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Thread: testing water

  1. #1

    testing water

    Hi all ,im new to koi keeping and would like some advise on testing the water, i have purchased a tetra test kit which i use weekly ,tests for ammonia,nitrite and ph is there any other tests i should be carrying out weekly ,been told these are the most important ,also my ph is 8 is this suitable for koi any info would be appreciated



  2. #2
    A ph of 8 is okay for Koi as long as it is stable and doesn't swing from morning to evening. So you should check early and then later on, just to be sure. I find my ph reaches its highest at around 5-6pm and then drops off to the early hours of the morning.

    For the most part a PH of 8 is okay, but in summer with higher temps it can also affect your fish in detrimental ways. You can't feed too much and have high ammonia with a high ph as it becomes more toxic.

    Lots for you to learn, but you have the whole winter to get up to speed.

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  3. #3
    Thanks for the reply dawn very helpful, will be posting a lot more questions im sure thanks

  4. #4
    No problem, I've learned a lot myself this year, especially about water and PH...
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  5. #5
    Senior Member Rank = Grand Champion voodoo_15_uk's Avatar
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    Hiya,

    welcome to the site.

    i use kusuri test kits and have a columbo as a back up

  6. #6
    Cheers laura just trying to get as much info as possible any help is appreciated

  7. #7
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Tosai Ringo's Avatar
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    I test for kh regularly ,especially important if you have soft water or you try to soften hard water. Kh value is your buffer and ideally Should be kept around or above 7 . If kh is low , ph can crash and as mentioned before, fish don't like ph swings. The Salifert kit is good value and easy to use. To raise ph you can use food grade sodium bicarbonate.
    Regards Ralph

  8. #8
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion go54nke's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ringo View Post
    I test for kh regularly ,especially important if you have soft water or you try to soften hard water. Kh value is your buffer and ideally Should be kept around or above 7 . If kh is low , ph can crash and as mentioned before, fish don't like ph swings. The Salifert kit is good value and easy to use. To raise ph you can use food grade sodium bicarbonate.
    Regards Ralph
    KH is fine around 3 unless your running bead filters in which case you would need a little more, or source water with a high enough KH level to keep things running smooth.

    Running a KH of 3 is fine in most cases as long as the pH doesn't swing around and you keep an eye on things, if you can't keep an eye on water parameters then running it higher will give a saftey margin.

    There's much more to it then the pH crashing due to a low level of KH, you would have to have a pretty poor pond maintainance regime to end up with a pH crash, most crashes I've come across are due to poor maintainance, or relying on rain water to fill the pond back up after cleaning the filters.

  9. #9
    Riley,

    A couple of years ago, Koi magazine asked me to write an article in two parts about the basics of water testing especially for beginners. The first part explained, in simple language, what you need to understand about water parameters and the second part explained how to test for them and what the results should be. It's on my website on the link below.

    I've covered the subject in far greater detail in other articles on my site but this one just explains the essentials. I hope it helps:
    Testing Water

  10. #10
    Hi Riley. Welcome to this great site. you will find it very helpful. x

  11. #11
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Tosai Ringo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by go54nke View Post
    There's much more to it then the pH crashing due to a low level of KH, you would have to have a pretty poor pond maintainance regime to end up with a pH crash, most crashes I've come across are due to poor maintainance, or relying on rain water to fill the pond back up after cleaning the filters.
    Agreed, I should have said 'ph swings' not ' crashes'. as Dawn eluded to, things can change during the day quite dramatically . I have large marine reef system. And you can watch the ph meter drop within minutes of the lights going off and rise when the lights come on.

    Anyway, I still think that doing a regular kh test is an important check to do.

    Ralph

  12. #12
    Cheers ralph very much appreciated

  13. #13
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion go54nke's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ringo View Post
    Agreed, I should have said 'ph swings' not ' crashes'. as Dawn eluded to, things can change during the day quite dramatically . I have large marine reef system. And you can watch the ph meter drop within minutes of the lights going off and rise when the lights come on.

    Anyway, I still think that doing a regular kh test is an important check to do.

    Ralph
    Hi Ralph, just out of interest which meter and probes are you using to monitor the pH.

  14. #14
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Tosai Ringo's Avatar
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    The latest meter I use is a cheap 'aquarium digital' from reefdreams.co.uk Steve there is very helpful and its been one of the best i've used, previous ones have been IKS Aquastar and Pinpoint meters and probes which are both good but quite pricey. The cheap one has a built in probe but there is also a model which has a detachable probe. Steve does the calibration fluids too .

    Regards Ralph

  15. #15
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Adult Champion go54nke's Avatar
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    Cheers Ralph, always used the pinpoint one and calibrate it from a photometer.

  16. #16
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Nisai ash's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Manky Sanke View Post
    Riley,

    A couple of years ago, Koi magazine asked me to write an article in two parts about the basics of water testing especially for beginners. The first part explained, in simple language, what you need to understand about water parameters and the second part explained how to test for them and what the results should be. It's on my website on the link below.

    I've covered the subject in far greater detail in other articles on my site but this one just explains the essentials. I hope it helps:
    Testing Water
    Great articles! Thank you for adding to my knowledge. I appreciate it.

  17. #17
    Extreme Koi Member Rank = Supreme Champion pondwithnoname's Avatar
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    Manky Sanke is the main man for water, if you've read his articles and visited his web site then there's nothing else to add.

  18. #18
    Thanks Both,

    Water sciences are pretty complicated which is why I try to simplify the technical stuff as far as is possible and I'm always glad to help spread information so if anything I write goes over anyone's head, post questions to me on here and I'll try to make a clearer explanation.

    PS If I don't spot the post, PM me.

 

 

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