[KoiCop]

it might or might not surprise you to learn that as a group this board focuses not on the subsistence level, but on helping our koi to achieve their genetic potential. Stupendous size and stupefying color . . . these are our goals.

For us, it's no longer about having to hurry up and learn the nitrogen cycle before our koi die. We don't go through iterations of sick fish, sick pond, whoops, back to the pet store.

Rule #1: If it's still in your system -- anywhere in your system -- then it might as well still be rotting at the bottom of your pond and poisoning your koi, SSA be damned. If one learns nothing else, learn that and learn it well.

For if one has a proper koi pond and keeps it clean, flushes one's settlement and mechanical filtration daily, and performs daily water changes, why then the biofiltration can be handled by just about any media this side of dog poop. SSA is fun to discuss, and Childers can do it in his sleep -- but frankly it's something that's in the rearview mirror for most of us.

Of far more importance, and what many of us worry about the most, is eliminating the nitrates, DOCs, TOCs and POCs that can inhibit our koi from reaching their full genetic potential. JR teaches that the primary way this can be achieved is through the balanced addition of new water to one's pond's mellow water. Too much raw, new water and the koi will suffer -- too much exhausted, mellow water and the koi will suffer. His apt analogy is a stick shift auto on a hill where the driver must perfectly balance the gas and the clutch to achieve stability. Easier said than done with a pond (for most of us).

Hopefully these kinds of Zen asides won't detract from your enjoyment of your SSA thread. Don