Feeding during PP Treatment

[MCA]

PP, like chlorine and ozone, is a powerful oxidizer. All three of them try to oxidize organic material upon contact. You can not tell them...go in there can get those nasty pathogens...but the leave the gills alone!!

You do not need to have a sterile QT...in fact, far from it. Sterile water is water with VERY high ORP readings such as over 650mV. It is sterile because it will kill any organics (such as bacteria) within seconds. Our ponds on the other hand work just fine with naturally mellow water with ORP ranges in the 300-400 range.

So if the your QT has ORP above 300, with stable ph, and DO at 80% or higher of saturation (which decreases as temp increases)...and the QT fish are pathogen free (at least no parasites found from scraping).....then I would not disturb the system. If it is good enough for the QT fish, it should be good enough for the new comers. If not, it needs to addressed anyway.

You can purchase a ORP meter that you can calibrate for will under $150. You would need such a meter any how to accuratly do a PP treatment (ORP to the 500-550 range). Otherwise, you are only calculating (not measuring) that the treatment was correct.

[gcuss]

Thank you very much JR for the detailed explanation. I have to admit, I've had the PP for some time now, and until the other day had never used it. I guess it was part enthusiasm for trying something out, and a chance at using a dangerous chemical in a not too dangerous scenario.

Further, I'd have to admit that I didn't apply the PP due to some outstanding reason, other than I had read in the past that people will PP an older inactive pond before adding fish to it... Monkey see, monkey do??

Before going into the QT, the suicide squad was scraped and scoped and I did come up with two parasites out of 4 slides... Not enough to worry about, but further fueled my enthusiasm to try out my PP....

Anyway, lesson learned. And thanks to all.

Grant

[gcuss]

MCA, you were typing as I was. Thank you as well.

I don't have an ORP meter, but once I finish typing this out, I'll be looking for one. Is there a good one and a bad one out there? Or all pretty much equal... ?

Thanks again, you guys keep saving my butt.

Grant

edit: found one kind of quickly.... you mentioned calibrating it myself... this appears to be set at the factory. Don't know if thats good or bad....

Quote: Combo pH / ORP & Temperature Waterproof Meter 50-HI98121 - ORP Meter, pH Meter with Thermometer Waterproof. - Completely sealed against humidity and designed to float. Set/Hold Button. - Allows the user to freeze the reading for easy and accurate recording. Affordable & Easy-to-use. - Measures on the spot accurately and inexpensively. Oxidation is a process in which a molecule or ion loses electrons. Reduction is a process by which electrons are gained. A measurement of the potential for these processes to occur is called ORP (Oxidation Reduction Potential). Hanna's ORP meter is a unique hand-held tester developed to determine this value. The 50-HI98121 is a waterproof ORP, pH and temperature meter. ORP can be measured in a range of +/-1000mV and temperature can be displayed in °C or °F. The meter is factory calibrated and measurements are highly accurate with a unique stability indicator on the LCD. 50-HI98121 provides a battery level indication at startup and the Battery Error Prevention System (BEPS) avoids erroneous readings caused by low voltage level.

[PapaBear]

You mentioned that the pond has been empty and inactive for several months. Worrying about nuking the filter became irrelevant when the fish left it way back when, and chances are the only life in the pond (until you added your suicide squad that is) where the undesirables.

A better bet would have been to flush, nuke, and flush again to kill off any parasites before you put in the fish you are using to seed the filter, and then feed modestly while the pond kicked off. As it is you are stuck with it and would do well to carefully proceed as the others have already instructed and avoid the "need" for it in the future with good filtration.

JMHO

[MCA]

I like the Pinpoint ORP meter by American Marine. You can get it at lots of places on line. You also want to purchase at least one box (20 packets) of the calibration solution. Clean and calibrate the meter before using it to measure a PP treatment...or at least once a week if the probe is left in the water column. I leave the probe inside the skimmer. Works for me.

[gcuss]

Flush, nuke, flush... makes way more sense than flush, fill, add fish, nuke. Thanks Larry

And thanks MCA, I'll check out the pinpoint.


Grant

[gspotmc]

Quote: Originally Posted by gcuss TBH I don't recall exactly where I learned it. But it seemed to be commonly used by a lot of people. I've read positive things about it on a couple of koi health forums as long as it's used carefully. I realize it's a "shotgun" approach and don't think it would be the first thing I reached for if I discovered a parasite on one of my fish. I'd rather treat more accurately. However, I was under the impression that it's very useful as a clean up tool when prepping a pond for fish, as well as treatment of external bacteria infections and parasite problems.... I haven't used it yet for parasite control. As stated, I try and treat for the problem... ie: prazi/proform C/ topicals and such. Would you care to expand on why you don't use it? Any chance to learn and I'm all ears. Thank you for your interest! Grant

Grant,
Someone beat me to it.
Michael