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  1. #1
    Senior Member Rank = Jussai Djstiles999's Avatar
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    Grow on Tank Question

    500 gallon grow on tank, bottom drain, nexus 200 with as much K1 as you want, auto feeder, uv.

    Buying 6” fish to grow through from end of April until next spring (May/June) how many would people put in?



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  3. #2
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion john1's Avatar
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    Hi DJ,
    I have had eight koi in 350 gals for over four months a lot bigger than 6ins and thay have done well,but at the peak of heat it was hard to get rid of the crap.
    So for 500 gals for 12 mths I would say six max as you would have a decent filter.
    I have found the hardest is getting rid of the solids,a drum would be the ideal but I use a vortex which works but some escapes through so I trap it with a micro sock before the shower which works well.
    John

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  5. #3
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Davej's Avatar
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    Much will depend on the fish, the temps, feed, water exchange and what you are attempting to achieve with them.

    Bottom line is that the more fish you have in there the more challenging it will be to get the best from them and the more problems you will face.

    The load on the system will increase as they grow, over the period of a year by significantly … To balance this the ideal would be to reduce the head count in there so maybe start with 12 reduce to 8 at 25cm, 5 at 40cm and 3 at 50cm, by doing this you will achieve the best for the pick of the fish . This approach also has an advantage as smaller fish do tend to do better when they have the security of a shoal.

    An alternate is to stick with 6 or 8 throughout recognising that if they do well you are probably going to have to compromise on the feed towards the end of the period.

    Dave

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  7. #4
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion freddyboy's Avatar
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    hi mate. i have 3 in my 500 gallon QT grow on. the most i have had in there is 8 fish, as said above from dave and john. as they grow. the feed goes up. and you will have to reduce the numbers.
    I will be adding 3 more 6 to 8 inch in the next few months. at the start of my growing the fish. I was doing lots of water changes. and testing parameters a lot. now once a week. as the tank and filters are fully mature.
    have a great time bringing them on mate. its a lot of fun.
    fred

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  9. #5
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Frimley Koi keeper's Avatar
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    Looks like 500 gallon QTs are the way to go

    Just need to get on the case with mine now.

    I'm going BD to Eazy Pod to 210 litre barrel with K1 in then pump and maybe a UVC and back into the QT.

    Some say the UVC isn't required if it's inside a garage but a UVC does more than just keep the water from going green basically so if I have one fitted I have the option to use it or not depending on how things go.

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    Senior Member Rank = Jussai Djstiles999's Avatar
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    I’m going for ozone instead of UV, and tank is in the garage. Have heard good things and like the science, we will see how it works!

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  13. #7
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Frimley Koi keeper's Avatar
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    Be interested to hear more about that and how you get on with it.

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  15. #8
    Senior Member Rank = Jussai Djstiles999's Avatar
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    What is particularly attractive is by adding the extra oxygen molecule to nitrite you convert to nitrate. Particularly as I’m starting with fishless cycling for the K1 this appealed.

    Bought an Aquasure unit for £75 from Boddington Koi, runs on 9w so not a big expense
    Attached Images Attached Images

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  17. #9
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Frimley Koi keeper's Avatar
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    How are you going to be removing the Nitrate that it produces?

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  19. #10
    Senior Member Rank = Jussai Djstiles999's Avatar
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    Mght try this stuff? If not I’m probably back to water changes

    https://www.envii.co.uk/shop/nitrate-klear/

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  21. #11
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Frimley Koi keeper's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Djstiles999 View Post
    Mght try this stuff? If not I’m probably back to water changes

    https://www.envii.co.uk/shop/nitrate-klear/
    Interesting.

    Personally I prefer mechanical removal via filtration than chemical removal if possible. Not always possible in every situation I know.

    Be good to hear what you think of it and how you get on with it later on.

  22. #12
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Davej's Avatar
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    Never had a need to run UV on any of the inside grow on tanks, I'd see it as simply another expense.

    Personally where I dont skimp is on water exchange - to get the best results it is essential if you want to get the best from the fish in a relatively small tank, with 1000 gallon set ups I am changing 20 % a day.

    Dave





    .

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  24. #13
    Senior Member Rank = Jussai Djstiles999's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frimley Koi keeper View Post
    Interesting.

    Personally I prefer mechanical removal via filtration than chemical removal if possible. Not always possible in every situation I know.

    Be good to hear what you think of it and how you get on with it later on.
    What would you go for to strip the nitrate on a tank like this?

  25. #14
    Senior Member Rank = Jussai Djstiles999's Avatar
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    Just found a protein skimmer in the garage, there’s a thought

  26. #15
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Frimley Koi keeper's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Djstiles999 View Post
    Just found a protein skimmer in the garage, there’s a thought
    Tornado 2 by any chance?

    Protein skimmer with the correct media in it should do the job.

    I used to have a Tornado 2 and the original media that came with it was something like K1 or Micro K1 but I changed that for something else which I think was called biohome media? It was a while ago so may not have remembered the name right? As the filter was outside next to the pond and in direct sunlight I had a piece of PVC tubing cut to fit over it to help shade the media in it to help keep it as dark as possible. It used to work quite well but was just a nightmare to clean as the system I had at the time wasn't that great so too much muck was getting into it.

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    Senior Member Rank = Jussai Djstiles999's Avatar
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    It is indeed, I wasn’t going to bother having it on the pond as it’ll just get lost although I do like the clarity unit

    Had some Lithaqua delivered to use rather than oyster shells then discovered the holes in the media bag are too big - whoops

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  30. #17
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    I bought a few bits and pieces to help clean it.

    To clean the long pipe that lets the foam escape up the middle of the filter I got a very long handled bottle brush, which worked a treat.

    To clean the media I used a large kidney shaped pond planter that allowed me to dump it up and down in a large Rhino bucket to get rid of the muck that built up on it.

    To put the media back in the filter I bought a funnel with an extra large spout and also cut down a 2 pint plastic milk bottle to make into a scoop. I got fed up with the media dropping down the centre foam pipe when I was putting it all back together after clearing which meant taking it apart again to get the bits out. Not any more with the funnel and scoop

    I used to run a tiny aquarium air pump so the foam fractionator worked. I think it was something like a 5 lpm pump as I didn't have a need for anything else at the time.

    When you looked at it, it was so simple how it worked but was so effective. If I could get some decent media for it I would probably get it going again on my main pond.

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  32. #18
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Frimley Koi keeper's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Davej View Post
    Never had a need to run UV on any of the inside grow on tanks, I'd see it as simply another expense.

    Dave.
    I think I may have been misinformed on how a UVC actually works. No change there then. I was under the impression that that a UVC does more than just remove green water from the pond. I thought it also killed off certain bacteria?

    Can you explain exactly what it does please as I would like to know so I am better informed please?

  33. #19
    Senior Member Rank = Jussai Djstiles999's Avatar
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    My understanding is that a UV causes algae to clump together so that the now larger clumps can be caught by your sieve/mechanical filtration. We also seem to have sterilisers which are “super UV’s” either high watt, reflected, specific spectrum or increased dwell time so they kill bacteria etc

  34. #20
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Frimley Koi keeper's Avatar
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    I understand that much about them but there must be more to it than that as if you add certain treatments you have to turn off your UVC for a few days. I also know that they only work for a certain amount of time and then they are said to go off frequency and then stop working even though they are still giving off plenty of light. As they require control gear to make them work then they are not just an extra strong light bulb they are more like a fluorescent tube, metal halide lamp or sodium street light bulb.

 

 
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