After having my pond crash last season and losing all but one of my koi, I'm making another go of it with new knowledge and hopefully better results.
My pond is a 15,000gal swimming pool, 30ft x 15 ft. ..3 1/2 deep at the shallow end and 6 ft on the deep end. Have a bottom drain and two skimmers on each side. Mostly draw water from the skimmers, not only because they clean the leaves etc but the drain only has a 1 1/2" pipe, which cuts the flow into the filter, whereas the skimmers have a 2" pipe.
Have a 7500gph PerformancePro Artesian 2 pump, going into an AquaUltraviolet Ultima II Biofilter, which is rated for 10,000-20,000gal., going thru a 2000watt AquaUltraviolet UV sterilizer before re-entering the pond thru 3 jets. It gives me excellent circulation and the water turns over every 2 hours. I had a new liner installed before I converted it to a koi pond. Have many large rocks spaced about a foot apart on the bottom before it slopes to the deep end, where I have nothing but the liner on the bottom. The steps are covered with large rocks to hide the white steps and I have a couple potted plants on the steps. The steep wall design of the pool makes a lot of plants impractical.
The pond was very stable for a season and a half and my koi and goldfish were healthy and growing. They even spawned last year and we had a few babies swimming around. The first trouble I noticed were bulging eyes on the baby fish, which would come and go. I went on vacation last August and one day my wife called telling me the fish were all on the bottom on the deep end not looking good. I figured it was an ammonia spike so told her not to feed until I got back. Things stabilized a bit but I was getting wild Ph swings and ammonia & nitrate spikes. My test kit was the API "master" set, and all the tests were usually good until they weren't. Tried many thing to chase the Ph levels, at last result added salt which temporarily helped. When the fish died it would be like they were fine in the afternoon then 6 or 8 dead ones all at once. Looking back I think I made to major mistakes. Since my wife was always complaining about running up the water bill, I didn't do any water changes, and in my "master" test kit, there was no test for KH, so I didn't test for it. I think my KH went way down and the fish kills were the result of overnight Ph crashes. Last fall as winter was beginning to come on, I gave up for the year and drained half the water out, one reason the remove much of the salt I put in and to dilute the water in case there was a toxic mix of some sort killing the fish.
Over the winter rain filled the pool and I started out by catching a few bluegill from my fishing pond and seeing if they lived in the pool. After a week or less they died. Several times I did this with same results. I took a sample of water to a reputable fish store and they tested the water and said it was fine but told me rain water was not good to add in the pond. I purchased 10 goldfish (5 comets 5 shubunkins) to try it again. I thought the bluegill may not have survived because the fishing pond Ph is a constant 7.0 and my pool was much higher. After couple days the goldfish started to get sluggish and had 2 die on me. I did a water change. When I do a water change I turn off the filter so the water is not moving. I put a sump pump with hose attached in the very deep end and pump water out. In the shallow end I run a hose with fresh water for 4 hours. That seemed to do the trick and the goldfish perked up nice. After 2 weeks I added 6 sarasa goldfish, 5 shubunkins, and 2 koi. Every time they looked sluggish I did another water change. 2 weeks later everything looking good so I took the big step and added 22 koi, most 5-6" and a couple 8". Had one ammonia spike where they all sat on the bottom and I lost one of the koi. Still getting wide Ph swings, 7.2 in the morning, 8.6 or more in the afternoon. Now I only feed once a day in the morning when the Ph is low, and test for ammonia before feeding until my filter cycles. After 2 weeks koi seemed OK but noticed bulging eyes on some so I figured I better do some research and find out what's going on. Bought a KH test kit and found out I had no KH.
KH must have been zero because the water turned yellow on the first drop.
I tested my tap water and the Ph is 8.2, KH 17.9.
Started adding 4 cups sodium bicarbonate every 24 hrs. KH is now 71.6, not there yet but going in the right direction. Morning Ph is now 7.8.
GH must be very low with all that rain water so yesterday I started building it up with 4 lbs Epsom salt and 4 lbs Calcium Chloride. Bought a GH test kit at the local aquarium store but don't think it worked. An API kit in an old box I had never seen. Thinking it might be outdated I ordered another one online. In addition I've been putting in 15 tbsp. of Koi Clay weekly. To charge my filter I'm using Microbe-Lift PBL bacteria, 20 oz weekly with the UV lights turned off 48 hrs after application.
Anyways this is what I'm doing and it seems be working so far. My levels aren't yet where they should be but they're getting there. The fish are much more active and their bulging eyes seem to be better.
If anyone has any comments as to what I should do more or less of, I'd welcome any suggestions.
My pond is a 15,000gal swimming pool, 30ft x 15 ft. ..3 1/2 deep at the shallow end and 6 ft on the deep end. Have a bottom drain and two skimmers on each side. Mostly draw water from the skimmers, not only because they clean the leaves etc but the drain only has a 1 1/2" pipe, which cuts the flow into the filter, whereas the skimmers have a 2" pipe.
Have a 7500gph PerformancePro Artesian 2 pump, going into an AquaUltraviolet Ultima II Biofilter, which is rated for 10,000-20,000gal., going thru a 2000watt AquaUltraviolet UV sterilizer before re-entering the pond thru 3 jets. It gives me excellent circulation and the water turns over every 2 hours. I had a new liner installed before I converted it to a koi pond. Have many large rocks spaced about a foot apart on the bottom before it slopes to the deep end, where I have nothing but the liner on the bottom. The steps are covered with large rocks to hide the white steps and I have a couple potted plants on the steps. The steep wall design of the pool makes a lot of plants impractical.
The pond was very stable for a season and a half and my koi and goldfish were healthy and growing. They even spawned last year and we had a few babies swimming around. The first trouble I noticed were bulging eyes on the baby fish, which would come and go. I went on vacation last August and one day my wife called telling me the fish were all on the bottom on the deep end not looking good. I figured it was an ammonia spike so told her not to feed until I got back. Things stabilized a bit but I was getting wild Ph swings and ammonia & nitrate spikes. My test kit was the API "master" set, and all the tests were usually good until they weren't. Tried many thing to chase the Ph levels, at last result added salt which temporarily helped. When the fish died it would be like they were fine in the afternoon then 6 or 8 dead ones all at once. Looking back I think I made to major mistakes. Since my wife was always complaining about running up the water bill, I didn't do any water changes, and in my "master" test kit, there was no test for KH, so I didn't test for it. I think my KH went way down and the fish kills were the result of overnight Ph crashes. Last fall as winter was beginning to come on, I gave up for the year and drained half the water out, one reason the remove much of the salt I put in and to dilute the water in case there was a toxic mix of some sort killing the fish.
Over the winter rain filled the pool and I started out by catching a few bluegill from my fishing pond and seeing if they lived in the pool. After a week or less they died. Several times I did this with same results. I took a sample of water to a reputable fish store and they tested the water and said it was fine but told me rain water was not good to add in the pond. I purchased 10 goldfish (5 comets 5 shubunkins) to try it again. I thought the bluegill may not have survived because the fishing pond Ph is a constant 7.0 and my pool was much higher. After couple days the goldfish started to get sluggish and had 2 die on me. I did a water change. When I do a water change I turn off the filter so the water is not moving. I put a sump pump with hose attached in the very deep end and pump water out. In the shallow end I run a hose with fresh water for 4 hours. That seemed to do the trick and the goldfish perked up nice. After 2 weeks I added 6 sarasa goldfish, 5 shubunkins, and 2 koi. Every time they looked sluggish I did another water change. 2 weeks later everything looking good so I took the big step and added 22 koi, most 5-6" and a couple 8". Had one ammonia spike where they all sat on the bottom and I lost one of the koi. Still getting wide Ph swings, 7.2 in the morning, 8.6 or more in the afternoon. Now I only feed once a day in the morning when the Ph is low, and test for ammonia before feeding until my filter cycles. After 2 weeks koi seemed OK but noticed bulging eyes on some so I figured I better do some research and find out what's going on. Bought a KH test kit and found out I had no KH.
KH must have been zero because the water turned yellow on the first drop.
I tested my tap water and the Ph is 8.2, KH 17.9.
Started adding 4 cups sodium bicarbonate every 24 hrs. KH is now 71.6, not there yet but going in the right direction. Morning Ph is now 7.8.
GH must be very low with all that rain water so yesterday I started building it up with 4 lbs Epsom salt and 4 lbs Calcium Chloride. Bought a GH test kit at the local aquarium store but don't think it worked. An API kit in an old box I had never seen. Thinking it might be outdated I ordered another one online. In addition I've been putting in 15 tbsp. of Koi Clay weekly. To charge my filter I'm using Microbe-Lift PBL bacteria, 20 oz weekly with the UV lights turned off 48 hrs after application.
Anyways this is what I'm doing and it seems be working so far. My levels aren't yet where they should be but they're getting there. The fish are much more active and their bulging eyes seem to be better.
If anyone has any comments as to what I should do more or less of, I'd welcome any suggestions.
