At a recent Koi club meeting we had a speaker who was a vendor for a
brand of calcium montmorillonite, i.e.: "Koi Clay" (but not that
particular brand. The claimed virtues are impressive and include
detoxification and neutralizing bacteria in the pond water.

It was said that as the clay will neutralize both bad bacteria and
good bacteria, not to add it at the same time as you add LymnoZyme,
a popular "good" bacteria that many Koi keepers use. The advice is
to add the LymnoZyme a few days apart from adding the clay.
Okay, this makes sense. But I did not hear a satisfactory
answer to why calcium montmorillonite wouldn't damage the
bacteria in a biofilter.

Any thoughts on this?

Steve J. Noll | Ventura California (zone 10)
| Glass Block Pond http://www.kissingfrogs.tv

Steve,

I have never heard that the clay does anything to the bacteria, good or bad.
It has a high surface area that will take some of the DOC, and fine
suspended materials and get them to attach, thereby clarifying the water.
It adds minerals that are good to the water. I use one of the clays to help
keep the water clear, and I think it works like a mud pack to help the koi
skin.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"Steve J. Noll" wrote in message
...
At a recent Koi club meeting we had a speaker who was a vendor for a
brand of calcium montmorillonite, i.e.: "Koi Clay" (but not that
particular brand. The claimed virtues are impressive and include
detoxification and neutralizing bacteria in the pond water.

It was said that as the clay will neutralize both bad bacteria and
good bacteria, not to add it at the same time as you add LymnoZyme,
a popular "good" bacteria that many Koi keepers use. The advice is
to add the LymnoZyme a few days apart from adding the clay.
Okay, this makes sense. But I did not hear a satisfactory
answer to why calcium montmorillonite wouldn't damage the
bacteria in a biofilter.

Any thoughts on this?

Steve J. Noll | Ventura California (zone 10)
| Glass Block Pond http://www.kissingfrogs.tv

As RTB said, Koi Clay will absorb toxic stuff in the water and act as a
defloc for the water. That's why you don't want to put the clay in at the
same time that you use the Lymno (which, as of Apr 1 was renamed to KoiZyme,
just to make it easier to pronounce): it will "capture" the Lymno addition.
The biobugs in your filters live *on* stuff, they're not free-floating,
therefore, not affected. FYG, one of the benefits that I stumbled across for
the clay is that it will bond nitrItes, which can be very helpful when
starting a new filter or when a pond is waking up from winter and the
biobugs aren't quite "up to snuff" yet. I'd rather use salt when I need to
for medical reasons, not as a routine treatement for the nitrItes. At the
very least, it's another option. Hope this helps.

Lee


"Steve J. Noll" wrote in message
...
At a recent Koi club meeting we had a speaker who was a vendor for a
brand of calcium montmorillonite, i.e.: "Koi Clay" (but not that
particular brand. The claimed virtues are impressive and include
detoxification and neutralizing bacteria in the pond water.

It was said that as the clay will neutralize both bad bacteria and
good bacteria, not to add it at the same time as you add LymnoZyme,
a popular "good" bacteria that many Koi keepers use. The advice is
to add the LymnoZyme a few days apart from adding the clay.
Okay, this makes sense. But I did not hear a satisfactory
answer to why calcium montmorillonite wouldn't damage the
bacteria in a biofilter.

Any thoughts on this?

Steve J. Noll | Ventura California (zone 10)
| Glass Block Pond http://www.kissingfrogs.tv