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  1. #1

    Pond manteinance + sick fish

    Hi,

    IF YOU ARE HAPPY TO READ MY POND'S STORY PLEASE CONTINUE OTHERWISE SKIP TO THE BOTTOM.

    I'm new to the forum, I have a 7000 lt pond with Koi but also other fish, I got it with my house when I bought it. I'm not sure how many fish I have in total because the pond water is very cloudy and sometimes some new fish appear to the surface. I used to have a pond in the country where I'm from but it didn't have a filter and the water was clear and the fish looked healthy and I didn't really need to feed the fish because they would eat insects and mosquitos. Since I have this pond though I'm finding hard to understand if what I'm doing with it is right. I had a few sick fish since I had it and I tried several treatments but it doesn't look as if anything has gotten better, in fact every now and then something new appears on a new fish. At the moment my ghost koi (which is also the biggest koi in the pond) is presenting with a red rash all over its back, close to its top fin and there's another fish who has a white spot on its back and when I lifted it off the water it looks like a fungi. As I said my water is very cloudy and it is just getting worse and worse.
    In spring one of our fish was often floating in the surface, not moving much and had a whitish film around him. We went to a fish shop and they advised us to give it an immune system booster since it was spring, we gave the treatment and we haven't been able to see that fish since.
    Then the ghost koi started behaving the same way so I called a vet who asked me to bring it to its surgery but I didn't have the capacity to do so. Few days later it starting behaving normally again. Then it was covered in the white film so we went to the aquatic shop again and they suggested to give an antibiotic treatment because it was for sure a bacterial infection and it got better. Then we bought a water tester and now I test the water every week or every other week but everything is always in the norm except for a slightly high pH of 8. We went to the aquatic shop again after to ask how to clear the water because we wanted to see if the first fish that we treated was still ok or if it died and it was at the bottom of the pond and they gave us some "good bacteria" that haven't done much, we then learned that plants help with clearing water and we put few water lettuce and waterlilies and other plants in but nothing has happened as yet (a month and a half later).
    I'm very worried because I don't want to see these fish dying due to my lack of experience with koi and my lack of knowledge.



    I'm looking for an expert advice to learn how to maintain the pond at its best and how to prevent the koi I have from getting worse or even dying. I really love my fish and I only want the best for them.

    Thank you all.

    Cristina



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  3. #2
    Senior Member Rank = Rokusai Simon Fish's Avatar
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    First thing is to get the water clear.
    If you did have fish dead on the bottom or anything else lurking that's not going to promote good health.

    So what's the filtration set up? Pump speed etc?

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  5. #3
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion anne's Avatar
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    People on here will want to know everything about your pond, what filter, pumps, gallons etc you have
    what all you water readings are, just about everything. Sometimes its a good idea if you could post up some
    photo's of your pond / filter system ( a picture paints a thousand words ) gives people a better idea of the situation.
    I will leave it to the experts on here to help you...…….Goodluck with it all

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  7. #4
    The filtration is made by a bio filter, I've been cleaning the filter once a month but I've been doing it with tap water and I've recently discovered that I should have done it with pond water. I've no idea about the pump speed, but apparently the filter was built by the previous owner so I wouldn't know how to find this information. Do you think buying a new filter could be a solution?

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  9. #5
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion anne's Avatar
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    Where are you located ? maybe somebody near could come and have a look for you .

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  11. #6
    very hard to take photos due to the light at the moment and the reflection in the pond, but I think this one shows well how cloudy my pond is and you can just see on the left side of the ghost koi the shadow of the red rash. I'm unable to take a photo of the filter in this moment in time but it is very similar to this one https://www.pond-planet.co.uk/pond-c...nd-filter-p682
    Attached Images Attached Images

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  13. #7
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion anne's Avatar
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    I have a horrible feeling that people on here are going to crucify that filter but it does have a bit
    of a uv ( ultra violet clarifier ) built in, that should help keep the water clear depending on how many gallons you have.
    maybe the bulb needs changing, DO NOT LOOK AT THE BULB DIRECTLY You really need someone round
    to advice on filters and everything else to do with pond / koi keeping, it can be an absolute nightmare at times and
    a joy at other times .

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  15. #8
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion john1's Avatar
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    Hi Christina and welcome, think we need the size of your pond first,if you dont know then measure length x width and average depth then we can get a fair idea what we are up against.
    As Anne said where are you? Maybe someone is near you and can pop over.
    A few pics of the filter and pond as well to get a better idea,probably pump fed ( pump is in the pond,yes? )
    Filter is no good for koi,but as said we need the size of your pond.
    John

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  17. #9
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Frimley Koi keeper's Avatar
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    Hi Cristina, as already said your filter isn't much good for koi but what you could try is cleaning a lot more regularly maybe even once a day at first then judge the muck build up and go from there.

    Don't use tap water unless it is running through a dechlorinator and maybe best to clean the sponges and flocor? bio media in buckets of pond water and then top the pond up with dechlorinated water either via a filter or a liquid dechlorinator or tap water conditioner.

    The chlorine is basically killing off the good bacteria in the pond and your filter so it can't colonise and do what it's meant to do and as a result could be raising your Ammonia and Nitrite levels possibly?

    If you have been using the garden hose with a spray gun set to a shower setting to top up your pond you may have been lucky and gassed off the chlorine before or as it hits the surface of the pond?

    For chlorine testing get some DPD4 tablets the rapid dissolving versions from Ebay or Amazon and drop a tablet into a test tube with 10 ml of water in it then look down into the top of the the tube onto a white back ground and if you see any signs of pink in the water then you have got chlorine in it. You need to be fairly quick as it will turn pink anyway after a few minutes I think you'll find but could be wrong on that.

    For all the other tests like Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, PH, KH, GH (not essential to test for this but could be helpful) use a decent test kit like NT Labs, API or Tetra etc etc.

    You will need to up grade the filter ASAP but more regular cleaning may give you some extra time while you sort out what you need and always by bigger than you think you need so you have room for expansion and also to allow for your existing fish to grow.

    Small water changes may also help with any high readings with the exception of KH and GH possibly as they can be specific to the part of the country you are in due to your water supply.

    For a starting set of figures test your tap water as it come out of the tap plus through a dechlorinator as this will help with a reference figure if that makes sense?

    The more information you can tell us the better the help you will get.

    BTW you can have clear water that has got bad or high readings for harmful stuff and dirty water that is much safer and vice versa so clear doesn't always mean good water OK.

    Good luck.

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  19. #10
    Senior Member Rank = Supreme Champion Ajm's Avatar
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    As painful as it is Haha I must agree to every thing frim has said no one means to be harsh saying for filter is no good they are just sold wrongly to make money but the best move you have made is coming on this forum the advice is outstanding

    Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
    Freddyboy the legend

    "we are water keepers first"

    Johnathan

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  21. #11
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Frimley Koi keeper's Avatar
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    Cristina have a look at this site it's got loads of really good info and the guy that runs it is a member on here too -

    Home

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  23. #12
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion Frimley Koi keeper's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ajm View Post
    As painful as it is Haha I must agree to every thing frim has said no one means to be harsh saying for filter is no good they are just sold wrongly to make money but the best move you have made is coming on this forum the advice is outstanding

    Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
    Yes you will find a lot (but not all) of the basic pond shops attached to garden centres are just trying to sell you their stuff regardless and you end up basically treating your pond and or fish blind. Some times it works other times it doesn't and the shops just want to keep selling you treatments etc and think that if you want more fish you will then end up coming back to them for those too.

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  25. #13
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Gosai RudeDogg1's Avatar
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    Personally if the pond is as is from when you moved in I’d be tempted to drain it and give it a bloody good clean

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