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Message: [QUOTE="capewind, post: 148042, member: 4510"] Getting late for me, so going to keep this one short... I dont know why my water parameters stay good, other than to say with the stock to filtration levels, it is working. I watch the 30 gallon and what was the kiddie pool/now is the 55 closely... Those two, I do feel that I am pushing the envelope, and move babies up to the 600 and 750 as they get big enough to handle those situations (aka filter intakes and bigger food). This is the only thing I know for certain... itty bitty babies were started in 30 gallons, and moved up as they grew... I've changed a few "containers" but all started out in about 30 gallons of water... The oldest babies INSIDE, have grown consistently with the handful of OUTSIDE babies... Maybe we are simply overthinking quanity to volume, and disregarding the help the plants and cleaning of filters is doing? Again, the 750 gallon set up is pushing nearly 3000 gph... hubby cleans it about every 2 weeks... the 650 gallon set up only has the 1000 gph, but he is cleaning that one daily thanks to all the LONG water hyacinth roots... gave them a hair cut, so hopefully that will get better (pruned the roots back from 18-24" to about 10") As long as water parameters are good, no way no how will I do water changes without a damn good reason (such as spawning or precautionary meds for QT fish). Years ago, every time we did those MUST DO water changes in our MARINE/INVERT tanks, things would go wrong. Once that tank had been established, it was rare to even add a fish, so the bacterias were doing their job. Quit doing the water changes, and never another problem until Hurricane Bob (8 days no power or generator was devestating). I dont know if you have ever messed with inverts, but some species can be EXTREMELY touchy. Not only the water parameters, but some want to be xxx inches from the lights, or want indirect light only, or in direct current, or AWAY from current... if they werent happy, they were dead, no warnings or maybe's about it. Another thing that MAY be helping is the replacement water always comes from the main pond. Low stock level (IMO) considering nearly 10,000 gallons of water (2 ponds connected... intake in one, discharges in the other)... This pond has only been set up since April, and ammonia, nitrites AND nitrates are all at zero still. Head count out there is roughly 40 koi evenly sized from 7-8" for the little guys, up to 22-23"... 7 or 8 shubunkins that I am guessing to be 7-8" (no more than a max of 9")... I think we still have 8 adult comets (placed a few) that are maybe 8-9" and one feeder goldfish that made it to 12" (not much is going to eat him now LOL)... I also tossed back a whole bunch of babies, of which I think there are about a dozen or so comets left, all about 4-5" now (memory is getting foggy, I think they were spawn in May). Filtration wise, we are not running much at all... One Laguna Filter Falls 5000 with an 8000 gph pump that was reduced down (split valve) until the point that it wasnt coming out the back of the box from too much flow... the filter falls is located in the upper pond, and water returns to the lower pond via water fall... the intake for the filter falls is in the lower pond... Back at the T from the 8000 gph pump, it runs raw/unfiltered water through a grossly undersized 40 watt UV to a small ornamental water fall in the lower pond... We also had a TON of water hyacinths (and a bunch of other plants). The cold has killed almost all of the water hyacinths in the lower pond, going to guess we still have 250? in the lower pond, but the upper pond gets a bit warmer water from the pump, and will guess maybe 500 water hyacinths are still alive (I know that sounds like a lot... about 90% of an 8 x 18' area has coverage in the upper pond)... Heck, the lilies (all hardies) are still pushing buds (weird year LOL). I havent paid attention to how much water we are actually replacing... with the 30 gallon tank, I am going to guess I am adding about an inch every 7-10 days... It has been a week or so since I last added water, and it is down about an inch from where it should be... With the previous kiddie pool, I paid less attention... one of those things of when it became noticable, I'd grab a tote of water LOL... the 600 and 750, maybe once a month hubby grabs a hose with the pump and adds water... Havent actually added any to the 600 since it was built a month or so ago, and am going to guess that is needing a GOOD 2-3"... [/QUOTE]

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