Bakki Shower "Winter" Prep

[MikeM]

Hurricane Wilma brought gusty winds and rain to Orlando today, but no damage worth mentioning and, happily, no power outage. (Wish the same was true for our kichi friends to the south!) But, now we have a cold front moving in ... the front that kept Wilma far south of us. The temperatures have been in the upper 80sF to low 90sF, with nights in the 70s. Pond temps are in the upper 70s, bordering on 80F. Tonight it will be going down to upper 40s, with daytime highs in mid and low 60s tomorrow. The sudden shift could cause a drastic drop in water temperature. To minimize that, I toyed with the idea of turning off the Bakki Shower for a day or two, but decided instead to go ahead with the "winterizing" I've had in mind ... wrapping the unit in plastic to reduce (but not eliminate)the chilling of the water coming through the shower. This may impede the gas exchange function of the unit somewhat. However, I've left the bottom edge of the plastic hanging loose on the back side of the unit (less exposure to wind gusts since it backs up to a fence). I think this will provide some air movement for gas exchange while containing the warmth released by the water shower. The plastic is polyethelyne used to cover greenhouses in this area. Duct tape was used to hold the wrapping together. Then the groundcloth I drape over it to keep leaves, etc. out of the media was put back in place.

This is likely not a good aqpproach in areas with "real" winters, so folks in colder climes will need to take a different approach. ... In a few days we will likely return to normal weather in the 80sF, and then the plastic will be removed. If this works, it is how I'll "winterize" the Bakki when December-January brings the risk of frosts.

[luke frisbee]

I ain't gonna do squat to my PMS...and it is big compared to the water volume of the tank it is on..... And it ain't got any thing around it and it has a SHE 2.7(2.4?) attached to it and is onlly about 3500 gallons. Plus about 18 inches of it is above ground (6 ft toal depth). But it has never had a blip in fish health due to a temp change.
Have you seen a negative effect from just letting it run like it was? I bet in the next 24 hrs my pond won't drop five degrees and here is the reason...it is in the ground and NOT insulated......even though the water is cool the pond is embedded in a big heat sink.....any slight change in the temp will result in the warmth in the earth being pulled into the pond.
AND think about it.....in the Spring and the Fall and whenever and wherever torrential rains change the temps of bodies of water or streams or rivers and the fish probably love it..and it is probably good for them.....and prepares them for the next season...
Now if you had a heater on the thing and the heater cut off and the tank was above ground or insulated...but I think you are doing too much....
think about it...in the Spring when we have 20 degree shifts do you chill the pond to make sure it doesn't get too warm to fast...PLEASE DON'T TELL ME IF YOU DO! LOL

[luke frisbee]

and on top of that you could actually be damaging the microbe/bio-system that has set up in the PMS..both by limiting the gaseous exchanges and the sunlight.

[MikeM]

Well, I adopted the habit of turning off the waterfall on my old pond when temps declined in the winter. Before doing that, I would experience night time temperature drops of more than 7 or 8 degrees when a cold front moved through. The koi suffered ich two years in a row. With waterfall off, temperature fluctuations were less than 5 degrees F even when a front would move through. The old pond was liner in direct contact with the earth and the waterfall moved less than 15% of pond capacity per hour over rocks. With the Bakki moving about 35% of pond capacity per hour in open air, I think the chilling effect would be greater. This afternoon the pond temp is hovering at 78F and air temps have dropped to upper 50s since the 'cane moved out, pushed by the cold front. Tonight it will be about 48F.

On my puddle pond where I keep guppies, a pump circulates the water to thye surface, creating a churning at the surface for aeration. If I leave the pump in that configuration over the winter, all the guppies will be dead by mid-January. If I re-direct the pump to create a current, but without churning the surface, most of the guppies die, but some survive by staying on the bottom where the warmth of the earth assists them. If I turn the pump off altogether, nearly all of the guppies will survive the winter outdoors ... but they are stunted and not worth having.

BTW, I'm not turning off the aeration in the Nexus, so all that cold air will be pumped through the kaldnes. ... I'm worrying over that, too; but I worry over the koi a great deal. Keeps my mind off the more serious stuff.

[ajm808]

hi mike here's what i do with my shower coverd in poly carb sheet winter and summer
the only thing i alter on the shower in the summer is take out the jap mat on the top no problems with gas exchange on nice days in winter i take part of cover of the pond just to check the fish.

[luke frisbee]

Wheeeeew mike..My big pond dropped from 81 to 75 degrees ..it does not have any areation or shower....all it has is a recirculation pump (lukepump)..... the 3500gallon QT with PMS went from 77 degrees to 68 degrees.....
but the fish are as happy as clams in each pond...........slower moving clams

[MikeM]

My morning water temp at 7am was 72F... a 6F drop overnight. I'm quite satisfied with that. I cannot say whether there is a material difference compared to what it would have been w/o the plastic wrap, but I think it would have cooled off a good deal more w/o it. I did slip my hand under the plastic around dawn. It was noticeably warmer under the plastic than outside it ... even more so when my then wet hand was withdrawn.

ajm: There are reasons I try not to go north of Tallahassee after December 1st. ... Kinda like those Rinko cover koi, snow is more beautiful in pictures than in person. Nice looking set up. Folks using the polycarbonate sheeting all seem to have good ex[periences with it. I do not believe I've ever seen a single negative on it. If someone has had a bad experience, I hope they will post the circumstances so those in true 4 season climes can learn from it.

[luke frisbee]

MikeM,
think about it....the "change" has to be from the same part of the day. A normal drop might be 1-3 degrees from dusk to dawn....
my pond temps were taken around noon each day

[MikeM]

I understand what you mean, Luke; but my concern is not that the water temperature is decreasing, but the fluctuation. A steady 10 degree drop over two days would not cause me to be very anxious (although I admit I'd be alert to any unusual behavior). The same 10 degree drop over night would cause anxiety that the fish are being exposed to a stress factor, and I'd be particularly alert to any early sign that ich was making an appearance, since I've had to deal with it before. (Hard to see it on koi, so easy to know "something" is wrong w/o knowing what until it has progressed considerably.)

Last evening at 7pm the water temp was steady at 72F... same as at dawn. At 7am this morning it was down to 70F, just a slight drop overnight. ....

This "cold front" (I know folks in Minnesota would think this was a heat wave. ) moves out today and we return to slightly cooler than normal temperatures in the 80sF with nightime lows in the 60s. Water temps should rise to the mid-70sF: Perfect growing range for koi for 6 more weeks. However, with the end of daylight savings time at the end of October, I'll be reducing feed to one morning meal during the week, because it will be dark when I get home. (Two meals on weekends when I can watch the feeding habits.) During November the koi will graze algae more and I'll gradually shift feeds to staple diets and wheatgerm, away from the very high protein fed the last several months. In December I'll be primarily feeding wheatgerm pellets, some extruded earthworm and occasional staple diet pellets as a treat. In January, usually our coolest month, water temps will drop into the 60sF. On the old pond, it was extremely rare to go below 60F. We'll see how the new pond's systems may impact that. A fast is imposed in January, but the koi graze all day, leaving copious amounts of dark green droppings. So, they never really stop eating during the year. ....One of the many things that makes koikeeping in a warm climate so different from experiences of those who have written most of the books.

[luke frisbee]

IT WILL BE INTERESTING TO SEE WHETHER THERE WILL BE MUCH ALGAE TO EAT THIS wINTER