Koi Pond ideal PH NO2, KH and GH

[bailey kari]

I have a KOI pond that is 30 ft by 12 ft by 21/2 feet. about 6500 gallons approx.
Want to know how much variation there can be in PH and whether adding baking Soda to increase the pH is OK.
I am kind of lost and have a lot to learn thanks

 

[Tula]

Welcome to the forum

The important thing with PH, is that it's stable, no big swings...... measure it in the morning and then again in the evening.

My understanding is baking soda will increase the PH to somewhere a little over 8.

 

[Waterbug]

Variation of pH is very pond dependent. Even the literal answer would be meaningless...with chemicals there is no limit to the variation.

Baking soda is OK for many serious Koi owners. This forum is Water Garden specific and most people don't seem to even test KH or use baking soda. At least that's how it seems.

According to a chemist name Dr. Roddy Conrad the calculated max safe level for KH by adding baking soda is about 10,000 ppm. Most people keep KH in the 200-300 ppm range, some higher, like 600 ppm. There no reason to go much higher but even if a bad mistake was done, you'd have to over dose about 50 times. Seems hard to do. I'm not even sure water can hold 10,000 ppm.

Sounded good to me so for me it's OK. The alternative is certainly dangerous. You can find online lots of other ways to buffer pH but baking soda is cheap and the most effective because it's dissolved in the water, ready to work. Most other materials have to dissolve in response to falling pH so there is a drop before recovery which is a swing.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

I have a KOI pond that is 30 ft by 12 ft by 21/2 feet. about 6500 gallons approx.
Want to know how much variation there can be in PH and whether adding baking Soda to increase the pH is OK.
I am kind of lost and have a lot to learn thanks

Typically a pH diel variance of no more than 0.5 is acceptable. What is the pH of the water at present? If it is stable, I would not attempt to adjust it.

 

[budgenator]

The reason people add baking soda, Sodium Bicarbonate, is it helps form what Chemists call a buffer, The alkaline part (Sodium) and the acid part (Bicarbonate) work together to help keep the pH of the water stable. When you add an acid such as Carbonic acid (CO2 + water) the pH will change less with a buffer in the water, than it would in distilled water. Calcium, and Magnesium are also used as alkaline parts, carbonate and sulphate are other acid parts. This can be done by adding Crushed Oyster shells (chicken grit, calcium carbonate) Epsom salts, Magnesium sulphate, and plaster, calcium sulphate.
This is a very simplified answer, you can probably find whole college courses on this if you look.