Advice for new pond with soft water!!!

[Brutuscz]

Well, I moved to my new home and have my new pond (I have been here for 1 month). I have been monitoring my new ponds water quality...and have found a GH of 40 and a KH of 20. What I find odd is I am still in the same town (north haven,ct-just moved from one side of town to the other.). My old house had city water..and so does the new one. The old pond never had numbers this low..The GH was 120-150. They are also both liner ponds. I even bought a new test kit because I thought there was an error. Nope..it was accurate. I have never dealt with water this soft. I have been adding Montomorolite clay weekly. Is there anything else I should be doing? I dont want a ph crash!!!
So far, the fish look excellent..healthy and fine. I did notice that the color on my ochiba shigure got much lighter.

[koiczar]

Brutuscz

You'll probably need to add oyster shell to your filtration system. That's what's done in Japan. The last chamber would normally be an empty chamber solely used for water pick-up by the Fok pumps. But, since the water there is so soft and the ph is so low, they add oyster shell to buffer the water.

Mike

[mitten]

Hmm. I expected the LithAqua mention here, Mike.

So, how possible is it to have a PH crash when a pondkeeper changes 10% of the water weekly?

Mickey the windowman

[PapaBear]

I was just getting to that when I saw Mickey's post . I've got to say we're very pleased with its performance. Our water isn't anywhere near as soft as yours Brutuscz, but if I was going to reccommend anything it would be Lithaqua AND Calcium Bentonite. The clay will be good for algae control anyway while giving you a Carbonate booster shot at the same time.
As to the difference in water from one side of town to the other, it is quite common. A typical water district will have multiple water sources (reservoirs and/or water wells) that feed the system in different parts of town, and most of the time the only water that needs treatment other than minimal chlorination is the reserviour source. If you do have a single source, distance from the water treatment plant and the varying age of the pipelines in certain parts of town will be enough to make a huge difference.
In the small town I grew up in we had 5 wells within a 4 sq mi area, all in the same aquifer, and they all tested quite differently for hardness and nitrate. Nitrate alone varied from 5ppm to 60ppm.

[Brutuscz]

Thanks for the advice. Is bentonite clay going to do the same thing as the montomorolite clay I have been adding? What is lithaqua..I have never seen it before?

[MikeM]

Bentonite and Montmorillite clays are functionally alike. The names are from the locales where originally mined. These days, it gets sold under both names (and others) even if from other sites altogether.

[Brutuscz]

I also checked my TDS value today. It was 51. I checked several times to be sure. Did I hit the motherlode on water quality? I have read articles about trying to foster a soft water environment...but I can't believe how soft it is!!! What changes can I expect to see in my koi...relative to hi, sumi, shiro, growth etc?? Any information will be helpful..thanks again.

[koiczar]

Quote: Originally Posted by mitten Hmm. I expected the LithAqua mention here, Mike. So, how possible is it to have a PH crash when a pondkeeper changes 10% of the water weekly? Mickey the windowman

Mickey

Ooohhhh! My bad! Totally forgot about Lithaqua.

Brutuscz

Acutally, you might even be able to run it in a shower system. Seems to be working really well at Russ's store.

Mike

[Russell Peters]

Brutuscz,

What is you pH?

Your Kohaku will benfit from your soft water.

[Brutuscz]

I have to go back and check my ph. The funny thing is I was using those 5 part test strips to measure my water. When the kh and gh were so low...I thought the test strips we defective...and paid no mind to the results. I then went out and purchased a gh/kh test kit with reagents to get a more accurate reading. Turned out the test strips were right all along. I'll re-test the ph tonight.