A freind on mine used one when he first started keeping Koi and it was fine as long as he kept on top of it. Life has a way of throwing the unexpected at us though and he was unable to backwash it on one occasion (got stuck away from home for 24 hours) and boy did it smell when we eventually managed to perform the backwash 48 hours later.
My koi keeping mate ditched his bead filter soon after the problems he had and this coupled with all the high end keepers I know who are firmly against them for similar reasons is all the evidence I need not to make the same mistake. I prefer to learn from other people than learn the hard way.
I suppose if you are at home 24/7 with no health problems and can guarantee 100% that somebody trustworthy will be on hand to keep them clean, they are OK but very few of us are in this position. My trusty vortex and brush pre-filters can be left for days on end if the unexpected happens and sure the clarity will suffer but that's about all.
Alan F
Posted on Apr 13, 2006, 11:13 AM from IP address 213.120.101.21