Priceless koi and pond care tips I would like to share with you
Testing the Tap Water you use to fill your pond is important!!
If you are using “city water” you must use a water conditioner that removes both chlorine and ammonia. Some city water departments use chloramines to treat the water.
Chloramines are made up of chlorine and ammonia. If you use a water conditioner that only removes chlorine, you’re leaving the ammonia behind in your pond water which is the last thing you need to keep your fish healthy. Aqua Meds® DeChlor & More is an excellent product for removing chlorine and ammonia from your tap water.
Testing your “tap water” for pH is important you know if your pond water needs a “buffer” to increase the pH in order to prevent a deadly pH crash. Pond Support™ adds carbonates to support your pH. And if you need more carbonates, our Buff-it-Up works great.
Pond Water Testing: Testing for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, KH (carbonate hardness) and pH should be done every day when your pond is new and once a week thereafter. Using good test kits like API made by Mars will take the guesswork out of your testing results.
Plus, a pond water thermometer is a must, knowing the temperature of your pond water determines many factors such as when to do temperature dependent treatments, when to begin to feed your fish in the spring, adding more oxygen to your pond water during the real hot summer days and more.
The “Good Bacteria “GB” in your filter: Known as “Nitrifying Bacteria” is the most important bacteria in your pond filter. However, it’s also one of the most delicate and slowest growing bacteria in your filter.
“GB” must be “pampered” and treated just like your fish. “GB” needs oxygen, carbonates and food (one food is the ammonia your fish produce), in order to live and they need warm water (over 65 degrees and higher) to multiply.
Protecting the “GB” when cleaning your filter is very important! For general maintenance, NEVER, clean your filter or filter pads with “tap water”.
The chlorine in the “tap water” will kill the “GB”. Use “tap water” that has been treated with a good water conditioner that removes the chlorine from the water or use fresh pond water (the best choice). NEVER clean your filter “squeaky clean”. Just remove the “sludge” from the filter pads and filter.
Leave the “slime coat” on your filter, it’s the “GB” and you want to keep them! Note of interest: your fish produce more ammonia from their gills than they do from their waste.
A Ten percent water change once a week: Small water changes more often, are better than a large water change not as often. Don’t do your water changes on the same day you treat your pond with our products
Over Feeding and Over Crowding: Two of the biggest “water quality” busters are overfeeding and overcrowding!
You want your fish to be just on the edge of being hungry (no, not starving) but fed just enough to give them all the nutrition they need for good growth, great color and health.
Would your choice be a smaller number of big beautiful, healthy fish in high quality water? Or twice as many fish, that are not growing, sick most of the time and have a real water quality problem all the time?
VERY IMPORTANT!!: You also should test your Tap Water for ammonia, KH (alkalinity) and pH.
Thanks for using Aqua Meds Products,
Rick
rick@aquameds.com
