Hi Colyn,

What was the capacity of your pond? I worked it out at 167000 Litres according to the first page of this thread?

Have you added salt before?

Have you found the cause of the sudden flashing? It is quite important to make a correct diagnosis. Then to give the correct treatment.

Regards,
Chris

The Capacity of the water in circulation varies around 117,000 litres ... just depends on how high I let the pond levels rise and how much I have in my sump.

I wouldn't know what caused the flashing ... it was not very intense and just a few fish did it and jumped a bit. They also did not flash with high frequency.

Seeing that is getting towards the end of the season I decided to add some salt ... I last added salt in September and with all the rain that should have been basically gone by end of October.

This now only my second END OF SEASON but last year I also added salt around this time. So I guess I would say it is my regime to add salt in September and in April.

I should have put 300kg but the previous year in April I did that and it "knocked" my plants a bit and seeing it the end of the season I did not think it wise to hurt the plants now.

The water is clear and we have harvested in the vicinity of 18kg of kurpers the past two weeks.

I will flush the algae dust out of the troughs one more time before we let the ponds settle for the winter. I want to drag a net this weekend and remove as many of the comets and goldfish from the koi ponds as I can. We have taken out almost all the kurpers.

This might come as a shock to some but the last time that I tested my water was in November 2008. I look at God's test meters ... the fish is happy, the plants look healthy and there are all types of life in the streams so I have to accept that things are good.

Thanks for your comments.

Jis dis a lang tyd terug wat ek laas hier kon kuier ... maar nouja ... die lewe wag vir niemand nie.

Die winter is verby en die gevreesde alge bom aanval van September het die jaar nie gebeur nie. My veggie pond is bebos en die plante is groen en geil. Die geel irisse is vol blom en die iris blare is is ongeveer 1.2 meter lank.

Ja en toe gebeur dit wraggies ... die paddas is terug en maak babies dat dit bars en so wragtig waar ... Julius is terug. Ek dink hy het kleintjies want hy vang die paddas en maak hulle sag en pap maar vreet nie. Hy vlieg weg met die paddas.

Na ek hom die laaste paar dae mooi dop gehou het is ek byna 100% seker dat hamerkoppe nie visse vang as daar paddas is nie.

Ek lees orals van mense wat oor die pH praat en ek skud maar my kop ... ek het in November 2008 laas enige toetse op my water gedoen ... die plante is gesond, die visse vreet en die water is helder ... so ek aanvaar dinge is reg.

Die seisoenale skuim is weer hier maar dis maar reg so ... ons skep dit af in die oggend en dis dit. Ek is seker die skuim word veroorsaak deur die visse en paddas se spawning.

Lekker dag vir julle almal.

Colyn,

Wat van 'n paar "update" fotos?

Hello Colyn

Colyn wrote:

Jis dis a lang tyd terug wat ek laas hier kon kuier ... maar nouja ... die lewe wag vir niemand nie.
Ek lees orals van mense wat oor die pH praat en ek skud maar my kop ... ek het in November 2008 laas enige toetse op my water gedoen ... die plante is gesond, die visse vreet en die water is helder ... so ek aanvaar dinge is reg.

Ons doen geeneen aldag water toetse nie, maar jy het al vantevore van onverklaarbare sporadiese flashing geskryf.... indien dit nie parasiete is nie .... meet maar die PH en jy sal die antwoorde kry.

Indien die skuim so erg raak dat jy dit daagliks moet afskep, sal ek paar toetse doen

Naand Colyn.

Baie geluk aan ;n welgedaan aan 'n suksesvolle projek. Ek soek 'n purple crested loerie wyfie wat so los by jou rondloop.Kan jy een kry?

Christo wrote:

Naand Colyn.

Baie geluk aan ;n welgedaan aan 'n suksesvolle projek. Ek soek 'n purple crested loerie wyfie wat so los by jou rondloop.Kan jy een kry?

Dankie ... jong ek is nou nie regtig in die voëlvang bedryf nie

Vandag is ek so bietjie omgekrap ... vir die eerste keer in baie jare moes ek drasties raak ... terwyl ek my oggend koffie drink en deur die venster na my damme kyk toe merk my vrou op ...

"JIS KYK DAAI MOOI VOëL !!!!"

Huh !!!!! ... dis a bloody kormorant !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wel nodeloos om te sê ... hy het nie dieselfde voordeel van die twyfel gekry as Julius nie. Terwyl ek wag vir a goeie skoot duik hy drie keer onder die water in en jy sien net visse spat die hele dam vol.

Sorry ... maar die ding is 'n rower van formaat en as hy eers sy maters bring maak hulle a dam skoon in 'n dag of twee.

Welkom terug Colyn, gedink jy het van die planeet verdwyn.

Here is a little video of one of the tasty spin offs from my ponds ...

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Enjoy.

Colyn, I would like to thank you for a very enjoyable couple of days reading up on your vision and implementation thereof. it really has been enjoyable.

maybe when you do your culling you could post some pictures of the koi with the ones you have attached yourself to. hard with 96 but ja.....

Been a long time since I have posted anything here.

Let me give a bit of an update.

This season came and I expected some green water ... however it never came ... the plants and especially the veggie pond seems to be running on 8 cylinders now and my water is clear and the the kurpers are all over the place ... I am still looking for a predator for them but one that wont try and eat the koi.

The vicious ESKOM accounts has made me switch one pump off in February and I watched for anything negative but it seems the flow is good for the system. This year I also did not salt the ponds in September.

Last year I posted about the koi with growth on the snout. Well a month ago I decided that enough is enough and removed the fish. I also removed a female that started bloating a year ago and it became obvious that whatever was inside was not going to subside. Both fish were between 35cm and 40cm.

I still apply the rule of no feeding in months that does not contain a "R" and my fish seems healthy. During the winter they loose a lot of the fat that they store in the last part of summer and autumn. In September we start off slowly wih feeding sessions every 3rd day for a week and then every second day for week and then back to daily feeding till March. During April we start cutting back and by the end of April all feeding stop. During May and early June they do browse the edges and bottom but from July hey just float around.

I am of the opinion that if we do not allow them to work off the fat we end up with potbellied fish. In nature they go through these fasting periods because there is a natural decline in food.

I am of the opinion that Mother Nature has taken control and things are ticking along as supposed to be.

A while back I made slideshow about my ponds ... I will upload to Youtube and post it here.

Thank you all for your contributions.

Here is the link to the slideshow ...

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Enjoy !

Hi Colyn ek wil net vir jou sê dit is n baie mooi setup wat jy het, ek droom daarvan om 1dag vir my ook so dam te bou, maar vir nou moet ek eers vashou wat ek het. Ons moet nog n keer trek, dan sal ek begin werk aan my droom, ek hoop ek kan jou nader vir hulp. Lekker kersfees vir jou en jou gesin.

Hi Colyn. Awesome pond and happy to see that all the years hard work paid off great successes. Please post some more pics and a few pics of your fish.

It has been a while since I posted here.

As many of us must have felt, the cost of electricity is becoming an issue with my ponds.

My ponds are doing well but as the fish grew the biomass is showing signs of overpowering my mechanical filtering. This issue I will have to address. I am still pondering possible solutions.

My issue today is the power consumption. A week ago I installed a separate meter on my pond feed and I was surprised. I have 3x .75kw pumps. The number of pumps running depends on the volume of water in the system. Under "normal" conditions the one pump will run around 70% of the time.

We had some rain over the past two days with the result that the volume has increased and the 3rd pump is running close to 100%.

My current consumption is 57 units per day. That is high and costs around 2,000.00 per month.

I did investigate switching to solar pumps but to maintain my flowrate would cost around 60,000.00 rand with the issue of batteries not lasting past 7 years and pumps roughly 5 years. It is not an economical solution.

My current thoughts are to switch the ponds to solar assisted. Which will mean a battery pack and inverter. Then solar panels to charge the batteries with Eskom on standby to top up if the solar panels do not provide enough charge. Apparently there is an intelligent inverter available from Germany that can manage this scenario.

What are your thoughts ?

Hi Colyn, it is a headache for all of us. The koi industry is dying because of the costs of electricity, and we are forced to look at alternatives, and I believe solar is the alternative.

We need circulation especially when the sun is out and the temperature is high.

One the best pumps ever made is Grundfos. They last for ages. They mainly do borehole pumps but also have a pool pump that can deliver up to 70 000 liters per day if it runs on 9 panels, and is costing only R 10 000.00. The more sun, the higher the delivery.

Average 35 000 on 3 panels, 45 000 on 6 panels and 65 000 on 9 panels.

It will cut out when the sun is not shining and will kick in as soon as the panels deliver sufficient power again. So, no batteries nor inverter needed.

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

My thought, install one of these for day time running and keep only one of your current .75 kw pumps for additional flow, night time running, lift for waterfall and pressure for backwashes. You can even run the .75 with a 2000 watts inverter (R 2000) and 4 x 300w solar panels(@ R 1000 each) with batteries for night running and use Eskom only as backup.

If you lower your stocking density you can actually get away with a turnaround of three times a day because of the size of your ponds.

Dankie Paul.

Maak net duidelik asb ...

Een pomp met 9 Panels = R10,000.00 en dit kan 70,000 liters per dag lewer ?

Die pomp is R 10 259.00. Sien [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Lewering tot 70 000 p/d

Die pomp spesifikasies kom ook voor op die webtuiste. AC en DC.

Die panele, brackets ens. sal ekstra wees en jy kan natuurlik enige panele gebruik. Ek koop al my goed by solarsolved, maar jy kan dalk beter doen daarbo. Sien Bidorbuy vir goedkoop panele.