pH question

[farne230]

My two cents-I also live in limestone country, and our water source is from the Edwards Aquifer and very hard. Our municiple water facility lowers ph but we maintain a PH around 8.5 to 8.9 and KH/GH reading over 300ppm. My experience so far has been that good beni was unaffected by ph, if kept steady. I believe it has alot to do with stress and all the water quality factors which stress our koi. I have noticed a little deteriation, beni showing lightening at the scale edges this winter. I believe this may have more to due with fluxuating cold temperatures. I noticed this when my ph was reading 8.0 (low).

[koiloco]

Quote: Originally Posted by kingkong Good idea koiloco, I will look for one at the show in Orlando. Here is one from Genki's collection.

that one is already orange in Kev's water

[koiloco]

Kingkong,

you must distinguish between the following 2:

1. maintain the hi quality as far as the hi plate, luster, pigment thickness and
edges.

2. Hi just does not maintain the blood red tone and turning into an orange hi.

Based on my experience, #1 is less affected by pH and water hardness while #2 is heavily dependent on pH and soft water.

[Super Kindai]

It is known that around 7.2 pH is ideal.

[bekko]

Larry, how would you go about making a carbonate hungry bog garden?

-steve h

[PapaBear]

Actually I've been pondering on that one. I've forgotten more botany than I remember but since various plantlife has different nutrient requirements I was thinking a bog/veggie prefilter stocked with the right plants could possibley consume some of the excess CaCO3 prior to hitting the Koi pond thereby lowering Kh to a more beni friendly level. Just a random thought. Of course if it would mean sacrificing the "mt.fuji, thai mountain waterfall oriental garden " ... it would be a very poor trade off.

[bekko]

Genius Larry. I have been on the look-out for a cheap way to lower alkalinity, hardness and pH. The methods which are discussed here are beyond my means. Until you said "bog" I had forgotten about the trick of using peat moss to acidify and remove alkalinity and hardness. People keeping Amazonian tropical fish do that to recreate the soft Amazonian water. The glaring problem with peat is that as you removing calcium and magnesium, you are adding tannin, lignin and other humic organic compounds. However, a living bog (acidic by definition) might soften water without releasing as much organic matter. Worth looking in to.

-steveh op

[kingkong]

What you could use is 'live' New Zealand red sphagnum moss.