Joshua Lee
Koi Lover
Jul 5, 2001, 1:03 AM
Post #8 of 14
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Help, PH is in 6.0 KOI is dying now
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Hi Leong
So, how are your little koi getting on? Hope your koi are doing OK after the PH stabilised to 7.5. I have lost count - how many surviving koi do you have now in the pond? And the little one that was scraping himself against the bottom of the pond (this is called "flashing" among the koi community), is he doing fine?
Before you add any more new koi, you may do well to get these two weopons handy first
i) Baking soda. You need to dump this into the pond in case the PH crashes again. Mark recommends throwing in up to 250 gm if the PH crashes again.
ii) Test kits for ammonia and nitrites. Ammonia and nitrites are toxic substances that destroy the gill filaments of the fish and causes stress in the fish eventually leading to weakness in resistance to parasites and diseases. Cost of a kit is usually less than the cost of a koi. We won't be able to sleep until you post the results. [biggrin]
If the readings turn out acceptable, then you can consider adding new fish but try to quarantine them first and if possible get them from another dealer.If you can't quarantine them first, I suppose you can treat the whole lot with salt solution or medicine to eradicate bad bugs.
You asked about a wet and dry system and whether increasing the number of mats makes it a wet and dry system. It doesn't, so long as the water does not pass through air before reaching the media and so long as the media is still submerged. The principle of a wet and dry system is that water trickles down the air (thus absorbing lots of oxygen) and then passes through mats or bio-balls (positioned above the water line, i.e. not submerged in water).The effect of water passing through the dry air and I guess that's where the term "dry" is adopted to describe the system aerates the water. To increase the trickling effect, small holes can be drilled onto the PVC pipe above the media or a sprinkler head can be used to spread out the water.
The effect of the mats not being submerged in water also increases the exposure to oxygen and the oxygen loving bacteria in the media throw a party eating up ammonia and nitrites, and producing less harmful nitrates as a by product.
Something about nitrates which I picked up from the bulletin board. Theoretically, aerobic (oxygen loving) bacteria cannot denitrify nitrates by converting them into harmless nitrogen gas. Apparently there is a type of anaerobic (oxygen hating) bacteria that can do that but you cannot find them in an oxygen rich environment of a properly set up filter system. That's in theory. In practice, many die-hard trickle filter owners will swear their trickle filter removes nitrates as well. How, nobody knows for sure.
Algae and water plants do remove nitrates from the water by eating them as food but some ponds with trickle systems do not have water plants and very little algae (that green stuff that loves sunshine) and yet show very low nitrates level. In theory it should show tons of nitrates since the efficient trickle system works overtime converting nitrites to nitrates. It's a mystery waiting to be solved.
Hope I have not confused you. Just concentrate on keeping good water and having fun with your koi! 
Best regards
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