Momotaro's 1500 ton pond (330,000 gallons). The use of Bacteria House filter media, and the Bakki Showers, have enabled them to raise 7 out of All Japan Grand Champions. President Maeda was inspired to try and create two things that he though would help his Koi. 1) An eco-system similar to that created as water falls over the rocks of the Asahi River. 2) The Bakuhanseki Spring in Japan is famous for it's 'healing qualities'.

These qualities have been laregly attributed to springs unusual emissions of 'Far Infra-red' rays, which were first discovered by Nasa, and found to have important health benefits.

Bacteria house is the result of over six years of research. It is a man made ceramic blend that has been heat treated at 1300°c for 60hrs. This tremendous amount of heat causes the ceramic to break its internal bonds thereby creating an extremely porous structure that has a much greater surface area to allow very large bacteria populations to colonise.

Due to the large quantities of tiny holes, mechanical filtration is also achieved. Large organic solids and decaying matter are degraded at a far greater speed than conventional media, and without blocking up!

The picture on the right is a close up of a piece of Bacteria House that has been running submerged on one of our ponds for 2 years.

RESOL :16a-1
SCANS :200
AMPGAIN :x64
P.INT :8cm-1
BEAM :single
S.SPEED :MCT
S.NUMBER :3
M.DATA :2/28/2

One of the key elements of the bacteria house is that it reacts in a seemingly 'electrostatic' manner with floating organic matter causing an increase in adhesion rate. This produces clear clean water at a rapid rate.

Water in its natural state creates multiple bonds with surrounding water molecules creating a cluster.

The bacteria house emits FAR infrared rays that break the bonds of the neighbouring water molecules thereby allowing more oxygen to be dissolved in the water.

The graph on the left was the result Far Infra-Red ray lab comparisons of Bakuhanseki natural stone (from the famous Bakuhanseki Spring), and Bacteria House filter media.

The red line indicates the Bacteria House FIR emissions.

The effect of the Bakki Showers, coupled with the smaller water clusters, work very effectively at de-odourising the water, and also allows gases to be released, thereby lightening the load on the biomass, and making the systems considerably less 'KH consuming' than conventional filtration.

Bacteria House is also extremely fast at colonising bacteria, very resistant to damage from power failures or chemicals, and very fast at 'bouncing' back after pond medications have taken place. The water produced by Bacteria House (even when submerged), is such that the Koi strongly favour swimming in the areas where the filtered water enters the pond. Appetites are also greatly increased.

Momotaro tested every available media, submerged, and then in Bakki Showers. They weren't just looking for good water parameters, but also for the best growth, and quality of the Koi. Their findings were, that Bacteria House submerged, out performed all of the other medias. But, when Showered, Bacteria House came into it's own, as it gave even better results.

They also found that Bacteria House media was the only media that worked in the Showers, and that every kind of plastic media that they tried, couldn't maintain a biomass in the Showered configuration.

Daisuke Maeda once said to me, "Imagine you are sitting in a closed room, about to eat a delicious meal. If a cat came in the room, and went to the toilet in the corner, would you still feel like eating? Well, it's the same for Koi! If Koi can smell their own urine, they won't eat so well. This is why Koi have increased appetites when Bacteria House is used, particularly in Bakki Showers!"

This is an inside view of one of the kilns at the MTK factory. This is similar to the ones used for firing Bacteria House, but is a lower temperature one, being heated to about 1100c. Bacteria House has to be fired in their hottest kiln at 1300c for 60 hrs, in order to make sure that it's surfaces explode, resulting in the millions of open cells, where the Bacteria multiply.

This is an extremely expensive process, and limits the maximum production to 1.5 tons per day. Bacteria House is made from a careful mix of ingredients, which are blended together with the utmost care. The mixed raw product then comes out of an extrusion machine, where it is cut to length by two staff, and rolled in a special powder which prevents the pieces of Bacteria House from bonding together in the kiln.

Bacteria House in the furnace, being fired. This furnace is about 40 feet long, and to be even as close as 10 feet from the furnace in virtually unbearable.

If you have ever wondered why Bacteria House is so expensive, we hope you now understand why.

In conclusion... people generally think that those bacteria that deal with pollutants, are the only ones needed for Koi, but there are really countless strains that make up the pond eco-system. It is of paramount importance to get the balance of those aerobic, and anaerobic bacterias right, if you want to make Koi blossom and grow healthily, rather than just simply keeping them alive.

Please see our Customer Reviews page for information on how to use the Bakki Showers, and Bacteria House media as well as general reviews on the products.