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Article Summary (For complete article, see RMKC newsletter)
Larry Lunsford
Measuring Pond Water Movement Article Summary
(For complete article, see RMKC newsletter)
Larry Lunsford
Jump Start Your Bio-Filter Article Summary
(For complete article, see RMKC newsletter)
Larry Lunsford
Take Stock of Your Pond Article Summary
(For complete article, see RMKC newsletter)
Larry Lunsford
Measuring Residual Ammonia Neutralizing Capacity (ANC)
of AmQuel Article Summary
(For complete article, see RMKC newsletter)
Larry Lunsford
How high is your pond? In the Rockies, you may be thinking "mile high", others may be thinking "How high is the author of this article?" Well - read on. Over the years, I've committed my share (and then some) of dumb mistakes and witnessed dumb mistakes by others that have resulted in Koi sickness or death. The point of this article is to share some ideas with you on how you can avoid common disasters or at least be better prepared to deal with a disaster when it happens (and sooner or later it will). First, adopt a little of Mulder's (from "The X Files") attitude and trust nothing. Always be thinking of how something you may be about to put into your pond may be a danger to your Koi. Some examples of things we put into our ponds everyday are listed below along with ways they can be harmful. Water, New Koi, Koi Food, Pond Liner, Plumbing, Pumps, Wiring, Nets, Chemicals and Medications, Your Own Hands So, now we're all paranoid (remember: just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean that they're not out to get you) what do we do? Here's what:
Quarantine
Test
Clean
Prepare Keep ahead of
problems.
Over the years, your collection of Koi has probably grown in
numbers and total weight. Along with this growth, you've probably been putting
ever increasing amounts of food into your pond. Has your cleaning schedule kept
up with this increased load? Have your water changes kept up? Has your testing
kept up (especially testing KH)? How much more growth can your filters handle
before they become overwhelmed? Do you have areas of your pond or filters that
never get cleaned (gravel filters, trickle towers, dead areas that collect
debris, etc.)? If so, these are just time bombs waiting to explode and every
handful of food puts you one tick closer to detonation. I used to fly R/C
airplanes (before I discovered that I could spend even more time and money on
Koi). When learning, the instructor would get the plane "3 mistakes high"
before handing over the controls. You don't want to be just 1 minor mistake
away from crashing and burning. How many mistakes high is your Koi
pond?
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Measuring Pond Water Movement Article Summary
(For
complete article, see RMKC newsletter)
Larry Lunsford
One aspect of
a healthy pond is good water movement. Your water should be moving well in all
areas of your pond and filters. Your Koi need water movement for exercise. You
don't want stagnant areas in your pond that can collect debris. Water should
flow evenly through filter media and not channel though it or around it. It's
relatively easy to determine the total flow rate of your pond - just add up the
flow rates of all your pumps. However, this does not tell you how well this
flow is distributed through your pond. This article describes how you can
assess the water movement in your pond. The technique is an adaptation from
"Measuring Turbulent Flow In Reef Tanks" by Richard Harker. To measure water
flow in various areas of your pond use dissolving cubes. Place a dissolving
cube at each point of interest in your pond and leave it there for a fixed
time. At the end of the time period, remove the cube. By measuring the size
and/or weight of each cube before and after its been in the pond, you can get a
measure of the relative amount of water movement at different points in your
pond. The dissolving cubes not only work in areas of smooth flow, but they give
an accurate measure of water movement in areas of turbulent flow.
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Jump Start Your
Bio-Filter Article Summary
(For complete article, see RMKC newsletter)
Larry Lunsford
One of the essential components of a successful Koi
pond is a well established bio-filter. Unfortunately, it seems that just when
our Koi most need a good bio-filter is when the bio-filter is not up to speed
(such as when putting new or sick Koi into a quarantine tank or starting a new
pond). This article will show you how to get your bio-filter working before
introducing Koi into the pond. The function of your bio-filter is to take care
of the chemical waste produced by your Koi. The main waste product of Koi is
ammonia which is toxic and must be removed from the water. Your bio-filter
cleans your water naturally. In the presence of ammonia, naturally occurring
bacteria multiply on the surfaces of your bio-filter media (and on every wet
surface in your pond). The bacteria convert ammonia (NH4) into nitrite (NO2)
and nitrite into nitrate (NO3). Nitrite is also toxic to your Koi but the final
product, nitrate, is relatively non-toxic. The severity and duration of your
ammonia and nitrite cycles depend on many factors. At best, your Koi will
survive the cycle with little harm. At worst, your Koi will die from
unacceptably high levels of ammonia or nitrite or other problems associated
with stress caused by bad water quality. You can save your Koi from the
hardships of bad water during the cycle by cycling your bio-filter before you
put Koi into the pond. You can cycle your bio-filter by feeding it ammonia
chemically. WARNING: Do NOT use this process with Koi (or animals of any kind)
in your pond!!! I prefer to use ammonia chloride (a white powder) so that I
don't have to worry about unknown contents or doses. You can speed up the
process by seeding your bio-filter with good bacteria. The best source of
bio-filtering bacteria is some bio-media from a seasoned pond filter. Just a
little bit of active bio-media will get your filter seeded well enough to get
it up to speed in just a few days. The bacterial solutions for sale are of
questionable value - I haven't seen credible evidence that any of them are
worth while. Once ammonia and nitrite have both peaked and then dropped to 0,
your bio-filter is ready for a modest fish load and you can add some Koi. Your
freshly cycled bio-filter should be good for a fish load of around 1 pound of
Koi per 150 to 300 gallons of pond volume. If you want to prepare your
bio-filter for a heavier fish load, continue feeding ammonia in 1ppm doses.
Continue growing your bacteria colony until it is able to consume bacteria at a
rate that matches your planned fish load. The table below shows the approximate
time for Koi to produce 1ppm of ammonia for various stocking densities. There
are many factors which can cause your ammonia production rate to vary greatly
including feeding rate, type of food, and temperature.
| Gal. H2O Per Pound Of Koi |
Time To Produce 1ppm NH4 |
| 10 | 2 hours |
| 20 | 4 hours |
| 30 | 6 hours |
| 40 | 8 hours |
| 50 | 10 hours |
| 60 | 12 hours |
| 70 | 14 hours |
| 80 | 16 hours |
| 90 | 18 hours |
| 100 | 20 hours |
| 125 | 1.0 days |
| 150 | 1.3 days |
| 200 | 1.7 days |
| 250 | 2.1 days |
| 300 | 2.5 days |
| 400 | 3.3 days |
| 500 | 4.2 days |
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Take Stock of Your Pond Article Summary
(For complete article, see RMKC newsletter)
Larry Lunsford
One of the first questions asked by someone starting a pond is "How many Koi can I keep in my pond?" Followed closely by question number two "Do I really need a filter?" The novice is looking for simple answers like "843" and "no". Unfortunately, the answers to these seemingly simple questions aren't nearly so simple. To get started in answering these questions, let's first look at the stocking density. One way to measure stocking density is gallons of water per pound of fish. Listed below are (very rough) stocking densities for a range of situations.
| 1 gal: 1 lb 10 gal: 1 lb 100 gal: 1 lb 1000 gal: 1 lb 10,000 gal: 1 lb 100,00 gal: 1 lb 1,000,000 gal: lb |
high density fish farm medium density fish farm, very high density Koi Pond low density fish farm, medium density Koi Pond high density Japanese mud pond, very low density Koi Pond low density Japanese mud pond well stocked fishing lake nature |
| To determine your stocking level, you need to take inventory of your pond. Account for each fish and record its length as accurately as possible (measured from tip of nose to tip of tail). Also note whether the Koi is normal, skinny, or fat. Now, using the chart below along with the build of your fish, estimate the weight of each Koi. A very skinny Koi may weigh as little as 1/2 as much as a normal Koi. A very fat Koi may weigh 1.5 times as much as a normal. Next, total the weights of your Koi. Now calculate your stocking density by taking your pond volume (gallons) and divide by total weight of fish (pounds). |
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To decide how densely you can stock your Koi pond, you should consider the following: - How much time are you willing to devote to care and maintenance? - How often are you willing to perform maintenance? - How much money are you willing to spend on: water, filters, electricity, food, backup systems, etc.? - How long must the pond survive situations like power outages or pump failures? - How skilled are you at identifying and fixing health problems? - How much will your Koi grow over the next few years?
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Measuring Residual Ammonia Neutralizing Capacity (ANC)
of AmQuel Article Summary
(For complete article, see RMKC newsletter)
Larry Lunsford
From time to time we find ourselves in the unfortunate position of having to treat ammonia in our ponds with chemical neutralizers. Usually these times are also when our Koi have been stressed and are most succeptable to adverse affects of ammonia (such as after dosing the pond with chemicals to treat for some ailment, when putting Koi into a quarantine tank without an established bio-filter, and at Koi shows). To provide the best care for our Koi in these situations, it would be helpful to not only neutralize ammonia but to maintain a little extra neutralizer to be ready to handle ammonia as it is produced by the Koi. This article will show you how to maintain and measure a residual ammonia neutralizing capacity. When your bio-filter is knocked out or just non-existant you can use chemicals to neutralize ammonia until your bio-filter can recover. You should use enough neutrlizer to not only handle ammonia that is currently in the water, but enough extra to handle what is to come. The simplest way to do this is to just dump in a bunch of neutralizer. However, you don't want to use excessive amounts of neutralizer - its expensive, its never a good idea to use excessive chemicals, and after a few water changes and other things you'll have no idea how much neutralizer is still available. By using AmQuel and salicylate type of ammonia testing kits, you can keep ahead of ammonia without unnecessary overdosing.
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Membership includes all functions and a monthly
newsletter. We have as annual events our Koi Auction, Koi Club Pond Tour
and our Koi Show. Besides these annual events we participate in many
Garden Center
and Home Show functions promoting the Koi Hobby. We meet or have a Koi
related function each month of the year except November. Our monthly
meetings are about Koi keeping, pond building, Koi health and other pond
and Koi related topics. We have several guest speakers each year.
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The Rocky Mountain Koi Club has many club
functions to help the novice as well as the more experienced Koi
enthusiast. Members are always available to help others begin
their ponds, trouble shoot, and add other information about Koi
health and pond health.
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