Do you PP your pond regularly?
Yes
No
I'll bite, Rainblood; 3 ppm spread out over a week during the heavy feeding months, tapering down over the cooler months and zero when I stop feeding. Accompanying this, I do 10% flow-through waterchanges over a week during the summer months, lower during the winter. My pond has a high organic load of plants, and no BD, so I go slightly higher than recommended weekly dosing.
Steve
An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out.
Will Rogers
We were told at one time about that stuff and how to use it. All though it did work some we found that doing reg water changes, and adding extra filtration there is no need to have it in our reg maintenance program. Better on our fish in not useing it! Having the pond covered also helps! Also, just for gp's, we have not ran a UV on our pond for the past 2 years since it has been covered.
"Better Ponding Through Chemistry"
(guess who my mentor is - - Doc C. of course!)
________________________________________
Cheers,
Ci
Yes and no. I have used PP regularly in the past. Now less so, more water changes. ORP has been staying at the 340 - 350 range.
I voted no even though I sometimes do a low dose PP to clean up DOCs. Every early spring I change my UV bulbs and according to my weirdo calendar that starts the new pond keeping year. This year I have low dosed PP treated twice, which is on the low side from years previous. I have only once used PP for parasites, that was two seasons ago.
I will also add that I do use hydrogen peroxide on my pond. I use it more frequent than PP. My pond is nestled under 5 mature White Ash trees and I get tons of organic matter from them. I keep after the seeds and leafs on a regular bases, but I do sometimes get water discoloration.
My ORP is normally just below 300, but the range throughout the season is 340 to 250 (with lower ORP in spring and late fall).
Brad
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
Albert Einstein
Bradley W. Olin
newest member of EIHIOICGI
My pond stuff can be found at...
My Pond Build
My QT Build
My CC-FF Build
My Active Carbon Filters
I'm curious to those that are regular PPers...did you start after Roddy's posts or did you have some other source of info on the subject. I had never even heard of PP... and then you kind of get hazy answers when you start asking specifics. It also seems that there is a black and white line in regards to PPing. I think the only reason I haven't tried it was because it is not available locally...but then again I am always a little chicken sh*t when it comes to adding chemicals to the water
I know I read that Nilesh? had a bad experience with a first time PP attempt, any others?
Another chicken here. I've never used it.
Cindy
I was influenced by Roddy's article in the first issue of Koi Nations. I have notes and highlighted areas all over it! It was clear and specific about amounts and usage for PP or HP - high doses and low doses.
________________________________________
Cheers,
Ci
I had read of using PP from another forum (8 or 10 years ago) and I then started reading whatever I could on the subject. My first PP was scary as I didn't have meters at the time. I kept goldies back then and I was there watching their every move for the entire 2 hours. By the 2nd or 3rd PP dose I gained more confidence in my PP skills.
Goldies create more waist than Koi, or at least it seems that way. So back when I kept goldies I used PP more regular than now that I keep Koi.
Brad
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
Albert Einstein
Bradley W. Olin
newest member of EIHIOICGI
My pond stuff can be found at...
My Pond Build
My QT Build
My CC-FF Build
My Active Carbon Filters
I voted yes, but it's not like I use it every month or every other week. I use it if needed. I started using PP when a club member gave me some plants and a bit of PP to 'clean' the plants. What he did NOT give me were instructions. So I dumped quite a bit into a tub with the plants. I was facinated with the purple color. When I went back to check the plants, the roots were gone. Good thing my first experiment was with plants and not fish.
Yes, I think you could say that.
For the love of Koi
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
Lifetime Charter Diamond Member #4 WWKC
JOIN THE WorldWide Koi Club NOW
Certified Koi Keeper (CKK)
approaching 6 yrs of koi keeping and the only med I ever use are:
1. a bottle of 1 pint quick cure. still have about 1.5 cap of it.
2. 1 oz bottle of iodine
3. amakacin in first two yrs.
that's all.
Steve
I had actually heard about and played with it as a kid-we used it in one of those crystal-building kits. It forms gorgeous amethyst-like ortho-something crystals (I'll have to look that one back up). But the biggest thing I remember was that my hands were brown for weeks after messing with it. When your a kid, tho, nothing is dangerous and this was no exception-we used it to start fires with motor oil too!
I did hear about some uses as a disinfectant in aquaria years ago, but not as a water cleaning additive; I learned about that here (go Koiphen!!!) and by reading Roark's site. If you read all that Roark and Roddy write on the subject (over and over if you are like me), IMHO you are pretty well prepared to use this stuff. As an adult now, I know how careful to be with the stuff, and if Roark and some of Dr. Johnson over at Koivet's experiences don't scare you, you should not use it. That said, I have to date not had any problems, but I do put on my goggles EVERY TIME I handle it now. And I do not dose in the ponds at over 1 ppm per application, even though over a week's time I will usually total 3 ppm in total dosage.
Since using PP, as Roddy mentioned on the other current thread, spawning has been more regular during dosing, even more so than when I was doing 50% water changes. And the plants love it too, in both the streams and bog. I even have a healthy stand of elodea ("anacharis") in the main pond that the fish cannot keep up with-I have to prune every couple of weeks to keep it from taking over!
Here are a couple from this year's spawn at 5" in 6 weeks:
They were born in the pond and have been there since-don't know how I am going to get them out!
Steve
An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out.
Will Rogers
One of my fish had an ulcer on his upper lip. I was new to ponding and I tried Melafix. It didn't work for the ulcer but it did wonders for a longfin I acquired with the bottom half of the tail gone up to the body. It grew back.
I had not found Koiphen yet but I found PP info and how he uses it by Roddy
somewhere online and tried it. The mouth ulcer healed quickly and I've had no fish problems in the two years since. I do a low dose a couple of times a month and every couple of months a higher dose.
don't know how many article on koi nation about regular pp but I think I read the same one. It's from Conrad I think. I am sure regular pp works but does it necessary?? we human are so sensitive to chemical in the air. we don't even like aerial spray as mean of pest control or green house gas but we subject our beloved fish in chemical environment regularly. why do we do that when there are other means to achieve the same result?
Steve
I had used pp before with disastrous results earlier in the hobby killing a lot of my fish , so I was very panicky about using it . I got more confidence after reading roddys threads and realizing many others did it too . So I guess I can say I started using it properly cus of Roddy .