"~ jan JJsPond.us" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 29 Jul 2005 02:46:53 GMT, " George"
wrote:
I have no idea what makes you say that you can't get a reading
with a regular nitrate kit, Jan. They've been standardized for many
years.

American Pharmaceuticals, and the reason I say that is because the other
KHA in the club said his Nitrate kit wasn't working (his pond was green).
I
asked if I could have it to test on my aquariums (which always have a
reading nitrate). Kit worked on those just fine.

Ok, so the kit worked fine. Then the problem isn't with the kit. Operator
error? Who knows?

It's a 9,000 gallon pond. She should rarely, if ever, have to do water
changes. Additions, yes. Changes, only if there is something dreadfully
wrong.

Sorry George, you're dreadfully wrong. Go read Norm Meck's article:
http://www.vcnet.com/koi_net/finalnet.html#waterchange regarding that. If
you don't believe him, then we'll agree to disagree, but I've taken the
Koi
Health Advisor training thru AKCA, have you? ~ jan

~Power to the Porg, Flow On!~

No, I haven't taken the Koi Health Advisor training thru AKCA. Don't need
to. I've been raising fish (fresh water and salt water) since I was 11
years old (about 35 years). My current pond is three years old, and I've
done at most, four partial water changes No more than 10% at any one time),
and have not lost a single fish to disease or water problems. I have had a
couple of sick fish (my catfish appears to be most vulnerable, but that is
not uncommon since it is an albino), but the problems have always been due
to either accidentaly introduced paracites on a plant (on one ocassion),
or, in the case of the catfish, apparent bacterial infection due to feeding
it shrimp (since I've stopped feeding it shrimp, it has not gotten sick
again. I now only feed it catfish pellets). My current water parameters
a

pH - 7.5
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 0
KH - 90
GH - 120
Temp - 78

I have made no water changes this year. I do add water, about 100-150
gallons/week, almost entirely due to evaporation. In fact, I've never even
done a complete clean out of the pond in the three years since it has been
up and running. The bottom is clean, no grunge build up. I clean my
prefilter about once every 2 weeks (it takes about 5 minutes to do this).
I backflush the main filter about once every three months, and then add
aquazyme once a week for a month, then once a month afterwards. I have 14
goldfish (6 of which were born in the pond, five koi, 2 shubukins, and one
large albino channel cat, all happy and healthy as can be. Three of my
females have spawned twice each this year. My waterfall is made up of
limestone slabs, which help buffer the water.

No offense intended, but I suspect someone at your training class must work
for the local water company if they are recommending such frequent water
changes in large ponds. It can certainly get expensive to make so many
changes in a large pond. The fact of the matter is that the more you mess
with your water, the more unstable it can become, and the greater risk
there will be that the fish get sick. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
You do the tests, inspect the pond and the filters regularly, and well as
the fish and plants. If there are no problems or indication of possible
problems, either with the water, filtration system or the fish and plants,
there is no reason to change the water.

Tell me if you think these fish look healthy to you (note, one female looks
a little ragged, but then, she just spawned about three weeks before these
pictures were taken. And note the water clarity:

http://home.insightbb.com/~jryates/fish/fish.htm

Here is a page that shows the filtrations sytem and the pond itself (when
it was first set up):

http://home.insightbb.com/~jryates/filter.htm

My Pond is 4'x12'x45" (1346.5 gallons max.). Admittedly, this is a much
smaller pond than the person posting these questions has (I think hers is
9,000 gallons). The more water, the more stable the pond, so the fewer
changes need to be made. This is a rule of thumb that I've used for many
years with success regardless of whether I am dealing with fresh or salt
water systems.

Cheers,

George