***The Pond Discussion Thread****

[NickK]

Bought a new NTLabs test kit today (old one expired in 2022!) and it gives a clean bill of health, although the pH is a little high so I may give it a little water change to bring that that closer to 7.0. Seems the old kit may have been giving a bad reading. There is a difference in the old kit and new kit - it gives a wider range of pH in the old kit. New kit gives 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and basically 0 nitrate. pH is 8.5 which I will retest tomorrow before adjusting. GH & KH are high.

Also had a look at some of the fish in the local pond place.. noted some bacterial ulcers etc and with a shared water supply I didn't note many that interested me - some nice large (18" for £350, down from £450!) but I'm looking for 5" or so if I do get them.

Today's torrential down pours stopped me from putting some tiling on the pond. Got to order some pipework - I keep forgetting then I can finish the UVC later in the week.

 

[kindai]

Got the base in and tapered down to the middle the last few days, have just finished the 2nd layer of epoxy over the top of the base just to be able to give it a very rough sanding and then get the fibreglassing done next week.

 

[NickK]

I may have accidentally'd..

A Hi Utsuri (black and orange) and a Tancho Kohaku (the one with the dot on it's head).

The little orange and black guy already has got used to the pond, it seemed it was getting a little starved, so it's been chomping at some food already! The Tancho got a little freaked by the large fish (I have a grass carp and a large rin chargoi that was busy sunbathing in the lillypads.. this takes no effort to be wedged in and in the warm stiller water in the lilies..

 

[kindai]

Weather looks good for tomorrow with no rain so will get the media box fibreglassed.

Sanded it all down to get the mechanical key in the resin and edges, as well as on the inlets and outlets.

Then stage 2 can begin

 

[kindai]

Today was absolutely perfect weather for fibreglassing. Yes it is inside a shed but glassing while the air is humid just makes things more unworkable.

Anyway we got to work....

First was the "technical parts" the glass ledge and the pipework.




The rest of the easy bits were done and then all sanded to denib any sharp edges that when flow coated turn into razors.



It was then flowcoated in lovely black. Nice and waterproof.







Goiong to leave it to dry a day or 2 then get the glass window in and sealed.

 

[NickK]

Fed the fish this morning, a surprise - the Tancho was straight into the food that collected behind the floating plant. It beat the others to it. I think it has just figured out what the food looks like and the rattling of the skimmer lid (I use like a dinner bell) meant that was chomping away as much as possible before the others got up top.

The little ones are like pellet hoovers - the poor larger fish end up missing out as they're slower to find the food I thought initially it would be the other way around.

I've had to increase the feeding - previously I had dropped down to a feed a day for the two large fish when I was concerned about the ammonia (I think the test kit was bad). Monday+tuesday I feed more (three smaller amounts through the day so that at least one sitting the small fish would find food). Today boom - the new fish are eating properly. So I may have to switch to dawn/dusk feeds.

My fish seem slower more nervous to come up to feed, partly because of the natural plants give places to hide etc which means they get that behaviour and partly because my UVC isn't finished (I need to order plastic today for delivery tomorrow/friday for the weekend as I need to drain down the filters and move them out of the way to access the pipe to glue it).

 

[kindai]

So busy day. Progressed as far as possible with the existing filteration in place, however now need to widen the "old pit".

The drum and old bio chamber.





First thing first, empty the media into floating nets to keep the bacteria alive and provide "some" benefit.







Next the protein skimmer taken out





And the drum removed.






The old bio chamber was then taken to with a circular saw and angle grinder.


It was rotting apart in places so while in theory the fibreglass strength would have kept it together, probably good that it has been dismantled.




Next removed as much of the old electrics as possible, then mark up the pond overflow line and the working water level lines with a laser level and tape.





Finally, spray over the tape and remove to know the exact working levels for the next parts of the project.

 

[NickK]

Ripped out all the steel corner beading that's rusted and stained the paint above it brown/orange. With that ripped out, The pond gets tiled

 

[jackboy]

Hi all

i need some help advice please, I am no expert I just have a small pond with some Koi. I have had them for approx 3 years with no issue, I do not have an elaborate setup just a pressurised filter.
A few weeks ago my pond developed a leak, the liner was about 15 years old, anyway I woke up one morning to find my pond had very little water, my only option was to move the fish to temp location and replace the liner immediately as I was off on holiday. I knew this may be dangerous for the fish as I could not mature the water etc but I did the best I could.
I came back from holiday to find all appeared well……I have shared as I guess the stress of this may be my source of my problem.

Back to my real issue, a few days ago one fish stopped eating and is sitting alone, I can not see my other issues, today I have noticed another fish is aloof but this one has white bits all over it, so I know I need to use a treatment but no idea what one.

Before you ask I have never tested my water so I have no kits to do, my fish have always been healthy and they grow fast so assumed all is well………

I am going to try and post a picture

 

[jackboy]

 

[kindai]

I am going to try and post a picture

Looks like excessive mucus shedding/sloughing.

Unfortunately this can be caused by any number of issues, so you would need to go down a basic diagnostic route so you actually treat the problem and not just chuck random chemicals and hope it works.

1) Test the water quality, either buy yourself a good kit like the columbo test kit, or take a sample of water to a koi dealer/garden center that can test for you.
2) Do a scrape of the koi and check for parasites, this is a bit more specialist so again you may need a koi dealer to come out to you, or find your local koi club and ask for help.

 

[jackboy]

OK and thanks

 

[NickK]

Sunburn?

Hi all

i need some help advice please, I am no expert I just have a small pond with some Koi. I have had them for approx 3 years with no issue, I do not have an elaborate setup just a pressurised filter.
A few weeks ago my pond developed a leak, the liner was about 15 years old, anyway I woke up one morning to find my pond had very little water, my only option was to move the fish to temp location and replace the liner immediately as I was off on holiday. I knew this may be dangerous for the fish as I could not mature the water etc but I did the best I could.
I came back from holiday to find all appeared well……I have shared as I guess the stress of this may be my source of my problem.

Back to my real issue, a few days ago one fish stopped eating and is sitting alone, I can not see my other issues, today I have noticed another fish is aloof but this one has white bits all over it, so I know I need to use a treatment but no idea what one.

Before you ask I have never tested my water so I have no kits to do, my fish have always been healthy and they grow fast so assumed all is well………

I am going to try and post a picture

Have you done a scrape and looked under the microscope?

It could be a reaction to the water (like a chemical burn), it could be sunburn or even a bacterial infection. There is a protazoa called white spot that can look like this too however that would be a large infection. It could even be koi pox and there's some other issue that's the primary problem.

I would test the water using a kit, and also do a scrape and look using a microscope. As @kindai has said - this is probably one for a specialist initially. The specialist will also ask about the water stats too.

 

[jackboy]

I lost the fish this evening, a shame really it was 20 inches; way bigger than I expected, the other fish seem OK at this time but I guess I may lose more…….
My local garden centre has a big Koi section, my wifes friend works there she thinks they do water tests so going to take a water sample tomorrow and see what they say. I did a few checks tonight and found the UV light has gone in the filter so I guess that does not help, so will get a new one ordered.

Thanks to you both for the advice

 

[NickK]

Update on the pond..
a) yes it looks a mess
b) you can see one of the small fish right at the end in the distance

I need to sort out the UVC I have a feeling that the Tancho comes up for a gulp of air every so often so I think it may have a problem with it's gills - I saw it earlier do that.

 

[NickK]

I lost the fish this evening, a shame really it was 20 inches; way bigger than I expected, the other fish seem OK at this time but I guess I may lose more…….
My local garden centre has a big Koi section, my wifes friend works there she thinks they do water tests so going to take a water sample tomorrow and see what they say. I did a few checks tonight and found the UV light has gone in the filter so I guess that does not help, so will get a new one ordered.

Thanks to you both for the advice

Sorry to hear that. I'd still check the water stats.

 

[kindai]

I lost the fish this evening, a shame really it was 20 inches; way bigger than I expected, the other fish seem OK at this time but I guess I may lose more…….

How long from symptoms to death was it?

Whats your water temp?

 

[jackboy]

Kindai, I was busy over the weekend, the first issue I noticed was Saturday evening this fish did not seem interested in food and normally it would basically eat out of my hand, then Sunday I noticed the whiteness and yesterday after the walking the dogs I checked the pond and he was gone.

So I guess 3 days….

I checked the pond earlier and none of the others seem to have any white spots.

Let’s see what the garden centre say……

 

[kindai]

Very few things can kill a fish that quickly from presenting symptoms to death.

Water quality is unlikely as all your fish would be showing some symptoms, lethargy, clamped fins, redness etc. However having a test done is still good.

White spot / Chilodonella / Costia would be the main suspects at this point, they can rapidly reproduce and overwhelm a fish within days. Unfortunately microscope confirmation is needed to confirm the presence of these parasites

 

[jackboy]

Update, so went to local garden centre and they did a comprehensive water check for me for free, who said nothing was free these days……anyway ammonia levels are high. The manager there agreed with you Kindai the white stuff was excess mucus due to stress caused by the high ammonia levels……they did not feel it was anything else and on the basis none of the other fish are showing signs of illness. The nitrate level was slightly high but not an issue.

The fish that died must have been a sensitive sole.

So net net is I am/was poisoning my fish due to not doing water testing!! So I have bought a kit now.

Short term action has been to do 40% water change and add some live bacteria to the water, they are already much happier. I will retest water tomorrow and see what has change. I will continue to add the bacteria balls and change water…..if needed.

Long terms solutions…….these are some ideas my son and I have had.

1. Add some lava rock into the pond, my son bought for his aquarium, probably in some netting to promote bacteria growth.
2. Add a second pressurised filter ‘box’ but remove any sponges and fill with lava rock or other media to promote bacteria.

I kind of get your bio chamber project now Kindai!

I could also buy a bigger filter and/or convert to gravity system but this is not my prefer initial approach.

Do either of you think 1 / 2 would work? I think my son has a spare filter box, if not I am sure I could find one…..

Lastly many thanks for the help!