The Water Gardens Gazette
published by The Pond Professor
Why water quality is important in a koi or gold fish pond
Vol: 409 Date:
May 22nd 2004
1. Fish inner workings and osmosis
2. Pond plants availability on line
3. Admin section
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1. The fundamental explanation as to why water quality is so important in a koi or gold fish pond
One of the best descriptions of the metabolism of a gold fish explaining the importance of water quality for koi was written by my friend William Kelly
Osmosis and koi and why they urinate continuously in the pond water.
This may sound like a mouthful (William does like to play with words and he is quite good at it too) but consider a cup of hot coffee with a spoonful of sugar at the bottom of the cup.
As the sugar dissolves into the coffee it is at its highest concentration closest to the solid sugar pile. This is perfectly logical.
This concentrated sugar then diffuses into the coffee and over time eventually once all the sugar has dissolved the sugar concentration in all parts of the coffee mug will be equal. This is known as equilibrium.
It is important to understand that at all times, all substances and properties (such as temperature and pH) in Koi or gold fish ponds seek to be at equilibrium. i.e. at equal concentration. It is the ideal natural state and there is a constant push and pull in order to get there. The fact that equilibrium very rarely happens is not important. What is important is that things try very hard to get there.
Osmosis is exactly the same process as diffusion. It is a term that refers specifically to water diffusion which is why it has a special name. Water will diffuse from areas of high concentration (i.e. pure water) to areas of low concentration (water with a lot of dissolved substances in it), in exactly the same way that the sugar dissolves into your coffee.
This means that even if the sugar decided to ignore physics for a while and not diffuse by itself, the water in the coffee would do the job for it and eventually the sugar concentration would be the same in all parts of the coffee due to the water diffusion process, which we call osmosis.
Now this is fine and well if you're a cup of coffee. Imagine now that you're a Koi. Your salty blood that is separated from the pond water by a membrane one cell thick is going to have a lot of water zipping across that membrane due to osmosis. Your blood is salty, the water is not, hence the natural osmotic process takes place.
If the Koi did not get rid of all this extra water through constant urination it would explode. So this means that the water in the pond is being constantly circulated through the Koi. Can you see how important water quality is to successful Koi keeping?
As every reader of my gazette should know by know there is no compromise when you install a fish pond be it for gold fish fish, koi, rudd, roach, blue gills or whatever. YOU MUST have a a bio filter. It is easy to make one yourself or if you cannot be bothered visit http://www.superpumps.co.za
William Kelly is the owner of Happy Koi ... visit his site
Water quality
Water quality is intricately and intimately linked to the health and the well being of Koi. In a natural pond, the constraints that face Koi keepers are nowhere to be seen. Koi have literally millions of litres of water that surround them, and they simply cannot produce enough waste material to in any way significantly affect the vastness of the lake or dam in which they reside.
A Koi pond by comparison has a much, much higher fish stocking density. The wastes that Koi produce become extremely significant since they are not diluted by nearly the same volume of water as in a natural environment. Good water quality does NOT mean water clarity (think about any dam or lake). However, it is possible to have good water quality AND good water clarity.
An excellent article by William ... places the mysterious and invisible aspects of water quality into context for all of us.
2. Special 20% off purchases for Gazette Readers until May 31st ONLY
Just call us on 011-454-0105. You can also access our on-line store at http://www.superpumps.co.za.to take a look first (but you will not see 20% off here)
Once again feel free to contact us and talk to our friendly ladies Brenda and Pauline at 011-454-0105 for all your pond requirements including .............
Pumps
Biofilters
Fibreglass water features and ponds
Biofilters
UV's
Alfagrog
Koi Food
Pond Liner Information on Alfagrog
Without getting too technical this means that 1 litre of Alfagrog can hold the
same amount of bacteria as 200 litres of plastic tubes. In other words a box
using plastic tubes needs to be 200 times bigger in volume than one containing
Alfagrog to get the same biological performance.
Alfagrog looks a bit like cinders, it is lightweight, comes in different sizes and you can literally blow through it because it is so porous.
"The Complete Pond Solver" by Tony Roocroft
2004 Edition. Essential reading for anybody who wants or has a garden pond. Get 12 Excel pond calculators free as well as "Water Lilies and Pond Aquatics" ebook also free
3. Permission To Publish and Admin section
Bona fide web masters and web site owners who have a genuine interest in helping people succeed in pond keeping are welcome to publish articles from these Gazettes subject to one simple condition. Please include in the opening to the article the following link. All you need do is copy these 2 lines of code and paste into your HTML
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All you need to know about water gardens, ponds, pumps, bio filters and UV lights
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Recommendations Worth A Look
Visit the only Water Gardening Web Store in South Africa Contact us 011-454-0105
email ... meshord@global.co.za
Download pdf report about Nexus and The Answer by William Kelly ... important for serious koi keepers and those with large fish ponds. Right click and select Save Target As ...
