In the end the ponds were done to enhance my garden and expand the potential for birds ... here are some of my shots of this season ...

Spring is here and the birds are returning ... here are some of my shots of the season ...



Enjoy

PS ... If the birdshots are out of place please advice and I will remove it.

Here are a few more ...



Thanks for looking.

Absolutely stunning!

It has been a month since I last posted here ... a month full of incidents, trials and tribulation. Most noteworthy was the fall I took in the mountains near Tzaneen ... my leg is healing but I am still on crutches. For those that are interested in bikes you can read the whole story on Tripwired.

The ponds are changing almost daily as time goes by. I am not too sure of the value of the two green tanks with shadecloth balls in ... I don't know if they are adding any value to the system and I am seriously thinking about converting them into trickle towers.

About two weeks ago I noticed the first signs of string algae or blanket weed as it is also called. Slowly but surely this stuff started invading the whole system, clogging the grids at the stream entrances and smothering the hyacinths ... then some of the other plants started dying off and a vicious cycle was set in motion ... the more the plants suffered the better the weed grew. Then on Friday morning I noticed little black organisms growing in the first level of the waterfall ... by Saturday all the green slime algae were gone from that trough and I noticed these black things on the second level and in the stream beds. It seems as if this black organism is retarding the string algae.

Today I made some modifications to the plant pots by adding more crushed stone to create an island that are above the water level. I did this because I noticed the plants that were surrounded by this dry stone did not suffer from the algae.

Something that I am quite proud of is the fact that I introduced 96 koi and 70 goldfish to the ponds and I have not lost a single fish so far. I think that is something that I can build on. I had that anchor worm incident and that was treated successfully. On a rough estimate I would say the koi are now roughly twice as long and three times as heavy measured against what they were when I brought them in 9 weeks ago.

I introduced mollies and platies into the pump chamber and reservoir and the mosquito problem is solved there. I had an invasion of frogs and the veggie pond was infested with them. We suck the egg strings off as much as we can but obviously tadpoles still appeared in great numbers. My son has placed three oscars and two freshwater sharks into the veggie pond. The oscars do not eat the tadpoles but it appears as if the sharks has developed a pallet for them ... the pond is clean and the sharks are bloated.

The algae is really a pain the backside because they clog the synthetic filter material up quit rapidly.

Here are some shots ...



Comments on the algae will be welcomed ... I am adapting a wait and see stance.

Hi Colyn

Your pond looks very nice. The string algea is a sign of a new pond. As you know i also redid my pond earlier this year and so i went through the same pain with the string algea.

I was very tempted to dose the pond with chemicals but in the end i left the pond and it look about 4 weeks before the string algea was gone. It also helps not to feed the fish for 1 week becuase then they start to eat the string algea.

Thanks Wayne ... I will stop feeding the fish and see how that goes.

Some people did suggest some chemicals but I am also not really keen on doing something like that.

I have a question ... my bottomdrains on both ponds have their own seperate filter troughs ... obviously the inlet side collects a lot of solids ... is there any rule of how many times a month or a week that trough should be cleaned or should it be left undisturbed ?

Thank you.

Accumulation of debris is never healthy.
I would clean it at least once a month.

Jaco wrote:

Accumulation of debris is never healthy.
I would clean it at least once a month.

Thanks Jaco ... I will do that.

Ok I have flushed out the bottom drain filters and stopped feeding the koi. Their last feeding was yesterday morning.

It is is interesting to see how they are working the walls and floor of the ponds. Fortunately I have lots of blood worms around and some other organisms and the fish seems quite interested in what is available amongst the algae.

Update ... by last Sunday the algae was really annoying and all the ponds were covered by floater and bundles on the floors up to over a meter high ... I shut the pumps down and waited for the system to come to rest ... then I sprinkled coarse salt on every bundle I could see on the floors. I also sprinkled salt on some of the chambers in the filters.

With in almost minutes the algae started lifting from the floors and floated ... I fired the pumps up and all the floating algae was drawn into the skimmer trough within about an hour. So today I have very little string algae around.

A small note ... a number of my good looking Kohakus have turned in Sankis ... what is next.

Did they develop "Shimis" (black spots) or did the sumi (black patches) broke through?

If it is Shimis, it will still be considered Kohaku's. (Indication of low quality and hard water)

If black patches broke through, they will be considered Sankes.

If black patches also comes through on the head, it will be Showas.

On Sankes and showas, it is desireable if the sumi develops over time.

The black starts off as light grey patches and then gets deeper black as the days goes by.

Here are some shots I did this morning ...



Enjoy !

The Blanket Weed is once again rampant in my ponds

ChrisVis has posted some information on the issue here ...

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Here is a very special quote that was posted on the LinkAfrica Koipond in my Ponds thread and I want to share it with you.

ChrisVis wrote:

I would like to comment on Colyn's koi garden.

I visited the Rhenosterkop koi pond outlay and is convinced that his vision will eventually realise in full potential. The natural outlay of his system is blending the terrestrial environment and aquatic environment into a pleasant pristine habitat. The latter will inevitably maximise species diversity and careful management will minimize disturbances in the holistic ecological balance of this development.

I must admit I that I have not seen in the Lowveld such a multi-unit feature with naturally created cascades and rivulet pond linkages as seen in the Rhenosterkop koi garden.

I recommend visiting this system for any enthusiastic beginner - or enthusiastic koi keepers who want to learn more.

Enjoy.

CHRISVIS.

Ok today I am a bit disturbed. Since Thursday last week it started to rain in decent proportions and I obviously had to shed water regularly due to the topping up by rain.

My pH values are ...

1. Borehole (Source) = 8.3
2. Rain Water = 6.8

My dams are built in such a way that I cannot get any rain water runoff into the ponds.

Since Friday the pH started climbing. The ponds were at 8.4 on Thursday morning and since then slowly climbed up every day and by this morning it was 10.8.

My KH = 6 and GH = 9 with .4 Salt. Basically zero Nitrites. Very low Phosphate and Nitrate ... I boosted my plants for 10 days with some Kelp Extract and stopped 10 days ago when I noticed the Phosphates and Nitrates were rising.

The Kelp did wonders for the plants but as could be expected the algae also benefited

Now to come back to the pH nightmare ... by midday the pH was up to 11.8

On advice from ChrisVis I have added pool acid to the ponds ... 3 Litres. It was done as follows ... 500ml Acid plus 5L water mixed in a watering can and then we walked around the pond and trickled the mixture in. This process was followed in Pond #1 and #2 ... the Koiponds.

I will now wait and see what happens. What is baffling us is why it keeps on rising and especially only now that the rains has started. Our rain is acidic so it should lower the pH. With ChrisVis doing his science thing with all the readings I got for him and me just scanning the environment we have a feeling that it could be the coping rock work. Chris thinks it is the raw cement between the rocks that are leeching into the ponds when it rain and I agree with that. However I also suspect the actual rocks. I will do a test tonight with some rock shavings into water and see if it changes overnight.

Comments are more than welcome.

Colyn,

dit is beslis 'n "sement" probleem dit will vir my voorkom asof die reenwater "sement deeltjies" versamel voordat dit die dam bereik, die 10+ pH lesing bevestig dit. Jy kan sodium bikarbonate (NaHCO) ( baking soda) in die water gooi teen 5g per 1000lt, dit is veel veiliger as Swembadsuur, Hydrocloric acid, HCI of "spirit of salts" wat jy ook kan gebruik.

Dankie Pieter.

Koop jy daai Baking Soda sommer by die Spar ?

Colyn,

ja, maar jy sal 'n kg. of twee benodig!

Hi Colyn,
Jy kan ook baking soda swembad plekke kry tot 5kg. Maak net seker dit is bicarbonate of soda. Los die suur !!!

Hi Colyn,

Never fertilise the plants in a pond - you are also fertilising the algae. Also fertilizer can kill your koi. There have been cases where koi keepers have fertilizer their gardens and lawns and the runoff from the rains on the same day went into the pod - the koi died.

The pH of a pond has profound effects on your koi. Large fluctuations in the pH – even those caused by your intervention and good intentions are extremely stressful to koi. If you start to fiddle with the pH you will have to keep at it on a daily basis. Everything you throw at your pond will have a short term effect on the pH then it will simply return to where it was before. I advise strongly against fiddling with the pH.

The pH of a pond will vary during a day / night cycle. The pH will be lower in the morning and higher in the evening. It is always a good idea to take the pH reading twice a day. Green water has a profound effect on pH. Not so much the string algae on the walls but the suspended single cell algae. And yes the leaching of lime from the concrete will also affect the pH. During algae blooms (green water) the night time production of carbon dioxide by the plants will have a direct bearing on the pH. This will lower the pH, so in the morning the pH is at its lowest.
Adding acid to pond water is extremely dangerous and stressful to the fish. Koi can live quite comfortably in a pH range of 6 – 9 provided the fluctuation is not too great.

A more alkaline pond water is preferable and the pH not only affects the fish and the toxicity of the ammonia it also has a direct effect on the nitrifying bacteria in your filter. These bacteria cannot function below 7.0 pH. Their preferred range of pH is 7.8 – 8.2. This is exactly where your borehole water is.

Your borehole water has a very high pH in my opinion. As borehole water does not have oxygen in it or very little the pH is usually on the acidic side. I think you need to establish why your borehole water is so alkaline before you start throwing chemicals at the pond.

Remember that each unit of pH is 10 times more acidic of alkaline than the next or previous. For example a pH of 9 is 10 times more base (alkaline) than 8, a pH of 5 is 10 times more acid than 6.

When acid like substances such as acid are mixed with alkaline like substances, they react with each other producing some by-products and leaving the resulting solution with a pH somewhere between the two original values. The further apart the pH of the two substances, the more energy is released in the reaction. Put a teaspoon of baking soda in a half glass of vinegar and see what happens - and please stand back.

Just knowing the pH doesn't give us the complete picture. A pH test of distilled water can show almost any value since just a tiny amount of residual impurities, either acid or base, can have a major effect on the ratio of the two. If the alkalinity is low, it indicates that even a small amount of acid can cause a large change in our pH.

Consider the pond owner whose pH was 8.0. He is told that 7.0 is better so he puts in chemicals such as acid to lower it. The next day, it is back to 8.0 so he adds more chemicals. The following day it tests at 7.5. He feels good because it is finally starting to come down and dumps in some more stuff. All of a sudden he finds that the pH is 5.0. His bio-converter bacteria were destroyed and his fish are dying of ammonia poisoning compounded with pH shock. Each treatment kept reducing the alkalinity until it was so low that the final addition caused a major pH transition.

Alkalinity is related to the amount of dissolved Calcium, Magnesium, and other compounds in the water and as such, alkalinity tends to be higher in "harder" water. Lime leaching out of concrete ponds can be a primary source of alkalinity but it is also slowly increased by evaporation which concentrates the source compounds. Alkalinity is naturally decreased overtime through bacterial action which produces acidic compounds that combine with and reduce the alkalinity components. i.e. make the water more acidic over time.

This concrete leaching can be overcome with water changes. And I think this is the way to go considering the fertilizer in the plants. Even daily water changes, or the very least several times a week. It may even pay you to do a substantial 60 – 70% water change now that the pond has been running for some time.

In an established pond, the ideal Alkalinity measurement should be around 100ppm. Readings from 50 to 200 are acceptable.

The value of the pH measurement, within the acceptable limits, is of little importance. If your pH is swinging between 6 – 11 in a day have a look at increasing oxygen levels, reducing the algae before adding anything.

If your pH is reasonably stable and anywhere between 7.0 and 8.5, not only is there no need to attempt to adjust it, you probably will do more harm than good by trying to change it.

Regards,
Chris

Hi Colyn,
Just re-read you rearlier posting.

Adding that amount of acid as quickly as you did is simply madness. This can cause a major pH shift - quickly. This is extremely stressful on the koi.

If the acid was diluted and added over 24 hours I would say OK.

How are your koi? any signs of tumbling or loss of balance? Keep a close watch on them.

Regards,
Chris

Thanks Chris I appreciate your response.

After adding the acid I spent a lot of time sole searching and walked the pond perimeter a few times. The amount of exposed ... that is cement that has no coprox coating ... on the inside of the edge is relatively small and it just did not convince me that leeching could be responsible for the dramatic shift in pH I saw since Friday.

I decided to do a test and see if it could be true ...

I took a piece of jointing cement from the pathway edging as well as a small rock similar to what was used in the edging. The idea was to fill two containers with bore hole water ... test the water and then add the pieces of rock and cement in a bowl each and monitor that water over some time. All good and well planned but the moment I tested the clean water I realized something was wrong because now the electronic pH meter read 8.8.

Although the meter is basically brand new and was properly calibrated when I got it I decided to check it again with the solutions supplied by the manufacturer. To my utter dismay I found that the meter was over reading by 2.1 ... next shocker was that I found it impossible to calibrate the damn thing. It is a SAGA pH Pen and I am going to shove it up someone's ear.

I immediately went and tested the pond water with my Tetrapond Kit and the pH is between 7.5 and 8. I then switch my pumps to bypass the two tanks and pump directly into the waterfall. I then allowed the tanks to drain into the ponds. The Tanks were not in circulation when I added the last batch of acid.

I have just now looked at the fish and they seen fine. No funny swimming or acrobatics ... I will check tomorrow and see what is cooking. The GH = 9 and the KH = 6 and I do have 2 bags of oyster shells in the collection chamber under the incoming cascades. I have been told that if the pH should drop below 7.5 the water will begin to dissolve the shells and thus prevent a pH crash.

This episode has once again confirmed my initial mission and that was to avoid chemicals as far as possible ... secondly it has firmly installed a serious distrust in electronic measuring devices ... and for me as a gadget guy it is quite a shocker.

As for the borehole water ... I will test it with the Tetrapond kit tomorrow and confirm the pH.