| I'm not the ultimate water expert, but mid 7's is a very happy place for most Koi. Truth be told they can tolerate water from 6.5-9.0 so long as it is stable and buffered against crashes. Stability is far more important than a specific number to me.
Most of the ph problems faced by ponders revolve around water changes, plants, algae, and kh depletion. Knowing your source water and utilizing appropriate water change schedules is usually sufficient to keep things in order, but every pond has to be managed on its own merits and what you have to work with.
A lot of the work Roark has done playing with water has revolved around his friendship with Roddy Conrad who has many ponds and a TERRIBLE water source. Very expensive water with virtually zero kh value. He has to supplement kh constantly just to keep his filters functioning and reclaim his old water for re-use by nuking the organics with PP in holding tanks. You can count the number of people that approach makes sense for on the fingers of one hand, but it works well for an old chemist who likes to keep Koi and play with water.
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Larry Iles
Oklahoma
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