Koi-Vet Forum Question:
Q: How can two major water
changes per year (coupled with replacing losses due to evaporation) possibly
deal with the obvious shortcoming of declining water quality -- other than by
simply denying that it exists?
Don
Don
A: This is a very good question and deserves an astute
answer. I also hope that everyone on Koi-Vet reads this and takes note of this
response, especially any of the newer hobbyists in ponding.
You yourself know about water stability, decline, and the
parameters that must be held in order to keep our animals alive and healthy
along with water changes. Water
quality is always a problem because as time passes, various physical, chemical,
and biological processes working in and around the pond alters the initial
tabula rasa characteristics of the water. However,
not all hobbyists are so inclined to do so, water changes that is, and a number
of these people will only do as much or as little, as they humanly possibly
can; “getaway with!”
With that said; all water
changes are dictated by PE (Pollutant Equilibrium). This is the amount of
pollutants being made by the system, its animals, plants, the filter, and the
amount the water that is exchanged from periodic water changes, will reach what
is called a steady state. This also includes the amount of foodstuffs that are
being added to the system on a daily bases. The fish food itself, will add
nitrogen and phosphates to the system, as you know. The filtration system will
be the limiting factor here because of its capabilities or its incapability to
process such pollutants on hourly or daily bases. If more pollutants are being
made/added to the water body proper than what the execution of a water change
can eliminate or lessen to a greater degree, for the safe keeping of our
animals, then a larger filtration system is needed. Therefore, larger portion
of the water mass must be exchange with clean water, until a PE is then
reached.
The only reason we execute such water changes
is because: No matter what kind of filtration system we use, even a
state-of-the-art filtration system, we are still dealing with a closed system.
Therefore, a filtration system will not stop the decline of pollution in our
ponds, but will only slow it down to some degree, and the degree of degradation
is determined by so many factors that it would be anyone’s deduction as to what
the causes of the insults are and what the outcome would be on the system
parameters. Therefore this judgment on water changes will be based on an
“individual’s decision,” on when, and how much and why such will be conducted.
I will also quote
right from my free iTunes Book if I may: “Even with the Anoxic Filtration
System, as good as it is, still needs to have at least two partial water
changes made each year. Generally, the greater proportion of water that is
changed during the filter clean-out, the lower the stabilizing pollutant level
in the pond would be. Because of this filtration systems capability, the Pollutant Equilibrium levels are reached
within a short time-span of weeks instead of months, without all the
frustrating water changes and the cost of doing them.” I believe that the
hobbyist is reading this one section of my free iTunes Book and taking it to
the bank, as to say.
You must read my
whole book and then one can determined that if Nitrates are eradicated and /or diluted to a greater
degree by the filter, then water changes for Nitrates (N03) sake, is
not a prerequisite for keeping our pond healthy. In fact, I give this as an
example in my free iTunes Book: “For example, lets say you have a pond, for the
sake of argument will say this pond is 3000 gallons, that is producing 8-ppm
(ppm = parts per million) of nitrogen (NO3)
every month, this now becomes a constant.”
As we all know, Nitrates; are only a small constituent of the amount of
pollutants that our ponds have to deal with. In no way did I ever say or
advocate in my book, that if you use my system, water changes can be eliminated
or that only two water changes a year will suffice, no matter what the
pollution equilibrium is or is not! I myself cannot, and will not, second-guess
what a ponds pollution mass is. In fact I will quote from my book once again: “There is little argument whether or not a periodic partial
water change is necessary in order to maintain a healthy pond that fish can
live in without undue stress. I also think that all hobbyists would agree that
all ponds would benefit from more frequent water changes, and generally this
would be “the more frequent the better.” Does this sound like a person that only
advocates two water changes a year?
However, I also must
add that there are several hobbyist using the Anoxic System that only do one
too two large water changes a year with excellent results in fish growth,
heath, ect., ect., for many years now. Because this is a repeatable constant,
there must be some legitimacy into what I say in my book about me only
executing two large water changes a year in my testing pond.
As you have already
stated there is more to the pollution picture in a pond than just one end-byproduct
of a specific bacterium. Any hobbyist can supersede the filtration capabilities
and you and I have no control over that. However, if the pollution constants
are, let say, too much food or over stocked pond, no filtration system made for
the hobbyist will overcome these insults. Not even the Anoxic Filtration System
for that matter. I see this with people using the Nexus system, were they add
on supplementary filtration to an already expensive filtration system, just to
handle what the filtration system cannot.
Too many hobbyists that read my free iTunes
Book only read the words “still needs to have at least two partial water
changes made each year” thinking only; “two partial water changes a year,
great!” Of course, that is not what I say at all. As you can see this is the bare minimum that I recommend, and even
at the bare minimum, hobbyist that uses this system will not even do that much,
believe it or not! My system is good, but it can’t make a silk purse out of a
sow’s ear. However, I must interject here with an observation that a 10% water
change a week would be useless, if the hobbyist does not know what their PE is
to begin with.
I also stated in my
book: “That is excellent for an
18-year-old pond, which has never had a complete water change”. This
testimonial was made to let the hobbyist know that a complete teardown (like
some system require) of the system has never been executed, in other words; a
100% of its water mass has never been replaced at one time or another.
I also say in my iTunes
Book: “Now let us take for example
the Anoxic Filtration System. In the 18 years that I have been
experimenting/studying and researching this system, I only clean the filter
system twice a year, once in March and another time in late autumn at the end
of October. This is the only water change my pond has ever received in 18
years.” Some hobbyists that use this system can and have done the same thing as
myself, and some have done even better using this system than I. All I am
telling you is what “I have done under controlled conditions in an experimental
pond.” I just give you the results that the Beta-testing pond and I have had.
After all, I do not know your animals feeding habits, stocking levels,
geographical location, or your pond husbandry. Nevertheless, I do say in my iTunes
Book to clean the filtration system out at lest twice a year. No filtration
manufacture can predetermine what a person will do with their filtration
systems 100% of the time, and neither can I for that matter.
In fact in my iTunes
Book, I give an example of one hobbyist that only does two water changes a year
and has crystal clear water that will impress the most hardcore hobbyist into
acquiescence. However, he does not “over feed” his Koi nor does he “overstock”
his pond. The relationship between filter and animal load is in equilibrium
with each other. Not all hobbyist fall into this category.
I also must take 100%
of the blameworthiness for my iTunes Book not coming across very clearly to the
hobbyist and for that, I make an apology.
Kevin
E-mail:
G Day Dr Kevin
I am from Sydney Australia and this year I acquired you Anoxic filtration system from a club member who was getting out of Koi due to ill health.
I placed the baskets in my breeding set up which normally we have high ammonia levels and have to do lots of water changes ,this year no water changes and the fry grew quicker and I was able to double the amount of fish I spawned so am very impressed I would like to acquire your video ( Cd-Book) so as I can share the knowledge, could you please let me know what the cost are including the shipping and if you are down this nick of the woods please let me know yes we are all Koi mad here in Australia.
Regards Gerard,
Chairperson of the northern branch in Australia
ED: As we all know now the Anoxic Filtration System book is free
from iTunes book store.
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