New Koi owner

[DebKrieg]

I am putting in a 23 x 28 koi pond but started my koi in tanks in my house until the pond can be completed within the next 30 days. I thought this would be a great move to keep my cost down and let them grow a bit inside, but realized this probably wasn’t the best move as it isn’t so simple. I’ve spent too much money and are too attached to my fish to sell them until the pond is up and running so I need some advice on balancing the tanks to ensure it is successful. I think I’ve been trying everything imaginable as far as water treatments go and luckily have one tank that seems to stay consistent but it’s the oldest of the 3, no fish loss.

Here’s my questions;
Recommendations on best new tank start up? One tank is about 5 weeks along and is doing fine. and the other 2 are only about 2 weeks along and I’ve been doing water changes at least every other day. No ammonia in any tank. I test multiple times a day.

How often and how much of a water change should I be doing while it’s Cycling?

Using distilled water with conditioned tap water 50/50 is this ok? I’m sure it depends on my water. I’ve been putting tap water in gallon jugs and testing for Nitrites and nitrates after letting them sit at room temp and when they good from that I add to the tanks.

Can you OVER filter your water? I have approx 3 times the GPH needed for my tanks. At least 3 times. Is there some recommendations there?

Also, is there some sort of math to determine how many fish per gal of tank water? I was thinking inches/gal?? I plan on moving them to the pond where I believe they should have plenty of space needed from what I’ve read they should have 250 gallons per fish and my pond will be somewhere around 12,000 gallons with approx 24 fish. I just need them to be fine for another 30 days.

Also I have one 100 gal Rubbermaid Stock tank with 5 (7 to 10inch) butterfly koi but I can’t find a filter to sit on the side so I went with 3 sponge filters that SHOULD filter up to 3 times the amount of water. What are your thoughts on sponge filters?

I made the mistake originally of over cleaning my tanks and throwing away the filter cartridges each time I changed the water. Then read you don’t want to do that so now I’m attempting to build back up the good bacteria. Any tips on how to do this safely?

 

[j.w]

@DebKrieg
Yep would have been better if you had waited to buy the fish but you didn't so that is water under the bridge. Boy I must say tho you are quite the systematic orderly one in doing all that you are doing trying to make everything perfect for them. I would take water out of the first tank and add it to the other new tank setups and add clean tap water that you treated. The fish are used to the first tanks water and that water has cycled so it will be good for the other tanks. Don't add too many fish at a time to those new tanks and slowly let them float in a bag of the old water in the new tank and let water in every 15 mins or so till they are acclimated after 45 mins.
When You add the fish to your newly cycled pond I would add only a couple at a time so the pond will not become too full of nutrients that could cause issues.
I only have goldfish.
I'll let others that have koi answer all those other questions.

 

[DebKrieg]

View attachment 148437@DebKrieg
Yep would have been better if you had waited to buy the fish but you didn't so that is water under the bridge. Boy I must say tho you are quite the systematic orderly one in doing all that you are doing trying to make everything perfect for them. I would take water out of the first tank and add it to the other new tank setups and add clean tap water that you treated. The fish are used to the first tanks water and that water has cycled so it will be good for the other tanks. Don't add too many fish at a time to those new tanks and slowly let them float in a bag of the old water in the new tank and let water in every 15 mins or so till they are acclimated after 45 mins.
When You add the fish to your newly cycled pond I would add only a couple at a time so the pond will not become too full of nutrients that could cause issues.
I only have goldfish.
I'll let others that have koi answer all those other questions.

Thank you so much for your quick response and tips. I only bought my koi because I read something on Petco’s aquarium that said how to set it up and thought well that’s easy, then NOPE! So now I feel bad for my fish. I’m thankful
I work from home and can take readings throughout the day. I think I’ve probably bought every chemical I could to balance everything.

 

[j.w]

Chemicals are not so great to be adding to your tanks. They can say they are great but can kill sometimes. You don't need them. Some are ok but I would back off adding a bunch of stuff. Others will chime in soon to give you more info. We will wan to know all the stuff you are adding.

 

[DebKrieg]

Chemicals are not so great to be adding to your tanks. They can say they are great but can kill sometimes. You don't need them. Some are ok but I would back off adding a bunch of stuff. Others will chime in soon to give you more info. We will wan to know all the stuff you are adding

 

[DebKrieg]

As far as all the chemicals I’ve added.

1. API Aqua essentials - all in one concentrated water conditioner but switched to Prime
2. Stress Coat
3. Stress zyme
4. Seachem Neutral Regulator
5. Stability

On one tank I noticed Ammonia creep up so I added API Ammo Lock after a 50% water change and it normalized.

Like I said, way too man Chemicals but I kept noticing Nitrites and Nitrates high so was trying to do everything I could to make sure they were ok. Even started the 3rd tank but it still takes time to setup and get moving so now I’m dealing with all this crazy. I have a new filter I want to add to the one tank but I’m afraid to change any filters or anything right now.

 

[WaterGardener]

The only thing you need to add to the water is Prime. It will dechlorinate the water and bind the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. For binding, it needs to be dosed every 48 hours. The tests will read all the ammonia, bound and unbound, so you will still get ammonia readings. An ammonia alert card will tell you when the ammonia gets into the danger zone.

Also, the nitrogen cycle needs to have ammonia in order for the beneficial bacteria to feed on and survive and grow. Keeping the ammonia at zero will actually slow down the cycling. Some feel that the ammonia should be kept around 2 for the tank to cycle.

This is why most of us prefer to do fishless cycling. The tank can cycle without risking the health of the fish.

But since you already have the fish, Prime is your friend. It will prevent that ammonia from harming the fish as long as you keep dosing it every other day.

I believe that there is no such thing as too much filtration. The more the better. I kept at least 10 times the recommended filtration when I had tanks.

Also, the manufacturers of filters generally over state the ability of their filters, usually by twice what they can actually handle. So you probably don't have 3 times the filtration necessary, but 1.5 times.

Is there a way you can move some fish to another tank and cycle the tank without fish in it? There is plenty of information online about how to do a fishless cycle. It would be much easier without fish in the tank.

And realize that your new pond will also need to be cycled, preferably before you add the fish. If the fish are really small, you might get away with adding them right away, but that is quite a fish load and koi produce a lot of waste.

 

[Mgessert]

First of all, kudos to you for managing your fish under difficult circumstance! How many are there, how big are they, and how many gallons of water are they in now? I would only put two or three 7-10” Koi in 100 gallons, and then only with frequent testing and water changes. Water changes are great, but I wouldn’t do more than about 10-20% at a time, to avoid shocking the fish, and do make sure the temp is the same. I don’t see any reason to use distilled water. Also, if you’re just housing them temporarily, you may not need to worry much about cycling. Just keep testing and feed very sparingly.