Melchett

Hi, it's my first post so bear with me...

The guy at the local aquatics centre told me that the water quality of my pond could be affected by a high protein food. He was saying ~30% protein was ok but ~40% was too high and could cause problems with the water quality. The problem is I've already bought food with 42% protein so I need to know whether I should be using it....

The pond is ~6000ltrs with 25 or so koi/goldfish. I've had loads of fish die over the years but never known why. I'm just trying to be really careful with everything.

Not sure what else you need to know, any advice welcome...

Thanks,

Davej

Hi

Welcome to the forum.

Nothing in life is ever simple and unless the Guy has seen your system, filters, stocking levels and tested your water then such a statement simply shows how much he knows about fish keeping .

I could fill a page with questions but these are the basics; there will be more but if you ever want to start to get to grips with fish keeping then we will need to know;

• What filtration is there?
• How big are the fish?
• How much water do you change?
• Do you test for Ammonia, Nitrite and pH?

Dave

Melchett

Okay, here goes

>> What filtration is there?
There's a 3 stage filter with brushes, the plastic tubes and the foam filters. Not sure of its capacity but it's pretty big...There's no UV filter.

>>How big are the fish?
These range from a 14" Koi, a few 10", some 6" and a dozen or so goldfish. Not many for size of pond.

>>How much water do you change?
This will be the subject of my next post...The answer is I don't change the water because I thought that may be killing the fish (with the chlorine etc.). Not too sure what I'm meant to be doing in that respect.

>>Do you test for Ammonia, Nitrite and pH?
Yes, and all seems fine. pH a little high maybe (8.0) but others ok. Salt level good also.


I inherited the pond when we moved in so I've not bought the equipment myself. Therefore I can't say much about capacities or flow rates.

Hope that helps...

miles41

Hi & welcome to the forum

I use Medikoi Growth food at the moment with no problems, the fish love it! I do have a UV clarifier though and I do a 10-20% water change at least once a week, sometimes more often.
I can't see a problem with high protein food during the summer, but as the water cools into Autumn & winter I shall change back to Medikoi probiotic. There will be no feeding during the winter of course.

Melchett

Right, so the food looks okay, but I need to do regular water changes. Can you just clarify the procedure here as I've heard that tap water isn't good. Do you change 10% of the water (say) and then top up with tap water and the appropriate amount of AquaSafe. I've heard some people store water for a while to remove the chlorine before using it to top up.

Thanks for your help.

miles41

I must admit, I do use tap water and I haven't had any problems. Ideally though, the water should be run through a water purifier first to remove all the chemicals etc.
Like I said, i've had no problems, but if your budget can stretch to a purifier, then it is the best way to go & I'll be getting one when the funds allow

Davej

Hi

A Fish pond is a very unnatural environment and the fish rely on you to maintain the water to a standard where they can have a decent quality of life.

Without water changes pollutants gradually build up in the pond hence changing water is a fundamental part of fish keeping.

Ideal is to have a constant trickle with an overflow from the pond going to waste, this saves any chance of shock from sudden changes in the water but changing 10 - 20% at a time will do no harm.

You are right about chlorine in tap water not being good for fish and to be safe needing to add dechlor. Leaving water to stand has little effect on the chlorine.

In reality if you haven't changed water in a long time then for a 10% water change any chlorine in the water will simply burn itself out on the organics in the pond water before it causes any distress to the fish.

When adding tap water best add it into the pond and not into the filters though.

You haven't mentioned anything about cleaning the filters? You will need to get into a routine of cleaning them to extract the muck from them. If you haven't cleaned them you will need to take a liittle care when doing this as a load of muck will have built up in them and you will need to avoid flushing this back into the pond and also damaging the helpful bacteria that do the work of detoxifying the fish waste.

Hope this helps

Dave

Melchett

Yep, filter is cleaned every so often so I think that's okay and I'll be doing the water changes as you suggest.

Thanks for your help. It's much appreciated.