Salt, chemicals and testing in garden fish ponds

Salt, chemicals and testing in garden fish ponds

TESTING .......

First of all because this topic came up while I was typing this edition let me talk about pond water testing and show you how to save money and heartache as well .,,,,, Quite simple do NOT test the water at all.

Why? Because you can get yourself into heck of a muddle once you start testing for the following reasons:

A) The ONLY time you need to test is when you believe you do have a serious problem and need expert and immediate action. This type of action cannot be catered for by using a low cost test kit with dubious accuracy. The best test kit by far is the behaviour of your fish.

B) Many are inaccurate anyway and give wrong results Parameters within the pond itself and test results thereof change depending on time of day and when you fed the fish for example.

C) Reagents in test kits normally have a short shelf life and become useless, If you must test then get the best test kit you can find .... Like many things price is probably the best determinant of quality.

SALT AND OTHER CHEMICALS

I have made mention of salt in previous issues. It keeps coming up. You can see I am passionate about NOT adding "things" to ponds. Let me explain ....

Salt in a pond IF it does any good at all is a mild tonic. Its effect IF ANY can only happen over a long period of time. Salt is an aggressive chemical which in certain circumstances can be lethal as you will see in a moment.

IF there is a real need to use salt to treat parasites then rather do the treatment NOT in the pond itself but in a large bowl and treat the fish with a much stronger salt solution for a shorter period of time.

Let's assume you have put salt in your pond and the problem of parasites has not disappeared. Someone then tells you through ignorance and not bad intent to add potassium permanganate to the pond. These two chemicals can then react together under certain circumstances to produce chlorine which is deadly even in small amounts.

Potassium permanganate by the way is a common pond chemical .... it is that pink stuff used by dentists in their mouth wash.

Do not add chemicals to your pond unless you are absolutely sure you need to.

More on chemicals and what they do and don't do next time. The biofilter properly sized, installed and maintained prevents more than 90% of all pond problems.

3. KOI FOOD ARITHMETIC

In summer fish eats lots more than other times of the year. Almost all fish foods and koi foods contain at least 10% water .... fish and you have enough water in pond already without paying another few dollars for a small amount. The manufacturer can save money by increasing amount of water in products .. referred to as moisture on the pack. 8% is probably lowest you will ever see. 10% is normal and anything above this (or not mentioned) is bad news.

Worse still is the ash content. Might also be called inorganic content or non-organic on then pack.

Look for food with 5% ash in it. This means a good formulation, and high quality raw materials normally. Avoid all fish foods with more than 10% ash because the quality of raw material is doubtful and the stuff is a waste of money anyway. Not only that; the ash either collects on the bottom of the pond (lots of fish faeces) or is removed in the biofilter.

Read the packaging on your fish food ... you might be surprised to find that 25% and even more of what you are paying for is water and rubbish.

If there is no such information on the packet then my advice would be to avoid it unless you can verify contents by talking to the seller.

High protein content (35% plus) and trace elements components are important components of good fish food

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4. LARGE PONDS are NOT bigger SMALL ponds

What is a large pond? We all understand this differently. I would class anything over 1,000 gallons or 5,000 litres as a large garden pond and anything over 4,000 gallons or 20,000 litres as a very large garden pond.

When you start talking about large to very large ponds then the implications to your pocket are significant. The bigger the pond the greater the amount and efficiency of the equipment required and the more there is to go wrong. Expert design must be built into the pond and there will inevitably be a lot more plumbing and electrics involved.

I am specifically talking about fish ponds where crystal clear water is the prime requirement .... most large koi ponds seek this objective. This is the list of equipment you will need and it does not cover everything ...

A 6 feet deep pond, large specialised biofilter taking up quite a bit of real estate, lots of UV power, lots of pump power, bottom drains and plumbing to match, sophisticated safe electrical circuitry, skimmer, valves, system draining and so on.

On the other hand if you want a small "natural" pond/lake from then the design approach is very different.

You do NOT need the above and instead you need lots and lots of plants and few fish (just like a natural pond). There is also no point in making it 6 feet deep .... why? You will never see the fish. For this type of pond keep it to max depth of 4 feet with most depth around 3 and a very shallow end with a beach made of pebbles.

Do not feed the fish unless you really must do to relieve your own stress .... treat them as native fish and allow them to look after themselves

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QUICK TIPS QUICK TIPS QUICK TIPS QUICK TIPS

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Today's quick tips ..........

A. Brushes in biofilters. Ask yourself why do you use brushes? Do you really need them ... possibly not. They do add to the cost without creating a major benefit in most small biofilters. Brushes in off the shelf conventional biofilters have such big gaps in them the only purpose they can serve is to remove long stands such as twigs, lengths of algae etc. For this purpose they are obviously fine .... is this what you want to achieve? For any other reason they are unsuitable. They don't do any harm ... they just make you poorer.

B. Pumps ... most small submersible pumps have impellors designed to go around in a single direction. This type normally have curved rotor blades for improved pumping efficiency. To make sure they do not start up in the wrong direction when you switch them on this type of rotor can only be turned by hand about 3/4 of a turn before it comes to a deliberate stop. If and when your pump sudenly stops pumping this is the first and easiest test to do to find out if the rotor needs changing or if something more serious is wrong with your pump. If the blades go round and round and round you probably just need a new rotor.

C. Pumps and maintenance ... more and more modern pumps are being sold without sponges to reduce the hassle of sponge cleaning. Do get one of these in preference to one with a sponge if you like the idea of less maintenance. This type of pump is generally more robust and can handle small solids going into it without breaking the shaft or rotor.

A list of quick tips is maintained at http://www.practical-water-gardens.com/tiptrick.htm

6. Expert Articles .............

In case you are not aware of the articles we publish by leading experts in the water gardening field take a look at: http://www.practical-water-gardens.com where you will see the list.

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can ask questions we will try to answer ..............

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We will try to answer personally but if this proves to be not possible because of large volumes of e mail we receive we will certainly answer in future Gazettes.