In article ,
"Lee Brouillet" wrote:

Good news/bad news:

Good news: nice little pond!
Bad news: you're overstocked . . . you can keep the goldfish, but you should
get rid of the koi. Current opinion on koi is that you should have 1000 for
the first koi, and 100 gals. for each additional koi. Pushing it, you need
100 gals. for each koi plus EXCELLENT filtration to handle the waste
problem. But you don't want to hear that, I know. Sorry. So let's see what
can be done to acommodate the situation:

The green (pea soup) algae is common to all new ponds. Given enough time and
patience (neither of which *most* ponders are blessed with), it would have
gone away by itself. However, the UV will take care of the pea soup.
Barley straw is used for string algae, which you probably don't have (yet!).
And yes, it disintegrates (leaving messy suspended particulate matter) and
it stains the water into a barley tea color.

I would not change out all the water: your pond is just getting started and
doesn't need the added stress. However, partial water changes - weekly - are
needed, especially with your fish load. By partial, I mean 10-15%, which is
replaced with fresh water (don't forget to dechlor the added water!).
Topping off water evaporation or using rainwater overflow does NOT count and
could be detrimental. You need to actually remove water and replace it.
During the process of evaporation, all the chemicals (natural and added,
including from the fish) become concentrated; eventually, just adding more
water will leave you with a significant level of toxic material in the pond.
That's why it HAS to be exchanged. There are people here that will argue
that premise, but THINK about it. Also, with your fish load, you need the
best chance possible for them. Goldfish and Koi are heavy waste excreters -
it has to be removed. And as they grow, it becomes worse (sigh).

Now, something you *didn't* ask about: testing your water. I hate to keep
harping on this - but I know you're not going to find homes for your fish (I
didn't either after I had them!) - so you have to keep a very good eye on
your water chemistry, especially with a new pond. Until your filter gets up
to speed, which can take 6-8 weeks to develop the bio-bugs, you're going to
need to help neutralize the ammonia that the fish will produce. I suggest
you get a bottle of Amquel (a water conditioner that neutralizes chlorine,
chloramine and ammonia; you'll need it for your water changes, anyway): you
can overdose it many times over with no ill effect on the fish, but it will
bind the ammonia, rendering it harmless to the fish. To test for ammonia,
however, you will need a 2 part ammonia test kit (salicylate versus
nessler). Or, make it easy on yourself and find an Ammonia Alert card (made
by Seachem): it will tell you at a glance if you need to neutralize ammonia,
so you can pour a couple of glunks of Amquel in the pond (note: the card
will ready ammonia almost immediately, but it takes it several hours to go
back to neutral, so don't panic immediately). The first byproduct of ammonia
is nitrIte, which can be deadly (causes brown blood disease, making it
impossible for the fish to absorb oxygen), so you need a test kit for that,
too. *No amount of ammonia or nitrIte is acceptable*. The help the fish
through nitrIte, you need to add non-iodized salt to the pond. Or, if you
can get your hands on it, a Tbs. of Koi Clay (calcium bentonite) will absorb
the nitrIte (the salt just helps the fish cope with it). And your pH:
anything between 7.5 and 9 is OK, but it should be stable, with as little
fluctuation between AM readings and PM readings as possible. The scale for
pH is kinda like your Richter scale: each point is 10 times the amount of
the previous point, so the fluctuation between 8 and 9 is 1000! If you have
the fluctuation, let us know and we can work on that, too. But at this
point, you will need test kits for ammonia, nitrIte (not nitrAte, we'll
worry about that later!) and pH (probably the high end, but something that
will test to at least 9).

Now that you're thoroughly confused, good luck! There are lots of folks on
this board that will help!

Lee


Not confused, just encourage. Thanks for the great advice. I have a
small (12gal) reef tank in the house, so some of this makes sense... I
will get on testing shortly.

Carl

--
--
http://www.cobaltbluefilms.com