Wow! Establishing a new 5,000 gallon pond, doing some analysis on the
water and my electronic pH meter shows the tap water in my town at
9.4. Shocked and disbelieving I checked the water company's website
and they claim a pH of 9. Isn't this pretty high? If I remember my
high school chemistry isn't water supposed to be around 7 to 7.5?
Axelrod's book suggests an ideal range for Koi of between 6.5 and 8.0.
How the heck am I going to achieve that?

My new pond has an automatic fill/overflow device on it. This will be
supplying a very small amount of makeup water at a pH of 9.0 it seems.

No that is not a terribly high pH number! Koi can stand
a pond that is in the Ph 9.0 .... but prefers to be in a range of
8.0 to , say 9.0. Make sure you call the Water Dept and
find out if they are adding Chlorine or the more dangerous
Chloramine to disinfect your water. It will make a difference
in what you add to the water to make it safe for your fish.

Nedra
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pines/4836
http://community.webshots.com/user/nedra118

"Kevin" wrote in message
m...
Wow! Establishing a new 5,000 gallon pond, doing some analysis on the
water and my electronic pH meter shows the tap water in my town at
9.4. Shocked and disbelieving I checked the water company's website
and they claim a pH of 9. Isn't this pretty high? If I remember my
high school chemistry isn't water supposed to be around 7 to 7.5?
Axelrod's book suggests an ideal range for Koi of between 6.5 and 8.0.
How the heck am I going to achieve that?

My new pond has an automatic fill/overflow device on it. This will be
supplying a very small amount of makeup water at a pH of 9.0 it seems.

Kevin wrote:
Wow! Establishing a new 5,000 gallon pond, doing some analysis on the
water and my electronic pH meter shows the tap water in my town at
9.4. Shocked and disbelieving I checked the water company's website
and they claim a pH of 9. Isn't this pretty high? If I remember my
high school chemistry isn't water supposed to be around 7 to 7.5?
Axelrod's book suggests an ideal range for Koi of between 6.5 and 8.0.
How the heck am I going to achieve that?

My new pond has an automatic fill/overflow device on it. This will be
supplying a very small amount of makeup water at a pH of 9.0 it seems.

Ouch that is very high. Hopefully your water system is artificially
buffering the water. Try setting it out for 24 to 48 hours and retesting.

--
JSin
Lost Generation Custom Tattoo
To reply Kill the idiot

No .. it isn't!! LOL! Quite a few of us on rec.ponds
have tap water with
a pH of 9.0. Depends upon what area of the country
you are in ;-)

Nedra
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pines/4836
http://community.webshots.com/user/nedra118

"JSin" wrote in message
...
Kevin wrote:
Wow! Establishing a new 5,000 gallon pond, doing some analysis on the
water and my electronic pH meter shows the tap water in my town at
9.4. Shocked and disbelieving I checked the water company's website
and they claim a pH of 9. Isn't this pretty high? If I remember my
high school chemistry isn't water supposed to be around 7 to 7.5?
Axelrod's book suggests an ideal range for Koi of between 6.5 and 8.0.
How the heck am I going to achieve that?

My new pond has an automatic fill/overflow device on it. This will be
supplying a very small amount of makeup water at a pH of 9.0 it seems.

Ouch that is very high. Hopefully your water system is artificially
buffering the water. Try setting it out for 24 to 48 hours and retesting.

--
JSin
Lost Generation Custom Tattoo
To reply Kill the idiot

Nedra wrote:
No .. it isn't!! LOL! Quite a few of us on rec.ponds
have tap water with
a pH of 9.0. Depends upon what area of the country
you are in ;-)

The fact that it *is* at 9.0 does not mean it is not High. I know it has
to do with where the water is coming from if you are in a heavy
limestone area you are going to have nasty hard alkaline water. Also
does not mean it can't be worked with. Hopefully for the original poster
it is artificially buffered high, by allowing for rebound and retesting
they can find out.

Personally I would rather deal with acidic water than hard alkaline
water. But as has been stated in your other post GF and Koi can be
adapted to higher pH but that is another set of problems.

--
JSin
Lost Generation Custom Tattoo
To reply Kill the idiot

JSin wrote:
Nedra wrote:

No .. it isn't!! LOL! Quite a few of us on rec.ponds
have tap water with
a pH of 9.0. Depends upon what area of the country
you are in ;-)

The fact that it *is* at 9.0 does not mean it is not High. I know it has
to do with where the water is coming from if you are in a heavy
limestone area you are going to have nasty hard alkaline water. Also
does not mean it can't be worked with. Hopefully for the original poster
it is artificially buffered high, by allowing for rebound and retesting
they can find out.

Personally I would rather deal with acidic water than hard alkaline
water. But as has been stated in your other post GF and Koi can be
adapted to higher pH but that is another set of problems.



-- actualy they prefer the higher PH





John Rutz
Z5 New Mexico

good judgement comes from bad experience, and that comes from bad
judgement

see my pond at:

http://www.fuerjefe.com

I have very high pH well water. And I would advise fixing it once you have
had the water age for awhile. I have read that high pH does hurt koi and it
adversely effects any meds you might put into the pond. But for me, I
adjust it because of the plants. Just try to grow some varieties of water
plants in KH 430.

--
Wendy* in N. California,

"People will forget what you said; people will forget what you did, but
people will never forget how you made them feel." -- Bonnie Jean Wasmund


"Kevin" wrote in message
m...
Wow! Establishing a new 5,000 gallon pond, doing some analysis on the
water and my electronic pH meter shows the tap water in my town at
9.4. Shocked and disbelieving I checked the water company's website
and they claim a pH of 9. Isn't this pretty high? If I remember my
high school chemistry isn't water supposed to be around 7 to 7.5?
Axelrod's book suggests an ideal range for Koi of between 6.5 and 8.0.
How the heck am I going to achieve that?

My new pond has an automatic fill/overflow device on it. This will be
supplying a very small amount of makeup water at a pH of 9.0 it seems.

That is exactly where I am - in a heavy Limestone area!
I've had no problems with either fish or plants.

Nedra
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pines/4836
http://community.webshots.com/user/nedra118

"JSin" wrote in message
...
Nedra wrote:
No .. it isn't!! LOL! Quite a few of us on rec.ponds
have tap water with
a pH of 9.0. Depends upon what area of the country
you are in ;-)

The fact that it *is* at 9.0 does not mean it is not High. I know it has
to do with where the water is coming from if you are in a heavy
limestone area you are going to have nasty hard alkaline water. Also
does not mean it can't be worked with. Hopefully for the original poster
it is artificially buffered high, by allowing for rebound and retesting
they can find out.

Personally I would rather deal with acidic water than hard alkaline
water. But as has been stated in your other post GF and Koi can be
adapted to higher pH but that is another set of problems.

--
JSin
Lost Generation Custom Tattoo
To reply Kill the idiot

Much more important than the pH is the KH carbonate hardness. If it is not
above 100, then the filter bacteria will suffer and the pH can come crashing
down, being very unstable. You can raise the KH with baking soda and it
will tend to bring the pH closer to 8.4. That high of a pH may not be well
buffered.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"Kevin" wrote in message
m...
Wow! Establishing a new 5,000 gallon pond, doing some analysis on the
water and my electronic pH meter shows the tap water in my town at
9.4. Shocked and disbelieving I checked the water company's website
and they claim a pH of 9. Isn't this pretty high? If I remember my
high school chemistry isn't water supposed to be around 7 to 7.5?
Axelrod's book suggests an ideal range for Koi of between 6.5 and 8.0.
How the heck am I going to achieve that?

My new pond has an automatic fill/overflow device on it. This will be
supplying a very small amount of makeup water at a pH of 9.0 it seems.

John Rutz wrote:


Personally I would rather deal with acidic water than hard alkaline
water. But as has been stated in your other post GF and Koi can be
adapted to higher pH but that is another set of problems.



-- actualy they prefer the higher PH

You get them too high you have not just pH problems though but also
ammonia toxicity issues.... As pH goes up ammoania affects the fish more
readily.

Like I said I would rather work with lower pH tap than hard alkaline tap
water. Acidic water has less buffering capacity and less problem with
rebound pH can be adjusted with limestone and bakingsoda and as such can
be more easily controlled. Bringing down high pH water IMHO is a pain in
the ass... keeping it there is a bigger pain. But you work with what ya got.

--
JSin
Lost Generation Custom Tattoo
To reply Kill the idiot