Simply Koi and More Koi

hi chaps

my two penny worth

time was i used to jump through all kinds of hoops when treating but these days i just add the stuff it comes down to practice and understanding your system but there are still some ground rules for me anyway

first i dont turn the filters off and keep what ever im attacking be it bacteria or parasites safe

work your dose out twice three times if need be even if you get the same answer, you dont want to miss a decimal point


i dont turn the UV off most of them are screwed after 12 months anyway, they may emitt a blue hue but they aint doing much

one thing you must do is: turn that protein skimmer/fractionator off this will strip an treatment out in a couple of hours leaving you with an uncertain concentration, try leaving it on and putting a MG dose in within a very short time the pond will be clear and the MG will be in the fractionator collection bucket

do not a dose at night when you cant keep track or may going to bed and dont do it in the day if you going out, it it goes wrong you need to be there

and last if you are treating with PP having a supply of dechlor to hand can save you some fish if god forbid it all goes wrong, even the great ELJ off'ed all his fish with PP

dunc

Hi...I only turn off the UV & divert the filter returns through a venturi.....So far after testing I've not noticed a rise in nitrite or ammonia, all PP seemed to do was darken my K1, but it did not kill it....

having a supply of dechlor to hand can save you some fish

....Does that have the same effect as HP Duncan??.......Mike

hi mike

MikeWh wrote:Hi...I only turn off the UV & divert the filter returns through a venturi.....So far after testing I've not noticed a rise in nitrite or ammonia, all PP seemed to do was darken my K1, but it did not kill it....

having a supply of dechlor to hand can save you some fish

....Does that have the same effect as HP Duncan??.......Mike

well kinda but HP will only react with KMnO4 where as sodium thiosulphate we stomp Chloramine T as well so if you have a C/T going wrong it will take care of that immediately as well, plus its still a useful dechlor for your pond as well should the need arise a bigger bang for your buck in fact out of the two i would say S/T acts on PP faster than H2O2 and you aint gotta worry about over dosing S/T

if im doing a large water change of course it goes through my purifier but io alwasy dechlor as well you know that just in case angle
dunc

LOL..I definatly no the just in case angle ....Mike

OK,

Sop stupid question i suspect - sodium thiosulphate....

i). Where to buy and expected prices?

ii). doseage rate?

Hi Greg
This is one souce for Sodium Thiosulphate http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Mistral-Cleani ... op=1&_vc=1 and another with the table on,just off to try and find it.... http://www.cnykoi.com/calculators/calcdechlor.asp ,I also have this from our group leader.

Regards Geoff

The thing with all this is; understanding how much chlorine is in your mains supply from your water authority. or alternatively over guestimating it based on the fact its ni-on impossible to over dose Sodium thiosulfate pentahydrate . Trouble with this approach is it gets very expensive , which is why there are cheap dechlor’s and there are expensive dechlor’s it all depends what they are allowing for in their mix

So what to do?

Water companies in this country are required by law only to put 0.5 PPM chlorine in their water supplies on a “”permanent”” basis, this will or should be a “maximum” permanent base line reading, it could be less at times. This does not mean this is the maximum you will get because they are also allowed to shock treat their supply systems periodically with 5.0 PPM chlorine to prevent bacteria and algae becoming resistant to the permanent base line, so the bottom line is most of the time you will be dealing with < 1 PPM but on occasion they will introduce 5.0 PPM so you will be dealing with > 1 PPM and up to 5 PPM and a short sharp shock to knock back resistance

I cannot speak for other makers, but when I did make dechlor ( I don’t now) all mine was calibrated to deal with 5PPM + chlorine, I suppose other makers only cater for the bare 1 PPM minimum but that’s for them to live with, but it would be prudent to allow for a the max, but as I say; this get expensive. So here are the figures, these are approx and not dead on but as near as you need to get feel free to round up or down to within 20 gm odd grams it wont make any difference its not gotta be down to rocket science calc's

All are in UK gallons


Roughly fractionally just under ½ of one ounce of sodium thiosulfate pentahydrate treats 1000 gallons of water for or containing 1ppm chlorine

All the following are stock solutions you can make up for varying chlorine concentration, with all the following tables are all to be used at 10ml to every 100 gallons of fresh water from the mains supply being put in the pond , ( you don’t need to dechlor the whole pond only what water is being replaced

160 gm sodium thio dissolved into 1000cc distilled water deals with 1 PPM chlorine
320 gm sodium thio dissolved into 1000cc distilled water deals with 2 PPM chlorine
480 gm sodium thio dissolved into 1000cc distilled water deals with 3 PPM chlorine
640 gm sodium thio dissolved into 1000cc distilled water deals with 4 PPM chlorine
800 gm sodium thio dissolved into 1000cc distilled water deals with 5 PPM chlorine

A litre of the above stock solution at 10 ml to every 100 gallons dose rate will dechlor 10,000 gallons at any of the respective above concentrations

To make a gallon/5 litre of stock solution, multiply any of the above by 5

Example to dechlor chlorine at 5PPM, 4000 gm sodium thio dissolved into 5 litre of distilled/demineralised or RO water. This will dechlor 50,000 UK gallons of water containing a concentration of 5PPM chlorine

Add dose prior to refill (don’t add it afterwards)

so by my reckoning to do the job right <belt and bracers for any contingency> at £6 for 500 gm’s it would cost £48 in S/T to make one gallon of the above = delivery cost of the S/T plus 5 litres of de-mineralised water , the colour you want it is your choice of food colouring

I stand corrected on this but, I think you can put the dose rate on this with out needing a licence as its not a “fish treatment” it’s a water conditioner and does not come under the new laws, the law applies to a treatment that medically treats a fish and/or can/ is capable of killing an organism by application an organism is classed as fish right down to through parasites to bacteria .
Duncan

Hi, & thanks for posting that up Geoff, as I've wondered about that for a while now.....I'm just trying to work out weather that works out cheaper than what I use now.....Maths is not my strong point .....I'm paying about £20 for a ltr that treats at a rate of 10ml/80 gallons & changing about 140-180 per filter clean. After altering the filter design slightly I've managed to get this down to once a week....
Could some kind sole tell me weather I need to buy some ST or just carry on as I am....Many thanks .Mike (sorry, not the sharpest tool in the box )

Hi Mike
You say"I'm paying about £20 for a ltr that treats at a rate of 10ml/80 gallons will treat 8.000 gallon"but do you know how strong it is?

The link I provided is £14.38ltr and Duncans say use 10ml/100 gallons will treat 10.000 gallon,like you I'm not very good at this sort of stuff so I hope someone else can answer your question

Thanks Geoff for that , not running a UV is becomming quite common, is there a reason??Mike

Hi Mike
I did use the UV for the first two years,then I didn't bother changing the bulbs and didn't make any difference to my pond,so I just switched it off,as I understand the pond can mature and balance better without the UV,but if you do get green water you have no choice but to use it,hope someone with a lot more knowledge than me can answer your question better.

Regards Geoff

I only ask because during the early part of last spring I got more of a greyish haze to the water. I did think I would not need one because the outside part of the pond is about 1/3 of the actual pond, & even that has a roof over it...But obviously from the pictures I took yesterday & stuck in members ponds, theres no doubt that it does get direct sunlight...Anyway it may of been coinsidence but after putting a 55w uv on, it cleared very quickly. But at some point my bulb went, no idea when but the water stayed clear, so I'm kind of torn between running another 55w +maintainance or not.........Mike