Today we're gonna talk about the pH of your pond water,
Koi aquariums, and using clay as an additive in your pond.
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The first question of the day comes from Michael Northway.
He sent in a video question, let's hear what he has to say.
>> Eric, the pond digger, this is Mike Northway, Oasis Aquatics,
Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Putting water in the desert since 1998.
Got a question, pH.
It's a problem in our area, we deal with it in certain ways.
How is it up there in Cali?
How do you guys deal with it?
And after you answer that you better come up to Santa Fe and
eat some chili with me buddy or else I'm gonna drag you up here.
>> Northway.
Did you see his forearms?
The guy has like naturally massive forearms.
He has like Popeye arms.
He's crazy.
Michael.
Cool question.
First of all I want to tell you about Michael.
I met him at a convention, I don't know maybe five, six years ago.
And I don't know, we didn't really talk much at the convention and
then we ran into each other at the airport and
we kind of hit it off and started talking.
And Mike's been a good friend of mine ever since.
He's changed the way I think about ponds.
I think he's made me a better pond builder.
I just want to say thanks to that, Michael.
And it's a good question.
pH, I'm so lucky, I mean I really am lucky.
I've got this wonderful weather,
we have wonderful water that comes straight out of our tap.
I mean we have 8 to 8.2, high alkalinity.
And really, really lucky to be where I'm at with that.
I know other parts of the country struggle with good pH.
They might have a low pH, which is if the pH is too low,
it's kind of acidic, and it's hard on the skin quality of the Koi.
And in certain areas I've seen pH go up above 9 and
people have to adjust it to bring the pH down.
So honestly Northway, we don't have to deal with it that often.
If someone comes into our facility here in California,
and they're talking about adjusting their pH,
automatically ask them if they're on a well.
Cause if they're on a well and it's coming out a low pH then you
know they might have to do some work to get that pH up.
It's a constant battle if you start to start moving that,
of course you know that.
But for the viewers if you're trying to adjust your pH it's not just like
we're going to fix it today.
It's something that you have to monitor and
adjust and play with all the time.
Koi probably do well in this 8.2 to about 6.8,
somewhere in that range is a spot where it's sweet for Koi.
And 7.5 is probably that perfect spot to be.
But the most important thing is if you're at 8 or
8.2, don't come to me and try and
get down to 7.5 if the water's coming out of the tap right at 8.2.
Just keep it constant, keep it steady.
That's what they want.
Fluctuation of the pH is really hard on the Koi,
so if you're in my area and you have a 7 that's coming out of your well.
I'm not gonna try and get you to get it up to a higher level.
Just keep it consistent at that.
That's probably the best advice I can give for the viewers.
And I'm not sure what you are dealing with out in your area
Northway, but I'll be curious to find out.
I'm gonna go over to the next question from Matt S on YouTube.
And he says, he saw a video with a person who had
a 55 gallon aquarium and five small Koi inside the aquarium.
And he wants to know, do I think that that's okay, or
does he need a bigger tank or a pond?
This question is going to probably stimulate some
Some difference of opinions here.
And I'm gonna tell you,
I think it's cool that you're keeping a Koi in an aquarium.
And let me tell you why.
I know for a fact, I've talked to people
that are in communication with, you know, Koi breeders in Japan.
And they're actually trying to consider Japanese culture,
they're getting more and more into technology, and
maybe they're getting more and more away from Koi.
I mean like the newer generations, cuz they don't have a lot of space.
They don't have backyards to do these gardens.
So if in Japan, you can have an aquarium and
keep Koi in there, and make it still part of your culture and
your learning process, it's a good thing.
So let me take that back to the states here if you will.
If you live in an apartment and you're infatuated with Koi and you
want to learn about them, to have an aquarium and keep some Koi in there.
I would encourage you to do that.
I think that it's a pretty good alternative to not have Koi.
We want to have Koi and we want you to learn.
The trick here is to be able to,
you know your Koi aren't going to be able to be in that aquarium for
much longer than 12, 18 months, somewhere in that range.
Then they are going to start to get too big and
you're going to have to take them back to the pet store or
the Koi dealer to try and trade them in and get some smaller ones.
You see what I'm saying?
Or maybe you wanna learn about Koi and you wanna see them indoors.
And then you're moving to a house and you can build a Koi pond and
put the Koi in there.
But the fact is we wanna spread the passion for Koi.
We want people to learn about them and
I think being in an aquarium is not a horrible thing, as long you're not
keeping them in there too long and they're getting too big.
If you manage the water quality in the aquarium
just as you would on a pond.
If the water quality is good and they're not in too tight of an area,
then I think it's a good thing to be doing.
I do want to tell you that, you know,
you're not talking like a 20 gallon show tank or an 18 gallon tank.
That the question specifically with Matt was a 55 gallon aquarium,
that's four foot long tank.
So if you get small tow side that are four inches,
that's gonna be fine.
But they will probably grow and outgrow it in about 12 months.
If you had a 100 gallon aquarium, or a 300 gallon aquarium.
I know a lot of people that
are learning with Koi in the 300 gallon pond.
So a 300 gallon aquarium in your house, which is a pretty good size
aquarium, is a great place to be studying Koi.
You can rear your fry in aquarium.
If they spawn outdoors, you can take the eggs and
you can rear your fry in aquariums.
There's a lot of interesting things that you can do by putting Koi
in an aquarium.
And I do want to mention there's,
I tried to look them up, I know there's a company out in the UK.
I thought they were called Koi aquarium or Koi aquaria.
I think I know them on Instagram.
They specialize in doing patio style Koi ponds.
Raised above ground ponds in people's back yard environments and
then they'd put windows in the side of them.
And then you can look through while you're outside.
You could walk up to the edge, look at them from the top.
Go sit down and then you can look through the aquarium glass or
acrylic that they're using.
And then you can look into the pond, which I think is a really cool idea.
So I think there's an evolution of how that's working out.
But I'm going to move on to question number three.
Its from Sissy Murphy on YouTube.
And this question I picked specifically because.
Let me get to the question first.
She says talk about Koi clay.
Is it helpful and benefits?
What's going on with it?
I've used it for a long time but I don't know if I totally get it.
So she's been doing it and it's a good thing you've been doing it.
Koi clay is probably one of the most underused water treatments or
water supplements.
We keep it at our place.
And when I do finally sell one, I gotta take the dust off the top and
hand it to the person cuz it doesn't turn as much as it should.
I think more people should learn about Koi clay or clay for ponds.
The benefits of having the Koi clay is it benefits,
you can put it in the Koi food that you're feeding.
You can sprinkle it on the top, and then when you throw the pellets
to the fish, they're gonna ingest some of that Koi Clay, and
it helps with their color.
Imagine all the fish that are out in the mud ponds of Japan.
They're grazing all day long.
They're ingesting clay.
And it's making their colors amazing.
So you're gonna help with the color of your fish.
You're gonna help with the aquatic plants.
If any clay is in the pond and the fish aren't ingesting it,
it floats around the pond.
It's gonna get to the aquatic plants.
The aquatic plants love that clay, and they do well from it.
But the really cool thing about this is
clay used properly can help make your water quality even better.
The clay acts as a natural flocculent.
So if you sprinkled clay across the top of the pond,
and you had the waterfalls off, and had the skimmer off, and
had everything in the off mode.
It starts to sink down to the pond, to the floor, and
as it's sinking down, it starts to grab debris and
particulate that might be suspended in the water column.
It sinks it down to the bottom,
and either can be picked up by your aquatic plants or
picked up by bottom drains or however your system is running.
But it acts as a natural flocculent along the way.
So this particular supplement,
adding clay to your pond, to me it's like the trifecta.
It's like the one product that handles three things.
It benefits your Koi, it benefits your aquatic plants, and
it benefits your water quality.
So, it's under-used.
Let's hope we can change that.
I think everyone should start playing around with some
clay on their pond.
So, I'm gonna end the day's show with a question for you.
You know how we do it.
I wanna know what is your opinion on keeping Koi in aquariums.
You keep asking questions and I'll keep answering 'em.
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