koi health questions

[midnight]

Crushed and baked oyster shell is also a good way to raise pH, it is cheap and available through seed and feed stores as a calcium supplement for chicken feed. It runs a few bucks per 5lb bag or less.
While fin damage is usually a symptom of high pH it can also be caused by low pH.
Before treating the pond check your baseline pH at the water source. If it is not low then your water is being acidified in the pond itself. Excess detritus or mulm can cause this as can rotting tree leaves. One other source of acidity that I have run into is acidic rocks, I once used Montana Gravel as a substrate and it dropped my pH to something like 5.8.

so it would help if i added a mesh bag of crushed coral to the filter?
how much would be needed to do anything?
i will check the tap
and theres plants,tile,river rock,and a big rock made of something,in the pond.

 

[Nic]

it doesnt take a whole lot ime to raise the ph.....

 

[midnight]

cool
so like a cup full? or a gallons worth?
can i buy crushed coral in a petstore,petsupermarket or petsmart?
pricey?
thanks for the help

 

[Nic]

they will have the arogonite...does same thing i would put a good amount in...maybe 2 bags worth

 

[midnight]

ok so went to pet store
lady that works there knows more then most lfs lol
she said the aroganite costs more then crushed coral
they had crushed c but it was 10 bucks a bag
and she said even if i clean it good it will still cloud my pond.

she said try to get a big piece of coral instead of crushed.
not sure if i will be able to find some or not.

thoughts?

 

[midnight]

ok so i been doing the ph up for the 3rd night and it still reads the lowest ph.
i tested my tap water and the ph in it is puuurrrfect.
i plan to do a waterchange to help bump up ph
but this doesnt seem to be helping fast enough
the 2 butterfly koi have
more white on the fins
fins are all split up
and are swimming not so "there" runs into things,does flips
so its not getting better.
heres the best pics i could get
any advice?

 

[midnight]

If it is not low then your water is being acidified in the pond itself. Excess detritus or mulm

just googled those 2 words.lol
sounds like what a uv sterilizer is spitting out.

Crushed and baked oyster shell is also a good way to raise pH, it is cheap and available through seed and feed stores as a calcium supplement for chicken feed.

also missed this
so its already crushed and baked,i just rinse and add to filter?
last for a long time?
how fast does it rise?
thanks if you can answer all this lol

 

[midnight]

called the local feed store
there out but they said it wasnt crushed oyster shells but more the size of a pin head.
so what if i got some oysters and ate them and used those shells
how do i get them from store to ready to go in the pond?
do i crush them to?
hopefully someone knows this lol

 

[guppy]

It takes several days to raise the pH using argonite, coral, or oyster shell, the chicken feed supplement is actuall pretty good, just bag it in cheese cloth and place it in the return flow from the filter. Now, you need to find out what is acidifying the water. Pull out all the stuff you can and place it in buckets of fresh dechlored water and wait a day then test each bucket to see if the pH has dropped. peat moss and some other soils in the potted plants maybe the problem or even the rocks. Until you find the cause the problem will continue. You may also want to treat the fish with TMP Sulfa. If you can remove the effected fish to tanks or containers where you can control the pH until you fix the problem.

 

[midnight]

It takes several days to raise the pH using argonite, coral, or oyster shell, the chicken feed supplement is actuall pretty good, just bag it in cheese cloth and place it in the return flow from the filter. Now, you need to find out what is acidifying the water. Pull out all the stuff you can and place it in buckets of fresh dechlored water and wait a day then test each bucket to see if the pH has dropped. peat moss and some other soils in the potted plants maybe the problem or even the rocks. Until you find the cause the problem will continue. You may also want to treat the fish with TMP Sulfa. If you can remove the effected fish to tanks or containers where you can control the pH until you fix the problem.

they didnt have the chicken feed
i plan to call around to local seafood restaurants and see if any will give me oyster shells
anyone know how to prepare them?
bake? boil?
crushed? leave whole?

on tracking down ph killer
good idea on buckets
heres a few things it could be
ceramic tile? think thats it? hope not i like it
big river rocks
uv sterilizer
big rock with sparkly "crap cant think of what it is"lol ive heard they used it in old stove windows
you can find it out in the wild alot

thanks again for the help guppy