Mar 2001 Selected Articles
|
Mar 2001 Selected Articles |
President's Corner - President |
Another perfect day for a club meeting. The February meeting was held at the Robinson’s. It is encouraging to see a young person like Chris take on the hobby of Koi Keeping. We need more young people like him to ensure our hobby will continue. Many useful tips and good information was shared at our discussion. Over fifty Koi from three inches to over twenty inches were auctioned to the highest bidder. The Auction was again a great success and over 450.00 dollars were added to the treasury. If you didn’t have a good time that day, then you were at the wrong meeting. I’d like to thank Peggy Morris, Rod Lawton, Ann Miller and Asela Hopkins for donating these Koi. A big thank you goes to the setup people, Shirley Stone, Tina Gasson and Nate Deaton for their hard work on Saturday.
At the last meeting I mentioned the need for volunteers for the AFKAP Show. We still need people to sign up for various positions. If you’re planning on attending this show please consider signing up on the volunteer list at the next meeting or call a board member even if you can only help for an hour or two. The Show will be held on March 17 and 18 in Orlando, but we also need help on the 15 and 16 for setup.
The next meeting will be at the Kaler’s home in Middleburg. Tina and Cliff have a beautiful professional build pond and you don’t want to miss this chance to see it. Jan Brown will give a presentation on water gardening and plants. The meeting will, like always, be on Sunday at 2PM. I hope to see you all there. Fred
PS: Please remember your membership is now due and has to be paid up at the next meeting date.
The February club meeting was held by the pond at the home of Mary and Chris Robinson. We would like to thank them for graciously opening up their home & hosting our meeting. They have a lovely, kidney-shaped pond with a large rock waterfall. The water flows from a brand new filter system that had just been installed by fellow club member, Todo Todorsky.
Our president, Fred Leib, began the meeting by asking for the Treasurer’s Report. Next, our first club outing planned for March 24 to the Kanapaha Gardens was discussed. Transportation for the club going as a group is being arranged. If enough people are interested in going, a school bus or possibly a greyhound bus will be obtained. It was decided that a decision concerning the transportation would be made at the next club meeting.
Then, Jim Roberts, gave us an update on the 4th annual All Florida Koi and Pond Show. Volunteers are coming forward, however, more are welcomed.
The club is still looking for a good location to have our Young Fish Show. There is still plenty of time if you wish to sign up to show your fish.
Later, the beautifully designed club calendar was handed out. (Fred-you did an outstanding job!!) Monthly meeting dates and times, as well as, special events are listed to help keep us all informed. I, for one, am going to put magnets on the back and place it on my refrigerator.
Since spring is knocking at our front door, a brief question and answer session developed regarding spring clean up in and around our ponds. Followed by an interesting presentation given by Fred Leib on a way to modify a simple, inexpensive power head to become a fountain.
After the refreshments, a vigorous fish auction was held. The club would like to thank the members for their generous donation of fish, in which, the club made $403.25.
I look forward to seeing you at the next club meeting! Linda Hagan
Safely Adding Water To Your Pond
A Club member recently reported an almost total loss of fish in his pond after a automatic filling valve in a swimming pool-size pond stuck in the open position, allowing City water to flow into the pond for at least 24 hours. Most of the koi in the pond were dead or dying by the time the problem was discovered. The following article will explain the process, and give you some choices to help keep your pond safe when adding water.
The first step in safely adding water to your pond is to know what type of water you are using. If you use water from a municipal source, your water will contain some form of chlorine. You should check with your local water company to find out if they add chlorine or chloramine to your water. The other main source of water is using your own well water.
In general, you can safely add potable water from any of the above sources to your pond as long as you add it slowly. Most experts limit this to less than 5% of your total pond volume per day, added slowly over several hours. In other words, if you leave a trickle of water running into your pond, you will in most cases not have a problem while adding water to your pond.
Having said this, it is still recommended that you use a timer to prevent overflows, and treat any water you add to your pond.
City Water Containing Chlorine
If you use water containing chlorine, you can easily correct the problem. Chlorine will gas off quickly by adding the water in a vigorous spray. You can also remove chlorine using a simple and cheap pond water conditioner based on sodium thiosulfate. This may be purchased in liquid form at any fish store, or you can buy the crystals in bulk from one of the major pond equipment dealers who advertise in this newsletter and make your own.
This water conditioner should be mixed into your City water in a separate container before being added to the pond. This is the safest way to use it, but you can also mix this water conditioner along with the water you are adding directly into the pond.
City Water Containing Chloramine
If you use water containing chloramine, then you have a more serious problem. Chloramine is a combination of chlorine and ammonia. Yes, ammonia! This is added to help keep the chlorine in the water for a longer period of time. As a result, it’s harder for the fish keeper to safely add water.
If you use a sodium thiosulfate based water conditioner, this will break the bond between the two chemicals, and will remove the chlorine. Bit it will leave all the ammonia, which in one Club member’s water supply was tested at 4.0 ppm. If you make a major water change of 25%, you will be placing your fish in water containing at least 1.0 ppm of ammonia, which could easily damage or kill them.
There is another water conditioner based on sodium hydroxymethanesulfonate and other chemicals. One example of these is Amquel. This conditioner will instantly remove chlorine and convert the ammonia to a safe state, but it is much more expensive to use. In addition, water treated with this conditioner cannot be accurately tested using any Nessler’s type test kit.
The water conditioner should be mixed into your City water in a separate container before being added to the pond. This is the safest way to use it, but you can also mix this water conditioner along with the water you are adding directly into the pond.
But, even with the chlorine gone, this still leaves you with a large dose of temporarily converted ammonia that must be removed. If you have chloramine in your City water, you must have some form of biofilter to remove the ammonia with nitrifying bacteria.
Well Water
For those of you who have a well with potable drinking water, you have it easier. The only real problems with well water is that is usually contains very little or no oxygen, and that the temperature may be drastically different from your pond water, especially in our hot Florida summers. This water should also be sprayed when added to the pond.
The Whole House Water Filter
One solution to the problem of safely adding water to your pond is to use a whole house water filtration system with a carbon filter. These are sold at home improvement stores for under $20, and the two for $8 filter cartridges are rated for 15,000 gallons. The carbon filter cartridge is said to remove both ammonia and chlorine, but you should check to make sure.
At least one type of whole house filter system sold locally has a 3/4 inch threaded opening on both ends. You can install this inline to your automatic water lever line, or with a simple converter, hook it up to a water hose. Even while using this system, to be sure that you are safe, add the water slowly, spray it over the pond, set a timer to prevent overflows, and use a good test kit to be sure the water you are adding to your pond is actually safe. Tests for both chlorine and ammonia should read zero Reprinted from Pond Droppings; Florida West Coast Koi & Water Garden Club.
This year, for the first time ever, AFKAPS will sponsor a Tub Water Garden Contest. Anna Boone has agreed to be our judge. Ribbons will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place.
GUIDELINES: 1) Setup for the tubs will be on Friday, March 16th, before 7:00 PM. 2) Judging will take place on Saturday, March 17th. 3) Clubs or individuals may enter. 4) Please post only a 5" x 8" card to list the plants by their common names and the entrant's club affiliation. No entrant names on the cards, please. (Entrants may include plant botanical or Latin name in addition to the common name; however, this is not necessary for judging).
5) No restricted aquatic plants allowed. 6) If an individual or club would like to seek vendor sponsorship and publicize this within their club newsletter, that would be fine; however, NO ads or sponsorship information should be placed on the tub at the show. 7) Tubs must be round in shape, sit flat on the ground, and not exceed 25 gallons. (Similar in appearance to a half whiskey barrel). 8) This is just a plain tub garden, so NO pumps, fountains, fish, or other live critters. (Electricity will not be available for the tub garden setups).
For more information contact: Joe White
E-mail Joe mailto:SWKoi@aol.com (904) 767-0814Discussion on Ammonia and Test Kits
Rod Lawton - NFKCThe two most common test kits are:
1. Nessler reagent type test kits, which are fine for fresh water, but give false readings in salted or salt water. It reads total ammonia and does not read thru bound ammonia to get an accurate free ammonia (the harmful ammonia as opposed to bound ammonia) reading,
2. Salicylate reagent type test kits, which are good for freshwater or saltwater. Again, these kits read total ammonia and do not read thru bound ammonia to give accurate, free ammonia only readings.
There are other kits/indicators that use a base of the Salicylate reagent along with some thing else (I am not sure what) to allow them to read thru (disregard) bound ammonia and read only free ammonia.
These would be the Ammonia Alert card by Seachem, the Multitest Free and Total Ammonia test kit by Seachem, the Mydor test kit (reads free ammonia only) and the LaMotte Salicylate test kit for use with Amquel. The latter is very expensive. When my water does not contain an ammonia binder, I use the AP Saltwater Master Liquid Test Kit. It is cheaper, just as good as the freshwater Master Pond Dry Tab Test Kit, you don’t have to do as much shaking (dissolving those tablets can be a pain), but has a higher range ph. Most Koi keepers have a ph that is above 7.4 anyway. This kit reads total ammonia and I use it when I haven’t used Prime in the water recently. It works in both fresh and salt water.
Here is what Seachem has to say about their Total and Free Ammonia Test Kit and other test kits in regards to testing and free ammonia. This kit measures total (NH3 and NH4+) and free ammonia (NH3 only) down to 0.05 mg/L and is virtually interference free in marine and fresh water. Free ammonia is the toxic form of ammonia (vs. ionized Ammonia NH4+ which is non-toxic) and thus it is much more important to keep an eye on the level of free ammonia in your system. This kit is based on the same gas exchange technology that is used in the Ammonia Alert* and thus is the only kit on the market that can read levels of free ammonia while using ammonia removal products such as Prime*, Safe*, AmGuard* and any similar competing products. The other kits (salicylate or Nessler based) determine the total ammonia by raising the pH of the test solution to 12 or greater. At this high pH all ammonia removal products will breakdown and re-release the ammonia, thus giving you a false ammonia reading. I know, this all seems to be the opposite of your problem. I have many people ask questions about the above stuff, but never your situation. I take my Koi to several Koi Shows throughout the year and always bag them with a little Amquel. Why Amquel if I am such a Prime fan? Well, almost all of the major shows use Amquel in the tank and I just don't like mixing chemicals or dragging a fish from one chemical to another. I just don't know what it will do. I also noted that you are using both Amquel and Prime and have used Stress Coat and Ammo-Lock. I believe I read somewhere that Ammo-Lock and Amquel are not a good combination. Besides, you are wasting your money using both products. Stick to either Prime or Amquel and try not to mix them. Maybe this is what is causing the false readings, I don't know. I will ask some more questions of Seachem first chance I get. I must say though that you are really throwing a lot of chemicals at those poor guys and they need a little break. A lot of water changes can be stressful also. That is why I stick to the Prime and overdose if I need to. It has not let me down to date.
Here is some more good info about the Ammonia Alert Cards. I called Seachem on the phone and spoke with one of their techs. He had several good things to say about the Ammonia Alert Card and it’s use. Here they are:
1. Don't put your fingers on the indicator button or it can throw it off and damage it.
2. If you used chemicals such as Methylene Blue or Malachite Green or Potassium Permanganate (hope I spelled all those right) they can stain the dot and make it look like a false reading. So take the card out when using chemicals that can stain.
3. Any test that reads "FREE AMMONIA" should agree with the Ammonia Alert Card readings. It must be a free ammonia test however and not a total ammonia test. I think we have already discussed the difference in these two.
4. If you think the card is not working, a quick way to test it is as follows:
a. Take the card out of the water for an hour or so till the reading is back to normal.
b. Once the reading is normal, open a bottle of household ammonia and hold the card over the top of the bottle (do not put it the card in any ammonia it self, it will react to the gases coming out of the bottle).
5. Life of a card is 8 month to a year and the shelf life of an unopened card is not limited.
6. If you had pulled the entire sensing dot off the card instead of just the cellophane cover, you would have a clear dot with no color.
7. Replacement sensor dots are available for the card if you do not want to buy the whole card when it expires or is damaged.
Want to get enlightened about water quality? Try this link to Norm Meck. Norm in my opinion is the guru of water quality and there is a lot of good information provided at his clubs site. This is a direct link to his water quality pamphlet followed by some links to information from manufacturers of test kits and pond products:
http://www.koiclubsandiego.org/H2oQual.html#Test_Kits http://www.kordon.com/kfaq.htm
http://www.seachem.com/index_english.html http://www.aquariumpharm.com/techref/apb000.htm
Many stores are now offering a product for cleaning outside windows. It is called “Windex Outdoor.” The package says it’s easy to use and it won’t harm plants, paint or sliding, but it doesn’t say anything about its effect on fish.Bob and Carol Clos of the Washington Koi and Water Garden Society had a bitter experience a year or so ago. A slight wind was blowing towards the pond as they cleaned their windows with this product. The apparent result was a major fish kill.
While they are not absolutely certain that there is a cause and effect relation in this situation, it reminds us to be very very careful with any chemicals that might drift towards our ponds.
Reprinted from Washington Koi and Water Garden Society, April 2000.President's Corner - President |