I visited a friend today and observed the following.

His swimming pool was a dark brown color.

He explained that he had put new water in the previous day and within hours of adding HTH the water turned brown.

Now what is the reason

He uses the same water in his Koi pond and is now concerned, need he be.

What is the remedy and is this in any way bad for his koi

It is bore hole water

Your views please

Hi Neville,

Test first the water - otherwise there will be endless speculation. Find out what is going on.

Remember swimming pools can get chlorine locked. Too much chlorine over a period of time can cause havock with the swimming pools chemistry. This can be burned out with a lot of acid or removed with a complete water change. How long has he been using this water on his fish? This will give you an indication if it is good or bad for the koi!

If it is heavy metals - you need to know which ones as some will prove to be toxic to koi. However, if the koi are alive and well then don't worry about it.

If you want to try something - use zeolite and regenerate it every few weeks. Zeolite removes ammonia but also heavy metals. Be careful as thiis may affect the perfomance of the biofilter because you are removing the ammonia before it gets to the bacteria and therefore starving them.

You could build a zeolite filter for the incoming water to remove these things before it gets to the pond. Just use a 110 mm pipe or even better a 150mm pipe. About 1 m - 1.5 m long. Use the same zeolite chips as you would for sand filter sand replacement. Restrict both ends, place a hose connector on one side and an open 50mm pipe on the other (retrun to the pond). Also place a valve on the outlet. Fill the pond by pumping the tap or bore hole water through this pre-filter. Can't be too expensive to make. (Call it the Aqua Calm KPPF - or Aqua Calm Koi Pond Pre Filter) and send the royalty cheque to my bank

You could even have two of them. One is in operation whilst the other is being regenerated with a saturated salt solution. You do not even have to remove the zeolite. Just close the outlet and fill with saturated salt solution. Drain after 6 hours then do the same thing several times.

Regards,
Chris

Hi Chris
Fantastic idea.
Cheque on its way

Anver

Hi Chris,

Thank you for the comprehensive reply, especially the part about royalties I like that.

I suppose you are correct one should start off by having the water analysed and I will suggest that.

His fish is fine no signs of problems there.

The water in the swimming pool was fresh complete refill the previous day.

I like the KPPF idea this should be patented. I really think that the days are near that bore hole users will have to revert to these kinds of methods. Maybe have a pre treated reservoir and replenish your pond from that.

Thanks Chris will let you know what develops.

did he do a backwash etc before running on filter?

I had the same with my pool when I first bought my current house a few years ago. Cleaned the pool and filled it up all nicely. I then decided to put the pump on and learnt very quickly that one must clean out the filters etc. Without doing so all the kak that had been sitting in the pipes and in the filters had returned back into my pool and it was brown within seconds.

Hi Cliff

He promised me that the filter was clean before he started it.

Must say the water is not really brown or muddy it is a rusty color.

I have arranged for him to take a water sample to Reggie Phillips who will have it analyzed and report back.

just thinking that the filters can be clean, but what about the return pipes to the pool?

If his return to the pool is quite a distance from the pump and filters then there could have been alot of water that remained in the pipes that went bad and dirty and could only have been released by returning it back into the pool??

Does he by any chance have a waterpipe running to his pool from his roof or anywhere else? Had someone with a similar problem and all tested fine. Found that he had rainwater running to his pool from the gutters.

Thanks Chris and Cliff.

I am led to believe that the pond was cleaned and filled with new water from the bore hole. The following day the HTH was added and the water went rusty brown.

He has decided to go the Chris Neaves way and change his filter to Zeolite. Refuses to except the royalty's though.

Hi Neville,

My suggestion was to pre-filter the water through a separate tailor-made zeolite filter not convert the existing filters to zeolite. (add 2.5% onto the royalties). This would work much better as you can isolate these pre-filters for re-charging. Therefore you can continually use these pre-filters when adding new water.

Another suggestion - give Ian Hopkins a ring at Pool Spa and Filtration (in Oxford Rd, Ferndale) - he is a boffin on swimming pool water chemistry and he will be able to give you an instant answer to changing colour of the water problem. Do you have his number? (add 2.5% onto the royalties for a consulting fee).

You could also phone HTH themselves and speak to one of their advisors. (add another 2.5%).

Speaking of consulting fees - what would you guys consider a reasonable call out fee for a pond or koi problem? Well what-ever it is here is a true story with-out comparable rip-off artistry. A "professional" koi dealer charged R8,000 for three call-outs. Medication (malachite green and formalin) treatments were included. (checked the typing three times so there is no mistake).

Add 2.5% onto the royalties for not charging so much .......

Regards,
Chris

Hi Chris

Some people always knows better and I left him to do the filter. Thanks for the other leads will try that.

As for the R 8000.00 bill well that is shocking, and coming from a "professional dealer" nogal.
What a certain way to kill the hobby. I bet that keeper nor his friends wants to keep koi anymore.


From one extreme to the next
In making some enq today I was told of a dealer who charges R300.00 per month to play host to some koi 14 off.
The same dealer was asked to collect 15 fish some 40Km away and keep them at the R300.00 per month setup but was told that R 500.00 to fetch was too much, he did not get the job.

In my opinion

Traveling R 2.50 per Km
Call out R300.00
Per fish to inject R200 first 1 and thereafter R100.00.
Any additional medication @ the ruling price
Pond treatments medication at cost plus 50%
If I have to keep your fish R 750.00 per month per pond or per 10 fish.

Wow maybe I stuck my neck out a bit here, then so be it.