doing with a particular filtration system like the Anoxic Filter, that other
systems can’t do without serious intervention. While I do my best to
communicate to readers how something works with the AFS, all I can ever really
tell you that it works and its been working now for over 30-years. I have written so much about fish growth
in the past years, that the AFS seems to accelerate Koi growth to the point
that even my smallish pond can grow them to 24" (60.96 cm) with no
problems. In my pond if you have
more than two Koi you are already pushing it to its limits on fish to water
capacity. Yet, this accelerated Koi growth is noticeable with all those that
practice good husbandry with the AFS and the same results are consistently
repeatable.
As I age, money and time seem to be my enemies and
testing the AFS will have to be left to those that are willing to experiment
with the system and find out why these hidden secrets exist. Do they exist
because the BCB’s take in these particular growth suppressant pheromones with
other growth inhibitors or does the system trick the fish in believing that
they are not in any danger and therefore the secretion of the same are lessen
to a greater degree than with other system? But, however, with time, more and
more hobbyists are realizing the same results as the AFS becomes more popular
in the Pond and aquarium hobby.
Kevin
