What does this mean to you? This means that the further you move away from 7.0 in either the up or
down direction can be very dramatic. This is the same type of scale that they measure earthquakes
with. The difference between a 4.0 earthquake and a 5.0 earthquake is 10 times more devastating. The
difference between a 4.0 and a 6.0 earthquake is (10 x 10) or 100 times more devastating! From 4.0
to 7.0 is (10 x 10 x 10) or 1,000 times worse yet!!! Take for example the earthquake of 1994 in Los
Angeles. It registered 6.6 on the Richter scale. The earthquake in Indonesia was a humongous 9.2
reading and caused a deadly tidal wave. If it would have happened in Los Angeles, the damage would
have been almost 1,000 times worse than the 1994 quake!
So lets go back to the example of showing how big that fish you
caught was. If the scale for inches was exponential like how pH is measured, to show the difference
between a 6 inch fish and a 12 inch fish you would have to hold your hands 5 feet apart! The perfect
fisherman's excuse to lie. If you were called a liar just say "Hey I was using the exponential
method, not linear!"
So what does all this exponential stuff mean to you and your pond water? First off when you make
minor changes in your water pH level there is a very dramatic change in how it feels to your Koi and
plants. Secondly, when you try to adjust your pH you may think you dumped a ton of chemicals into
your pond and there should be enough stuff in there to do something. But in reality you perhaps
didn’t even put a dent in the pH due to the exponential effect of how the pH is measured. Let’s say
that it took you 1 quart of a pH lowering product
to change your pH from a reading of 7.6 to a reading of 7.5 and you thought “Gee, it should have
changed more?” The fact of the matter is that if you now want to go from 7.5 to a value of 7.0 you
may need over 2 gallons of product! Another subject that affects the pH of water is buffering, which
we will cover next.
IMPORTANT POINT: Minor changes in pH are BIG changes to how your fish perceive the water conditions.
You should not change the pH of your pond water more than .2 units per day when you are trying to
pull your levels back to normal. You can really screw with the water conditions that Koi are living
in, and this can put them in a lot of stress if the swings are too dramatic. Even if you are getting
the water back to what it should be, it is still taking a big risk to do it too fast!
Side Note: Some freshwater fish and plants have evolved over millions of years to very live only in
very narrow bands of water pH because of the specific water conditions in their native habitats.
Some tropical fish from Africa or South America come from very acidic or very alkaline water and
they will not survive in “normal” water of 7.0 pH. These situations are not the norm though, and
luckily Koi are a pretty tolerant species of fish that can live in a fairly wide-ranging pH.
Buffer Bob Square Pants
Hard water has a lot of buffering capacity and soft water
has almost none.
2. Buffering
Capacity - Pure distilled water is free of all mineral deposits and impurities and that is why
the holes in your steam iron stay clean. If you don’t use distilled water in your iron you will see
white crusted deposits on the iron and that is a buildup of lime that was part of the tap water. The
most common way distilled water is produced is by a process called Reverse Osmosis. Pure water is no
good for your pond though. It has no buffering capacity as we will soon learn.
Buffering capacity refers to water's ability to keep
the pH stable, or another way to think of it is a natural resistance to any change. Think of
buffering like there is an imaginary big sponge in your pond that prevents things from happening too
fast. As long as the sponge is somewhat dry, it can absorb a lot of change. Just the reverse is true
also. If the sponge is saturated then it cannot absorb anything else. So when the buffering capacity
of your water is gone minor changes can produce a very big change to your pH. Hard water has a lot
of buffering capacity and soft water has almost none.
Buffering has both positive and negative consequences. Nothing is ever simple right? Here is the
catch to buffering. Hard tap water, the most common condition, usually has a large buffering
capacity when it is fresh out of the pipe. So over time as things happen to your water to either
raise or lower the pH, the buffering capacity of that fresh tap water resists change. However if
your water has been in the pond for a long time the chances are that your buffering capacity is worn
out, and small changes to the pH will have a very big effect on the reading. Since the buffering
capacity is all used up, it is time to start partial water changes so you get new water in the pond
that has more buffering capacity.
So think about this now. Let’s say you emptied your pond completely and put fresh water in. The pH
of your new water is 7.1, which is good. A week later you check and the pH is already 7.4! You have
a serious problem that needs to be looked at. Why is that a problem, isn’t 7.4 within limits? Yes it
is, but that new water you just put in had a huge buffering capacity to resist change. The buffering
capacity is all used up already. Something filled your “sponge” in just 1 week. You need to find out
what is causing your pH to rise and fix it.
Another example for thought; let’s say that you put all new water in the pond and your pH is 6.7 and
you want to run it up to 7.0 pH. When the water is new, and has a lot of buffering capacity you may
have to add a lot of agent to get it up just .1 unit of pH. But once you do get it up to 7.0 it will
more than likely stay there without much maintenance. But remember once again, in order to raise it
up any level at all you are going to have to break the limits of the buffering capacity of the water
to get it to change, and that may take a lot of product depending on how hard your water is.
A lot of people will buy a quart or 2 of product to raise or lower
the pH. Then they wind up putting all the product in the pond and notice nothing happens to the pH
levels. Of course they think, "Gee, this was a rip off, this stuff doesn't work at all and the store
sold me junk." But in reality they didn't break through the buffer zone and they are fooling
themselves.
In a pond, the nitrogen cycle produces nitric acid in the form of
nitrates. Without the buffering capacity of water your pond's pH would drop over time to a toxic
level. With sufficient buffering, the pH stays stable. This also helps to control algae outbreaks
and keeps the nitrates low.
Hard as a Rock
The buffering capacity of your pond is high with hard
water.
3. General Hardness - If your
water at home is hard you probably know it because your shower walls lime up easily or when you wash
your car there are spots of dried water that are hard to get off. Why is that? Most water supplies
come from limestone aquifers which put a lot of dissolved solids in your water. When the water
evaporates it leaves the dissolved solids.
So how can understanding water hardness help you? If you know your water is hard, then you know that
your buffering capacity is high, and your pond can neutralize minor changes to the pH of your water
pretty easily. If your water is soft then you know that you have almost no buffering capacity and
changes to the pH can happen rapidly. The end result is you need to watch your pH a lot closer if
your water is soft.
4. Salinity - Salinity is usually
expressed in terms of its specific gravity in science labs, but in the pond and Koi world it is more
common to see it as the total percent of salt in a solution.
Water Salinity Based on Percentage of Dissolved Salts
Koi function best with just ever so slight brackish water. |
|
Fresh Water |
Brackish Water |
Saline Water |
Brine |
|
< 0.05% |
0.05-3.0% |
3.0%-5.0% |
> 5% |
| |
|
|
|
|
Range in Green Perfect for Koi Ponds 0.15-0.20% |
|
Perfect for Koi
Hospital Tanks 0.25 - 0.30% |
Measure Salinity Level with Easy to Use
Digital Readout Meter
Koi and goldfish love a small amount of salt as
it stimulates them to maintain a healthy slime coat. If you are not adding salt to your pond water
you should make a note to do it as soon as you can. It is one of the best things you can do to keep
your Koi and pond healthy at a very low cost. Also parasites cannot tolerate salt at all and will
die! What a bonus huh?
Run a level of .18 percent salt in your pond (not 18%
but .18% salt which is less that 1%) and you will never have the Ick. On the other hand, a very
small percentage of fresh water fish do not tolerate salt well. The general rule is that if the fish
is scaleless, like catfish, don't add salt. Koi, goldfish and other decorative pond fishes are very
happy to have the added salt. German scaleless Koi are one breed that you need to check with the
person you bought them from to make sure salt is OK. It more than likely is OK, but some Koi
breeder's are fussy and generally for a good reason.
Don't Have Koi and Just a Watergarden of
Plants?
Salt is a mixed blessing. Use it carefully!
Lotus cannot tolerate any salt at all.
Salt also inhibits
the growth of algae. First understand I am not against salt at all and I personally recommend it
to any of our customers who have koi. Salt is a big blessing for the prevention of maladies that
face koi. But, and this is a BIG BUT, the reason that it inhibits algae growth is that algae is one
of the lowest forms of plant life on the evolutionary scale of plants. As such, this makes it the
first plant life in your pond to die from salt poisoning. Algae is easy to multiply and also to
kill. It is easy to kill with salt but at the same time you place all of your other plant life at
risk if you are not monitoring your salt levels accurately. Yes salt (sodium chloride) is cheap. But
what about your other plant life that cost you a lot of money and months, if not years, to grow? I
would really ask yourself "Is the use of salt to prevent Koi health problems worth the risk if you
are not monitoring the salt levels in your pond?"
We have a wonderful
product (GreenClean) that kills algae and is a simple peroxide based agent.
Peroxide based agents have a lot of oxygen in them and it is that high concentration of oxygen that
kills algae and leaves other plant life alone. Hydrogen peroxide is used for many things and kills
germs instantly, but is harmless and you can drink it. If you have ever put hydrogen peroxide on a
cut you will notice it fizz up and that is the release of millions of molecules of oxygen killing
germs. When you put GreenClean in your pond it does the same thing as it
contains peroxides. It literally fizzes up and the extra oxygen instantly kills algae. The algae
becomes suspended in your water and makes the water a mess temporarily.
GreenClean if used regularly will keep your algae at bay and not harm your other plant life in
the least. A maintenance dose of GreenClean will prevent massive algae kill
like your first higher dose application and will keep your water crystal clear without the use of
salt or other more complicated algaecides on the market that have a large menu of chemicals in them.
