Simply Koi and More Koi

Hi all,

I'm back well I took a back seat for a while still got the pond few mods this year so I'll be asking questions no doubt.

Anyway enough about me back to the pond thinkng of doing a trickle in and out of water saw this at one of my koi dealers and thought good enough for him could it be good enough for me,

Any thoughts on the above what benefits to my pond and koi?? I was thinking of a dribble or very little in


Hope you can help


Graham

Personally I think the biggest benefit is in terms of stability of the water.

Pollutants are being created all the time... why not remove them on an equivalent rate?

At a slow rate canister filters are a load more effective.

Are you able to clean your filters without having to top up to keep them and the skimmer operational?

Dave

Graham

trickle in and out is the way to go I know of a lot of dealers that do this

remember koi live in their own toilet and the idea to freshen things up constantly and dilute pollutants is a good one

just don't go the RO route its costly and totally unnecessary and as Dave said propping your KH up constantly giving pH stability is great

dunc

Yo Dunc,

I for one am an RO user..

Yes it might be placebo but I'd far prefer to run a pH nearer 7 than the source of 8.2+.

100% agree on stability, particularly on the pH ... and it takes a little work in gaining an understanding how the system works but I see that knocking the background Ammonia down by a factor of x5 or more is a benefit.

Dave

Well all done,fish curious just need to overflow water into flower beds but that can be done another day,looking forward to the change in my water and koi

Graham

Dave where you need to be is 7.7-7.8 that's where the koi's blood chemistry lies their blood pH is a round this figure when we mess with the pH of water going into the koi it makes it hard work for them to balance the internal pH and that controls the off loading of O2 from the Haemoglobin and the picking up of CO2 from the tissue

graham well done mate I think you will find it pays dividends

I just done my ph out of interest and looking at the colour with my eyes looking like between 7.5 & 8.0 am I in the ideal place for my koi.

One thing I didn't ask with this trickle in and out is there any danger points I should look out for am I likely to get any water problems apart from chilling??

Graham

hi Graham

YES that's an ideal place to be with that pH, presumably its a very slow trickle so no you should be ok but if its a fast trickle watch out for chlorine

dunc

No slowly slowly,

Graham

Hi everyone.....i have been registered on this site for a couple of years but not used many times over the years....
and this was a great thread to catch.
Just set up our 1st trickle in / out for a way of removing ammonia which has built up to 0.50 ish,
Our big ghost koi jumped out last week after we were netting a couple to check something on them and normally never spooked. He wasnt found for a while as the other half was cleaning filters etc, he had some scales missing and a some bleeding .A quick clean up with some iodine was the emergency treatment and 2 hours in the recovery tub with oxygen.Was ok and back in the pond which we put virkon in as we thought it would reduce any bacteria in the pond
Hence....water testing and now trickle set up
He is not on top form still and this happened friday...but we are hoping the change of water will help ??

Now ....as we will only be running it while we are in as we need the side gate open for pumping out the water that goes into a pit...from the 3rd tub...(1 x kockney koi filter and 3 bio homemade tubs ..1 x jap..1 x.K1..and one Alfra grog) down to the drain by side of house.

Is this still a good idea??
Thanks
Jo

I'll leave Duncan to expand on medical treatments because he always has up to date knowledge on the latest and best treatments but lowering the bacterial count when a fish has injured itself is a good idea.

I like trickle in and out water changes where-ever it's practical. Since the flow rate need not be too great, is it possible to direct the overflow water somewhere into the garden even at a reduced rate when you aren't home?

Hi....maybe,yes we can look into that...thanks

Hi....maybe,yes we can look into that...thanks

hi Jo

its sounds like your on top of things with the koi that jumped

im not a huge fan of iodine its a bit aggressive its no secret I prefer mercurochrome

but you have done really all you can recovery should be assured but wont be fast

if you have a quarantine you could put it in and heat the water up and add salt to 0.3% that would help also and speed healing

duncan