I have 13 full grown Koi Fish in a temporary 1,000 intex pool - HELP

[sissy]

By the way your water looks clean and fish don't look stressed out , but watch because if they get stressed out they will jump out of the temporary pond

 

[GBBUDD]

Izone 9 10 huh well thats good and bad news. Good news you dont have to worry about the pool freezing . Bad news is you dont have to worry about the cold at all. Your fish will never go into hibernation . They will be active all year for the most part. Creating amonias as your water's will never chill slowing them down. I have to fully agree with @WaterGardener those filters are for a tiny garden pond with 1 inch fish . Imo.

So that leads us to a separate direction that of if your building a new pond why not get the new pond filter up and running. Showers are great but do nothing for solids. Are you going with a bog ,bead , Rdf or shower filter ? Anything else is not worth it for koi in my honest opinion yes others can work but the maintenance becomes huge The older the pond gets. Yes you might be concerned with too much current but that can be adjusted by splitting the return and have one side dump right at the intake. And let the other return blow across the pool.

 

[sissy]

I know when i redid my poind , i consulted with ponddigger on youtube and he said amonia levels were most important and not to feed them as much . ponddigger even sent me a test kit and a big dicount on a pump from him and the pumps have worked great over the years and still do . I did buy a bigger pump later plus atthat time I bought a larger aerator and bigger airstones .

 

[tanyaclick]

@GBBUDD My pond guy likes the Aqua Ultraviolet Ultima II, so this is probably the one I'd get: https://webbsonline.com/Item/Ultima-II-Bio-Tube-Filter-11187 I've had others that really like the GC tek Alpha One, the only problem I hear about those is the glass cracking on the top and that you cant get parts for them- its like pulling teeth and takes months. I do like the blower in them though.

@sissy wow thats amazing! I'll have to reach out to him. his series is amazing. he truly is kind of ponds.

@WaterGardener I do have some pond prime, I will add that in now. Yesterday I did a 30% water change and added API Ammo lock and it brought it from 2 ppm to 1 ppm so that doesnt seem like the solution. here is what I have. it might be expired though - https://www.amazon.com/Pond-Prime-6...1_5?keywords=pond+prime&qid=1698436802&sr=8-5

@GBBUDD @sissy @Mmathis @WaterGardener @j.w - I will be working on building a trickle tower today out of PVC, tubing and old soda crates in a tub layered with lava rock with this pump https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08YW5J8KL?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

 

[WaterGardener]

The ammonia will still show up on your tests. It's still there, just bound so it isn't available to hurt the fish. The ammonia level dropped because of the water change, so that is helping.

I don't know anything about ammo lock, but with prime it has to be dosed every 48 hours for that purpose.

 

[GBBUDD]

The filter your looking at was top dog for a while but if it doesn't have a strong blower for back washing it's out dated being outwest i would look at sacrtamento koi if your looking at a bead filter https://sacramentokoi.com/advantage-products/ I have seen praise and bad reviews on just about every bead filter there is` with the exception of sacramento koi https://sacramentokoi.com/advantage-products/ THE ADVANTAGE IS A THOUSAND DOLLARS MORE but in my book well worth the extra money the advantage has a blower that hits the dirty beads breaking them up releasing the dirty from the beads without using any extra water the air does the job . then you open the valve vand flush it out the ultima needs to use water pressure while in water to break apart the beads, definitely a disadvantage to a strong air pump churning the water from pressure as well as gravity. Most manufactures will say their system is good to x . or say 10,000 gallons but that is under a light fish load light feedings and in the middle of a parking lot that's shaded. In other words under optimal conditions. how big of a pond are you building ?

There is also a company called koi market who has a nice set up as well THEY ARE IN NY AND VERY SERIOUS ABOUT KOI LIKE SACRAMENTO but you'll haver to call them as the true bead filters do not show on their web site i know they have been working on it .

 

[tanyaclick]

Hi everyone, here is an update. At the time I was last on this thread, I did a 25% water change and was getting the same readings so I added API Ammo lock. A few hours I was still getting high readings so I added Prime as someone had suggested it. I Was once again still getting high readings, then someone told me I'd still get high readings because the ammonia was binded by the product so as not to hurt the fish but the ammonia is still in there. I thought the Ammo lock was going to convert it as I believe that's what the package said. I was testing a couple of hours after mixing though and perhaps it needed overnight. After adding the Prime, the fish seemed much happier. So I guess the mix worked. The binding process of the Prime product seems much more instantaneous than the conversion process of Ammo lock.
I did another 25% water change a couple of days later. Another 25% a couple of days after that. I tested the water today and the ammonia was .75, so I'm much happier with that. I'll do another water change in a couple of days and check it again then. My pond guy came out over the weekend and said he feels the fish will be fine with what I have and to just stay on top of the water changes. My husband doesn't want me to build the trickle filter since it's an eye sore. Being the readings came down I guess I don't have a lot to prove to him we need it. If all goes well we should have the pond done end of November. I did get the digital PH pen and those readings looked ok. I also got the API GH and KH test kit. I still don't really understand it though. It took me 13 drops to get the GH and 23 for the KH. What does that mean? All fish and the turtle seem to be doing good. Except one fish who got a gash on his face somehow. I took him out, sedated him with clove oil, set him on a folded wet towel on top of bubble wrap, placed another wet towel on him, and cut of the flap of skin with surgical Scissors. The wound looks much better to me now and I expect him to hopefully make a full recovery. What are your thoughts on what I should do now? I'd love any feedback. P.S. water Temps are 47°, I have not been feeding at all- they couldn't process it now anyway. I turned down the circulation so they have a small current now. I plan to add some salt tomorrow.

 

[addy1]

Make sure when the pond is done the water from your temporary pool goes into it. When you get ready to add the fish to the new pond. And any dirty filter material, all will help in cycling the new water.

 

[WaterGardener]

No need for salt. As long as you keep dosing with Prime every 48 hours, ammonia and nitrite will stay bound.

Salt is not used as much as it once was and some parasites that it was used to kill are now immune to it. So it isn't recommended much anymore.

One legitimate reason to use it is to protect fish from nitrite, but as long as you use Prime, it isn't needed.

 

[tanyaclick]

No need for salt. As long as you keep dosing with Prime every 48 hours, ammonia and nitrite will stay bound.

Salt is not used as much as it once was and some parasites that it was used to kill are now immune to it. So it isn't recommended much anymore.

One legitimate reason to use it is to protect fish from nitrite, but as long as you use Prime, it isn't needed.

The one fish has that open wound healing so my pond guy said to add it for that reason. Thoughts?

 

[tanyaclick]

Make sure when the pond is done the water from your temporary pool goes into it. When you get ready to add the fish to the new pond. And any dirty filter material, all will help in cycling the new water.

Definitely. Thank you.

 

[WaterGardener]

For an open wound I prefer to use a triple antibiotic ointment or iodine or both. You can also order tri-cide neo that is easier to apply since it is a powder.

 

[tanyaclick]

I did iodine at the time of operation. My pond guy is suggesting I leave it alone if it looks good and just add salt. Thoughts?

 

[WaterGardener]

I don't recommend using salt. With good water conditions the fish should heal itself. The problem there is that you don't have pristine water.

I would still treat the wound topically and skip the salt. If you feel you have to use it, do a salt bath for only that fish. Don't salt the entire pond.

 

[tanyaclick]

Ok. I will follow your advice. May I ask why not salt the entire pool? Doesn't salt help with nitrates and such?