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  1. #1

    Clarity trickle tower

    Hi Newby to this site.
    Has any body got / used the Clarity trickle tower. Iv seen one in use some time back and they seem to work extremely well.
    What are the draw backs or problems with them. I.E. do they have to be hooked up to a filter other wise they would block up quickly.
    Any information would be much appreciated. Came close to buying one on Saturday.
    But thought I would ask around first to see if there are any problems.
    Thanks Regards John



  2. #2
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    I was looking at one as well a couple of months ago John but was put off by the very slow flow rate they can handle as I was going to fit a Water Co Multi Cyclone in front of it as a pre filter but the maximum flow rate of the Clarity was way below the minimum flow rate of the Multi Cyclone. Another cheaper option would be a Tornado 2 protein skimmer as they can handle 3500 to 5000 lph flow rate and work on a similar principle to the Clarity only on a much smaller scale on the bio side of things.

    A shower might be a better option as you have the extra bio capacity and the higher flow rate just need a decent pump to give it enough flow at the height they usually have to be mounted.

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  4. #3
    Senior Member Rank = Jussai Djstiles999's Avatar
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    The smaller clarity is rated 3,000 to 10,000 lph, the larger version 10,000 to 30,000 lph. The Tornado 2 won’t take that sort of volume?

    I have a Tornado on my grow on tank and they are a well made piece of kit but I bought a secondhand clarity for the pond.

    They do need a filter or something in front to stop them clogging with gunk

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  6. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by John White View Post
    Hi Newby to this site.
    Has any body got / used the Clarity trickle tower. Iv seen one in use some time back and they seem to work extremely well.
    What are the draw backs or problems with them. I.E. do they have to be hooked up to a filter other wise they would block up quickly.
    Any information would be much appreciated. Came close to buying one on Saturday.
    But thought I would ask around first to see if there are any problems.
    Thanks Regards John


    Welcome to the forum, John



    In answer to your question, the Clarity is (in my opinion) basically a very-overpriced shower, in the 'novel' shape of a cylinder, and with a basic skimmer function at the outlet.



    clarit6.jpgclarity-03.jpgClarity protein skimmer.jpg


    I don't have anything particularly against the design itself, but there is nothing new or innovative or inherently costly in the design of the Clarity, contrary to all the guff in the marketing copy, seemingly trying to justify the high retail price.



    You can DIY a shower, using cheap plastic crates, with vastly more biological media capacity. As the water tumbles through the plastic bio media, it is encouraged to form a thin film during several moments in that journey, and thus achieves high exposure to the surrounding atmosphere, which encourages formation of foam (containing DOCs) when the oxygenated-film 'suds' congregate at the bottom of the shower - because foam bubbles contain air, they naturally float and this tendency permits a partially-submerged 'gate' to then 'skim' the foam off the surface, martialling the foam away to an opening over a bucket or sewer, whilst the filtered pond water continues its path (easily travelling under the gate) to the pond. Because there is a partially-submerged 'gate' preventing the foam from freely floating all the way along to the outlet, the foam would rather 'escape' sideways or upwards than try to escape downwards, against its natural buoyancy. It's a ridiculously easy & simple principle, and there's no proprietary 'magic contraption' in commercial fractionators of the type you see from Clarity.

    Here is a DIY foam fractionater designed purely as just that, and not as a 'biological' (nitrifying) 'shower':

    ethan_foam_frationator - koiphen forums.jpg (source: How to make a phoam phraxionator, 1300-1500 gph)

    ...but precisely the same design principles can be employed for a DIY bio shower / bakki shower, as big as you desire, that can (if designed correctly) function as a nitrifying bio-filter AND fractionate DOCs from the water (AKA perform as a 'protein skimmer')

    If you'd still prefer to buy a commercial product, but need something with more biocapacity and/or flowrate, then you could take a look at Drew's dad's 'protein showers', at Koi Waterlife Centre, but if you're reasonably handy at DIY, there is no reason to feel intimidated about building your own.

    For the record, Clarity do make larger units, but I couldn't, with good conscience, justify their prices to a koi hobbyist.

    Clarity aquaculture version.jpg


    WHICHEVER route you go, however, you will need some form of filtration prior to your shower/ foam-fractionator because they are not intended to handle solid particles of waste.

    For removing solid particles of waste, you ideally need a sieve

    Ultra Sieve III Demo by Water Arts Consulting - YouTube

    Cetus Sieve in operation - YouTube


    or RDF

    Aqua Drum Demo - YouTube


    or a flushable media bed, like an EazyPod or a Nexus or a Spierings filter, for example

    New Filter System the EazyPod - YouTube

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-zW0asvkgI


    www.youtube.com/watch?v=auG-FtLSwrc


    I should make it clear, however, that no pond absolutely needs a protein skimmer / foam fractionator. They can be beneficial for people who have a heavy load of fish in their pond, and who feed lots of high-protein food to their fish during the summer, but protein skimmers / foam fractionators are MUCH less important than filters that handle solid waste and filters that nitrify the toxic ammonia in a pond.
    Solids filters and nitrifying filters are 100% ESSENTIAL, and anyone building a new pond setup needs to focus their expenditure on these, and only concern themselves with protein skimmers and the like, some time down the line, when the essential aspects of filtration are fully-sorted. I still went ahead and discussed some options for building your own protein skimmer / foam fractionator, because I wanted to illustrate how it can be done rather easily, without spending a fat bundle of cash on a shiny commercial one, and because I wanted to illustrate that that kind of filter can be combined with a nitrifying shower filter, without much difficulty. Nonetheless, it is better to focus on the bread&butter essentials of filtration, when setting up a new pond system:

    1) Mechanical removal of solids, using a sieve, flushable-media waste-trapping filter, or Rotary Drum Filter.

    2) Efficient nitrifying filter, which can (for example) be a moving-bed filter (contains tiny plastic media like K1 or Hel-X 13, which is kept in continual motion by an air pump), or it can be a chamber filled with Japanese matting (and an air pump to support the nitrifying bacteria which will grow on the matting). Shower filters are another possibility, but they're not usually the first method to get started with.


    'Bead' filters (EconoBead, UltraBead, etc.) used to be very popular, and are still respected by some long-time koi hobbyists, but, broadly-speaking, they are gradually falling out of favour, what with RDFs gradually becoming more economical and widespread. Admittedly, bead filters are interesting, though, in that they combine mechanical and nitrifying ('bio') filtration in one unit. As a newcomer, I wouldn't be inclined to steer you in the direction of buying one. They require relatively high pumping pressure, which can be costly to run, and they are somewhat controversial, for a few technical reasons. They are also quite expensive to purchase (RDFs are expensive, too, but they pay back their investment by keeping a pond spotlessly clean, with very minimal human maintenance).


    You will tend to find that most serious koi hobbyists will (rightly) steer you away from using so-called 'pressure filters' that are quite commonly recommended for ponds, by garden centre staff. They're OK for a few goldfish but they're not really up to the task of filtering & nitrifying the solids & chemical waste of large fish like koi.

    Also, please understand the importance of having a PROPER 'bottom drain' in your pond, to efficiently remove the waste particles which tend to congregate on the bottom of a pond.

    There's a good bunch of people on this forum, very willing to help you, so don't be shy to ask!
    Last edited by MustBeSomethingInTheWater; 08-10-2019 at 12:30 AM.

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    Senior Member Rank = Jussai Djstiles999's Avatar
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    Don’t see any value in the bio element, good protein skimmer and worth the £35 it cost me, although at £750 or whatever they are I’d struggle to see the justification for the cost

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    Sorry my mistake I was misinformed on the flow rates as when I was looking I was told they needed such a low flow rate by one of the suppliers I spoke to as that's how a trickle tower worked but as already mentioned the flow rate is up to 10 K LPH

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