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    Thread: Article in Koi USA by Roddy Conrad

    1. #1
      Simi Koi's Avatar
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      Article in Koi USA by Roddy Conrad

      GREAT article!!! I sure wish I had read something like that when I first started in the hobby!

      But I do have one question. You mentioned that a low gH will lead to color loss. I always thought a low gH will improve the Hi and I read an artile once that said the breeders in Japan will actually lower their gH to improve their kohaku.

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    2. #2
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      Way to go Roddy!
      "Sarge"


      Disclosure statement: Don't read into where I post, or with whom I choose to call my friend. If you know me - you know me. All people are created equal and all humans have fault.

    3. #3
      Roddy Conrad's Avatar
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      Low GH is perfect for a Japanese mud pond where the koi get all the minerals they need from "eating mud" at the bottom of the pond.

      In our backyard koi ponds, however, their food supply frequently does not have an adequate mineral level to maintain color.

      I feed Rangen pellets, for example. They do have mineral content.

      My source water has no measurable GH.

      If I don't add soluble calcium and soluble magnesium to my koi ponds, I can depend on the beni to start fading away on all the kohaku at a GH of about 20 ppm. It happened more than once. If I caught it and noticed it at the start, bumping the GH up brought the beni right back. Wait too long, and there was no beni left to bring back.

      Several of my friends with soft water supplies in back yard koi ponds reported the exact same thing.

      It won't happen in a mud pond.

      It may not happen at low GH with other brands of koi food.

      I like Rangen, the price is right, I know how to make the water right to go with the food. With a more expensive koi food, it may be possible to avoid the issue with extremely low GH.

      I haven't seen the published article myself, yet, by the way. My KOI USA has not arrived yet, they did not send me anything to proof before publishing. I hope it does not contain any actual errors!
      Your koiphen chemist and environmental scientist.

    4. #4
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      Just received my mag today... will take a look see tonight
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      Quote Originally Posted by Roddy Conrad
      Low GH is perfect for a Japanese mud pond where the koi get all the minerals they need from "eating mud" at the bottom of the pond.

      In our backyard koi ponds, however, their food supply frequently does not have an adequate mineral level to maintain color.
      I see! very interesting. I have a high gH out of the tap and I was thinking I needed to soften it. I guess I will let it be.

    6. #6
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      Low GH can also cause unwanted high pH in a backyard koi pond.

      Let me explain the effect.

      Aeration of backyard koi ponds is very popular for a variety of reasons. Aeration adds oxygen to the water, which helps the koi get the oxygen they need. But aeration robs the pond of its dissolved carbon dioxide content, and when the carbon dioxide content is removed, the carbon dioxide/bicarbonate/carbonate balance is shifted toward carbonate. This drives up pH, unless there is sufficient dissolved calcium in the pond to precipitate the carbonate as calcium carbonate.

      So unless there is enough dissolved calcium in the pond, overaeration may cause high pH and that is not good for the koi, either.

      So there are two issues with low GH, namely the koi coloration issue and the high pH issue.

      Neither of these problems are seen in a Japanese mud pond. They don't overaerate their mud ponds, and the koi get the minerals needed from the mud.

      If the GH of your pond is above 60 ppm and below 400 ppm, my advice is to leave it alone.

      If the GH of your pond is under 60 ppm, my advice is to add dissolved calcium and magnesium.

      If the GH of your pond is above 400 ppm, then and only then would it seem appropriate to soften the water or think about a reverse osmosis unit.
      Your koiphen chemist and environmental scientist.

    7. #7
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      30-150 gh is fine. Over you take a chance on Shimi. Under Hi fades. So we must define how low is low.

    8. #8
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      My gH is usually around 150 to 200 out of the tap depending on the time of day. My tap actually changes, its weird but Roark used to live out here and explained it. something about the city using different source water at different times of the day.

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      WAy to go Roddy! Does this article count towards your PhD?.... uh, wait... you already HAVE a PhD...

      WAY TO GO RODDY!!!
      "To bosom friend, to gracious host
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      To faith, to fate, to meetings chance"
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    10. #10
      Roddy Conrad's Avatar
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      The article was my attempt to write in the simplest technical language I could manage the most important things to know about how to maintain water quality in a koi pond.

      I left out detailed descriptions of filter system design because that would have been too long and controversial. Also, it would have appeared I was trying to push business toward some vendors rather than others, and that would not be good.

      The paper I submitted included a section on shotgun parasite treatments, but to the best of my knowledge, that section was removed, or put up as a second article, or something like that. I was really sick for weeks with a very high fever at the time and didn't really pay a lot of attention to what was done after I wrote and emailed the article to KOI USA folks.

      I have a number of degrees in a number of technologies, but, more importantly, I have been actively doing chemical technology research 100% of the time since I was 20 years old, and doing it in industry since I was 26 years old. I will turn 65 in July. That is a lot of technology development, and have so much technology laying around the various spinning hard drives of my brain that when I face another problem, there is lots of "instant data availability" to apply. I have one of those really, really wierd brains that keep a picture image "alive and available" of "almost" everything I have ever read or seen. That made learning the stuff they teach in colleges and graduate schools so easy to do that I never had to work at it to be at the top of each and every class, regardless of the subject.

      Two of my children got the exact same brain functionality to skim read something quickly and be able to read it back from their brain weeks or months or years later, and each of them went through college and graduate school with all A's at the top of their classes without having to work at it. It is a rather strange "gift". I hope I did/am doing with the gift what was intended by the "source" or power or whatever you choose to call a higher being.

      Signed the Geekiest of the Geek world, Roddy
      Your koiphen chemist and environmental scientist.

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      I need to find the mag. My Gh is usually around 60 and pH between 8.5 and 9. As you all know, my growout Kohaku is losing some hi. I wonder if this is the cause.

      I was feeding Rangen until last March but I didn't get the fish until March.

      Oh, congrats, Roddy.
      Sandy
      CKK, KHA

    13. #13
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      Sandy. Your problem is not your GH. It is your PH that is stressing out over time and losing red.

    14. #14
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      What do I do about that? I really need to get a copy of this month's mag.
      Sandy
      CKK, KHA

    15. #15
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      So what are your Kh?
      What is the morning ph?
      What is the 6pm ph?

    16. #16
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      I'll do new tests tomorrow, Art. I've been doing about 3000 gallons a day water change due to a leak and overflow. I just got a new test kit, too.

      My pH is usually stable between 8.5 and 9. The colors are so close, it's hard to tell.

      Roddy, do you know if they sell Koi USA on the shelf somewhere? I used to get Koi USA and stopped it because there was too much advertisement. I was going to renew it last year when Art's pond was in it but I opted for Koi Bito instead when I found the entire year of Koi USA on EBay for $20.
      Sandy
      CKK, KHA

    17. #17
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      What is the PH of source water and does it change if aerated and set for 24 hours? Good experiments. ANd try different test kits to confirm

    18. #18
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      Quote Originally Posted by kntry
      I'll do new tests tomorrow, Art. I've been doing about 3000 gallons a day water change due to a leak and overflow. I just got a new test kit, too.

      My pH is usually stable between 8.5 and 9. The colors are so close, it's hard to tell.

      Roddy, do you know if they sell Koi USA on the shelf somewhere? I used to get Koi USA and stopped it because there was too much advertisement. I was going to renew it last year when Art's pond was in it but I opted for Koi Bito instead when I found the entire year of Koi USA on EBay for $20.
      Water GArden Gems sells individual mags.
      Just don't buy one of their filters... :mad:
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      To those who give, yet mark not gift
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      To faith, to fate, to meetings chance"
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    19. #19
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      Great article Dr. Roddy. I know I very was much helped by your advice about trace minerals when I was having Nitrite problems early in cycling my new bead filter.

      You succeeded in making this article accessible. I am very interested in the differences between mud pond culture and year round regular pond culture of koi.

      Thanks for submitting it. Sorry to hear that you were ill.
      Chris
      So many koi, so little time.

    20. #20
      Roddy Conrad's Avatar
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      Since in the current koiphen thread a complete rejection of me by the koi community was clearly claimed, check out this 2006 thread on koiphen talking about an article I wrote that was published in KOI USA magazine.

      All these repeated lies about me do get a bit tiresome, easily shown to be uniformed folks, why can’t they instead post a complete description of what they do, including pond size, stocking density, successes and failures.
      Last edited by Roddy Conrad; 07-19-2021 at 10:26 AM.
      Your koiphen chemist and environmental scientist.

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