My water has been up to 87.8 most days lately. I have been feeding the fish morning and night and they are doing fine. With my pond if full sun, if I can't feed them when the water is over 85, I don't think they will eat this summer. What does feeding them in warm water do to them exactly?
When the temperature rises, the oxygen will drop in your pond. This makes it harder for the fish to breath and can increase ammonia levels in the water and if you continue to feed, ammonia levels can rise.
This is another reason I do water changes everyday when the temps. are close to 90*. Water changes will cool your water down and help remove ammonia from your pond.
My pond will only get this hot for about a week or so then when my weather goes back to normal outside temps, my pond water temps will fall too. Then I will start to fed them again.
Test your water for ammonia so you will know when it is safe to feed your fish.
Seems like there needs to be a PSA on the forum about this because so many people on here are in hot climates and many of us (at least 4 I see in here) had no idea to stop feeding at 85 degrees and start water changes to cool the pond down once it gets above that, plus add more air to the water.
I have my fountain running full time now as suggested. Hope that helps.
Thank you Nancy; that's a great explanation. I'm pumping 45 LPH of air through the BD and MB, so it's hard to imagine that the water could suffer from low oxygen. That's not to argue your point, but just to add additional information. I will definitely start checking for ammonia and flow more cool water into the pond on the hottest days.
---Raising my hand--- I sure didn't know. It's a good day when you can learn something new.
This chart shows how fast saturation goes down as the temperatures rise.
oxygen levels in the pond are temperature dependent. Bottom line is that saturation is reached depending on the temp. of the water. At 6 PPM fish will start to die no matter how much air you run. Not sure about pure oxygen bubbled into the water but I think it is the same. Water will only hold so much oxygen at a given temperature.
I have had good success with lowering water temps. by placing a box fan by my bakki shower in the evening and letting it blow across the flow during the overnight hours. This is a cooling tower effect that is used by Ice skating rinks and swamp coolers. Your mileage may vary depending on your conditions, I run 5 KPH over my shower on a 12800 Gal. system with 80 liters per min from air pumps going to 2 spindrifters bottom drains and an aireated 400 gal. biofilter. Fish load is about 50 fish of all sizes from6 to 28 inches. No losses so far this year but the water is going green, may be forced to fire up the UV's. BTW I am in central NC.
Last edited by hacnp; 06-02-2019 at 06:17 PM. Reason: add detail
Regards, Ken
The most powerful point of suction in the pond occurs at our checking account. It's all Marges fault!
I am more worried about dropping oxy. levels due to high temps. I lost an entire herd one year when green water pulled the oxy. level down overnight due to the algae pulling down oxy. levels at night.(Sad story involving a digging dog and my previous bakki shower setup) Oxy. in my system is totally impractical due to size. Is it not true that saturation of oxy. in water is temperature dependant?
Regards, Ken
The most powerful point of suction in the pond occurs at our checking account. It's all Marges fault!
Alga has the greatest effect on Pond params given it`s ancient capacity to thrive basically beloved.
I had for yrs a PH 10 during Alga season, mass supersaturation of 02 etc.
Rid the system of it is my advice, PP/UV etc ..
Twill F params up especially overnight if we don`t ...
Tis a super smart Organism, older than us, and keeps Planet earth oxygenated in general.
Not phun in our ponds/aquariums though.
Last edited by Russell Peters; 06-02-2019 at 09:24 PM.
We have a Hakko 40L and Matalas weighted 9” disc and it works well. It’s. Been going virtually 24/7/365 for 6-7 years.
Scientists believe that phytoplankton contribute between 50 to 85 percent of the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere.
High temps affect the osmoregulation and internal homeostasis of carp. Koi can regulate their homeostasis/osmoregulation water temps better and much quicker as temps go up than when going down. Warm ponds also can hamper your good bio bugs as they require a lot of oxygen to perform. Warm ponds also generate higher counts of bad bacteria. Having a hot pond with high ph well increase the toxicity of ammonia. Koi do not like hot water. So everything above is a potential stressor and a window for parasites and bacterial issues. I would feed only a small amount over longer periods of time. Koi well tell you what they want. Kinda like I do in cold water. And keep the pond clean. Just be aware of how your koi are acting as the temps move into the mid 80's and up.. And take care of the problem earlier than later if koi are showing stress.
Last edited by kdh; 06-02-2019 at 08:34 PM.
Our temps have finally gone back to the mid 80's during the day and mid 60's at night. My pond is cooling down on its own now.
I think it is very important to use a thermometer year round in your pond. I love the one I have used over the last several years. It is wireless and sends me the temp of the pond water to the unit that is inside my house. This way I don't have to go to the pond to know the temp. In the winter when my pond is covered, it gives me the water temp plus the air temp above the surface of water and below the cover.
Here is a link to the one that I have. I think it is under 40 dollars and the batteries last very long before you need to replace them.
https://www.lacrossetechnology.com/ws-9029u