Good morning!

[stonecreek1]

Good morning. I should have done an intro before my first post but a little late than never! My name is Molly. My husband and I put in a 20,000 gallon koi pond this past summer. We welcomed 20 koi to our pond. Our koi decided to spawn in late August thru September! We had no idea till we started seeing little colors all around the rocks!! We are so excited to be newbies and have the opportunity to try to raise a few ignore own. So along with some advice from a pond enthusiast and our desire to see them (and give us something to do) we put a 300 gallon tank in the basement. We have an external filter system, two air bubble pads, and I am trying to see if I can winter a few hyacinths. Which right now is working out because I have to soak the food and the smash it for many of the babies to eat and I smash it along the plants and they love to nibble it along the plant. I have about 200 babies in there for about 3 weeks now. I had original just pumped the pond water into the tank so I could hopefully save some stress on them. I am still having trouble with getting the water balanced. I took a sample to our pond store and he was only concerned about the PH behind was 9. So he advised vinegar. Which I am not sure it helps. Maybe short term. But I have a sweeper and have been sweeping every other day to remove waste. I have to bags of carbon ammonia remover hanging in there. I have been adding beneficial bacteria 2 times a week. I am not sure I should but the filter flow seems to be slowing and so I have washed the filter pads but been careful not to touch the bio balls. The filter has an inbuilt UV light. Should I just relax and give it more time to cycle? And also, I will attach a picture. I was cleaning the roots of the hyacinth off yesterday thinking that may help and this was in the roots. Does anyone know what it is?? Thanks for all your help so far, and so excited to have this place to find information!!!

 

[Tula]

Welcome Stonecreek1 I live in the Cincinnati area, so a fellow Buckeye! I love your house, what a beautiful setting for your pond.

I believe that is a dragon fly nymph you found on the roots. Looking forward to following your adventure!

 

[stonecreek1]

Welcome Stonecreek1 I live in the Cincinnati area, so a fellow Buckeye! I love your house, what a beautiful setting for your pond.

I believe that is a dragon fly nymph you found on the roots. Looking forward to following your adventure!

Thank you! Our home was built in 1823! So it has been a long restoration process! Hence the pond is our unwind time!!! Thanks for the info on the Nymph! I didn't realize they are in the water like that!!! Maybe I will have dragonflies flying around my basement???

 

[Dave 54]

Yes it is @Tula , I'm worried if they have more in their holding ponds dont forget their main meal is fry and anthing else they can catch in those Killer Jaws dont yoy think

Dave

 

[Becky]

Welcome to the forum! You have such a beautiful house and pond

 

[bettasngoldfish]

Your pond is beautiful and those babies are so cute

I have not done so myself but I don't think it is safe to use vinegar in a tank/pond with fish. I'm not sure why they told you to use it but if it was to lower the ph I wouldn't bother playing around with it. It is actually more harmful to your fish to play around with the ph level than to leave it alone.

 

[cas]

Love your house and pond! Good luck with the fry!

 

[MitchM]

Welcome Stonecreek.

What are your ammonia and nitrite readings in that new tub right now?
If you have a cycled outdoor pond, with a layer of biofilm/periphyton on it, I would strongly suggest placing a few rocks from your pond in that new tub.
It's very important to have something in place that can process the ammonia that your fish are excreting.

 

[stonecreek1]

Welcome Stonecreek.

What are your ammonia and nitrite readings in that new tub right now?
If you have a cycled outdoor pond, with a layer of biofilm/periphyton on it, I would strongly suggest placing a few rocks from your pond in that new tub.
It's very important to have something in place that can process the ammonia that your fish are excreting.

Wow, I didn't think of that.. Thank you. I could easily grab a few rocks. My Ammonia and Nitrite are high! Nitrite around 3. I have been sweeping it every day and changing about 10% of the water. But, I am not sure if I should be doing that. The babies are still flashing this evening so, I am not sure what else to do that won't stress or hurt them. But I will definitely grab some rocks tomorrow. Thank you!!

 

[sissy]

Welcome .Did you use water from your pond as that will help also .Never heard of using vinegar .I has had lots of babies and I have well water and add buckets of pond water and filter stuff from my pond .By the way that is one nice looking pond .You need to get a liquid API test kit and test your self .

 

[stonecreek1]

Welcome .Did you use water from your pond as that will help also .Never heard of using vinegar .I has had lots of babies and I have well water and add buckets of pond water and filter stuff from my pond .By the way that is one nice looking pond .You need to get a liquid API test kit and test your self .

Hi, Thank you for the compliment! It was a labor of love! 35 tons of rocks!!! Yes I originally pumped water from the pond into the indoor tank. But it is a new filter, not the one from outside. We also have well water. We have a softner that the water runs through. I am afraid to bring in any water at this point because it is 40 degrees already and I have the tank at 64 degrees. I agree, I need a liquid API test kit. I am almost an hour from the pond store, so I was thinking of going up again on Saturday with another sample. But, again, I am concerned because he advised me to just keep adding the vinegar to get the PH down. He said not to worry about any other numbers! I have not lost any of the babies recently. But, I can tell they don't seem content. Still flashing and rubbing on the hyacinth.

 

[Thomas Gannon]

@stonecreek1 PH is a large part of keeping fish alive and healthy, but a drastic change can negatively impact them. If they are currently surviving more basic water than what is recommended it is best to slowly bring it down. Also I recommend using a product called ph down. Name says it all. Also your pond looks fantastic, one of the best i've seen thus far.

 

[Thomas Gannon]

@stonecreek1 by a drastic change I mean you don't want to drop more than one on the ph scale in a short amount of time

 

[stonecreek1]

@stonecreek1 PH is a large part of keeping fish alive and healthy, but a drastic change can negatively impact them. If they are currently surviving more basic water than what is recommended it is best to slowly bring it down. Also I recommend using a product called ph down. Name says it all. Also your pond looks fantastic, one of the best i've seen thus far.

Thank you! Quiet a compliment for a project that we took on and completed ourselves with no prior knowledge! I appreciate that!!! I will check into the PH Down and do a little research!

 

[Thomas Gannon]

@stonecreek1 That was your first one??? Now I'm really impressed