Winter Re-acclimation

[koi_painter]

New to the forum & wow, lots of info!

I have a 1500 gal pond in Iowa. I always shut it down each winter & have 4 aerator discs going & 3 Themo pond deicers. I've had this pond since 2018 & have never lost a fish. This week after an ice thaw 2 of my biggest fish were floating. 1 was dead. The other still breathing but was upside down. Didn't look good. I rigged up an indoor 40 gal tank with a yeti cooler & an aerator. Doing daily water changes & added some salt. It's a heated garage & I have it turned up to 60. It's been 3 days & he went from what I thought was a sure goner to now being upright & swimming around some. Color is still light & spotty but he is doing much better.

So my questions are, how long should I leave him inside & at what point can he be reintroduced to the pond? How do you acclimate a fish from inside at 60 degrees to outside & very cold water? Unfortunately leaving him inside until spring really isn't an option.

It's been 3 days & all the other fish in the pond seem to be doing well.

[ademink]

Welcome to the forum!

I hate to be the bearer of less than ideal news, but you likely will need to keep it inside until spring. I've not had luck w/ cooling and reacclimating fish back to the pond when they experience cold water layover. Any chance of setting up a bigger tank (rubbermaid stock tank, intex pool, for example) and keeping him till spring?

[koi_painter]

I will have to figure out a way to keep inside. I was hoping that was not the answer I would get

[koi_painter]

I will do some digging through the forum but if you have any advice on a budget setup for this I would appreciate it. Thanks!

[ademink]

Do you have a way to get media from your pond filter? It may be snoozing but it's still alive and you can wake it up when it gets warm.

I'll tell you what I did and maybe you can do that or come up w/ a modified version.

I got a 300 gallon rubbermaid stock tank. I then got a tetra pressure filter like this (they have a smaller size even that may be more affordable): https://www.ebay.com/itm/32633644104...mis&media=COPY

I got this pump: https://www.amazon.com/Tetra-Pond-De...DER&gQT=1&th=1

So: pump in the stock tank...plumbed into pressurized filter...and then pipe running to the opposite side of the tank to a makeshift shower that is raised higher, full of media from the pond that dumps back into the stock tank.

Hope that makes sense.

You could do a 100 gallon rendition of it as well.

I would advise pulling another fish to smaller container and letting it sit overnight in the garage (covered) w/ a bubbler so it comes to "room temp" and then letting it join the other one for the winter in the stock tank. They fare much better when they aren't alone.

You'll need to use SAFE until the media cycles and keep an eye on water changes. It's a pain for like a month lol

[ademink]

Here's a pic of my daisy chained stock tanks ..it was a nightmare during the polar vortex in 2012 w/ winter layover. LOL

[Nettiefloyd]

Not trying to hijack this thread, but I'm having a similar issue with a fish here in West Chester, PA. I plan on bringing a friend of his along for the ride for the next 3-4 months if the fish can get right-side up.

I used water from the pond to make up the QT in the basement (65F), and the test strips indicate the pond is currently:

-Nitrate and Nitrite - 0
-pH - 7.5 - 8.0
-KH - 40 ppm
-GH - 30 ppm

Our city water has a total alkalinity of 45 ppm and we had to make a number of additions this year due to a torn liner.

Should I attempt to increase the hardness for both the indoor and outdoor ponds to increase the buffering capacity, or just wait until the spring time comes around?

Also, should the fish (hopefully!) rebound, should I sparingly feed them over the course of the next few months?

I hate him seeing him like this, it looks like such an awful predicament! Hopefully a salt solution and some warmer temps will get this moving in the right direction.

[richtoybox]

I would add baking soda, late in the day is best since pH will be highest then and not have a significant change, affecting the fish. Higher KH is always good.

[Nettiefloyd]

Things have been running smoothly with my indoor quarantine tank, but recently the nitrate and nitrite readings have been spiking. The tank is around 52-55F, so I haven’t been feeding the fish at all. Is there anything I can do other than water changes to bring the levels down? I’ve added some nitrifying bacteria that are “supposed” to work down to 41F, but I’ve yet to see any real change in the readings.

[richtoybox]

I would not be too concerned over the nitrate values, mine routinely ran very high according to all the people out there, but 10+% water changes would not get them down and I didn't see any negative effect. Nitrites on the other hand are needed to be kept low. This can be done with increased filtration, or increased flow through the existing filter, sometimes. I like making trickle tower filters out of the plastic egg crates/ file boxes and lava rock. Set one or more on the tank bottom near the center empty stacked, then stack one to three with the lava rock on top and set up a pump to flow water from in the tank up and over the lava rock. These work great and are not very expensive. The alternative to additional filtration is the addition of salt, at about 1 pound per 100 gallons, even 1/2 pound will work to protect the fish from the nitrites.

[Nettiefloyd]

Thanks for the guidance. I currently keep the salt level around 0.1 to 0.15%, so it sounds like maintaining that level of salinity while doing small water changes should be enough to get through the winter.

[JohnnyReb]

Water totes, food grade $40 to $80, then sell in the spring.