Flashing and rubbing

[mouseams]

Our koi and a few of our comets started flashing and the koi had been jumping, which I chalked up to spawning. I checked all parameters and all is normal. Water temp is 63 F. I am salting right now, it is very difficult to calculate how much water we have as our pond is an odd shape and has varied depths and two areas where the liner goes over rock formations. I believe it must be at least 2500 to 3000 gals. I have been adding 5 cups of solar salt every couple hours. So far I have added 15 cups. Did a 20% water change yesterday and a 30% change today.
We did recently install new bio media and filter and I have added more plants. I do not have a rock bottom, but I do have some rocks holding plants in place. I think it may be a parasite of some sort. I do not see white spots, so I don't think it is ich. We got the koi, comets and an albino cat in March and seemed to have no problem. I have been feeding the fall/spring diet and only every few days. I have seen lots of posts, but no conclusions. I do not have a microscope to test scales. I am wondering if there is something else I can try in addition to the salt.
Thanks as always for your wisdom!
Mary

 

[DrDave]

Smart move to immediatley salt the pond. However;
At the very least get a saline test kit. Even the cheap ones will give you a reading to keep you from over dosing your pond with salt.

 

[mouseams]

Thanks Dr. Dave. Now I was wrong on my parameters. We have well water and I tested the tap and I just retested the pond. THe PH and Alkalinity are both low. Alkalinity is 0 and Ph is 6.2. Should I chase down some oyster shells? Any idea where I can get some?

 

[addy1]

Thanks Dr. Dave. Now I was wrong on my parameters. We have well water and I tested the tap and I just retested the pond. THe PH and Alkalinity are both low. Alkalinity is 0 and Ph is 6.2. Should I chase down some oyster shells? Any idea where I can get some?

My ph is in the 5 range out of our well. I put in oyster shells and now the ph sits around 7. No more ph swings.

Tractor supply carries them, any farm feed store, they are sold for chickens.

Add some baking soda slowly to raise your ph. Get the oyster shells to help you out.

 

[vertigo72]

Im personally not a fan of adding salt to the pond. Even tiny concentrations kill most plants, and you cant get rid of the salt, besides slowly diluting it through water changes. I try to keep the salt only for quarantine tank.

Anyway, oyster shells or perhaps baking soda sounds like what you need, but with an alkalinity (KH) of zero, you risk quite rapid Ph swings, so go easy on whatever you add to increase the Ph. The safest route is some real pond products to up your KH first. Once your KH is more reasonable, check your Ph again and then decide to add baking soda or oyster shells or whatever else. Just adding oyster shells should and will likely increase both KH and Ph, but it may take a fair amount of time, so Id buy some KH+ in a pondstore.

 

[addy1]

My gh kh were both low, I only added oyster shells, now they both are in a good range. Our well is acidic and soft. But our pond has had water in it since last year, oyster shells since it melted this year. All readings are in a good range now. Fish this year except for five little ones that managed to survive the ph issues last year.

Every time the hot tub gets cleaned we have to add alkalinity up to get it to stabilize, otherwise our hot tub ph swings and the sanitizing chemicals don't work as well

 

[mouseams]

Thanks for the tips. I am going to try to get some oyster shells today. Addy, my well water is exactly the same as yours. It was funny when we moved here, the last house we were in which is only about 1.5 miles away had extremely hard water. This house has very soft water, I had no idea a well could produce soft water.

Now I have a ph of 7.2 and kh is now 120. I hope that I didn't raise it too quickly. Fish are still flashing this morning, which they have tended to do more first thing in the am. Readings were the same last night. It seems like I did not have this problem last year, the water has been pea soupy and has just cleared. We had used barley extract a few weeks ago. I sure hope my buddies will be ok. I haven't been feeding them much at all. Water temps have been between 60 in the morning and 65 in the afternoon.

 

[addy1]

Hope all goes well for you and your fish.

 

[mouseams]

Addy, thanks- I think it is a PH problem, does anyone know how many days it may take before they stop their flashing? Several fish were chasing one another in the dark. I cannot see too many of them, I think they are hunkered down for the night.

 

[addy1]

Well if they are chasing each other, could it be spawning? instead of flashing?

But either or get your ph stable and your fish will be happier.

 

[mouseams]

I think the spawning began last night and this morning continuing. Still some flashing, but I think it is subsiding. Levels are still good, I just need to get my hands on the oyster shells to lock the ph. the alkalinity is ay 120 and the ph about 6.8- I think I will do one more small dose of baking soda and that should put it right and the shells should hold it. After you add the shells when you do water changes Addy, do you still need to do the BS treatment? My well water is exactly like yours. Thanks!!!

 

[fishin4cars]

I think the spawning began last night and this morning continuing. Still some flashing, but I think it is subsiding. Levels are still good, I just need to get my hands on the oyster shells to lock the ph. the alkalinity is ay 120 and the ph about 6.8- I think I will do one more small dose of baking soda and that should put it right and the shells should hold it. After you add the shells when you do water changes Addy, do you still need to do the BS treatment? My well water is exactly like yours. Thanks!!!

Just chiming in on this, do you have a way to pre-set/mix the water your putting into the pond for a water change? If you do, this is where you ultimatly want to get your water where you want it, then add it. the reason is your adjusting the water, the fish aren't having to adjust to it. You adjusting the water to be changed, not trying to gauge the whole pond, If you make a mistake and something goes way out of wack, You dump it and start over, no biggy, didn't shock the fish, only loss is the water itself, and finally, if the water is there for 24-48 hrs prior to using it and you don't have to use dechlorinator, it will evapotate. ( I know yor using well water that doesn't have it but posting for others that may be using city water supply)
depending on the size pond you have and the amount of water change this may be unfeasible. But the answer to your question is, yes, you will still need to make some minor ph adjustments using your well water but they will be minor and hold far more stable once you have it there to start with.

 

[mouseams]

Hi fishin'
Our pond is way too big, my pond is a minimum of 2500 gals. I think it is mostly in part to a lot of change in a short time. I messed around with lots of plants, the pea soup cleared up, new fish a month and a half ago and new filtration and a bog filter which both need to get up on step. Last year we lost so much water form the waterfall on top of the rock formation and stream that the pond would be down sometimes up to two inches by the time I got home from work, I was doing a big water change almost daily. It neve r effected the fish as the koi I added were late summer, not early spring. I am keeping my eye on the amonia and I have a feed place right down the road so I cna pick up my oyster shells tomorrow. I still see some flashing, I just don't know how long I should wait if I should treat as if they have parasites, but there is a lot of chasing going on.

 

[addy1]

I think the spawning began last night and this morning continuing. Still some flashing, but I think it is subsiding. Levels are still good, I just need to get my hands on the oyster shells to lock the ph. the alkalinity is ay 120 and the ph about 6.8- I think I will do one more small dose of baking soda and that should put it right and the shells should hold it. After you add the shells when you do water changes Addy, do you still need to do the BS treatment? My well water is exactly like yours. Thanks!!!

Just saw this, no once I added the shells, the ph has been stable, this is with added well water, lots of rain etc. It has been fine. No baking soda added since last year.