Please, if you’re one of those hobbyists that knows more about sick fish and the chemicals that treat them, stop and rethink what you are doing for the sake of your animals’.

 

FYI: Just yesterday I was talking to a hobbyist on ponds and their dynamics of filtration but the conversation was dominated with him telling me about all the drugs he uses and fish losses he has sustained over the years. He sounded more like a chemist than a hobbyist trying to keep and grow Koi. He knew every DVM that is presently practicing in fish pathology and who’s not. I’m I missing something here? Whenever a pond hobbyists’ or one that is into aquariums knows more about drugs that cure their sick fish than the keeping of healthy fish without drugs, doesn’t a little light go off in their heads and sends some subliminal message to them that they are doing something very wrong? All of us encounter the same insults to our ponds and for some reason some hobbyists become expert chemist or should I say pharmacologist. Ninety percent of the time it’s because the hobbyist thinks their expensive filtration system can’t be at fault, but it is.

 

Please, if you’re one of those hobbyists that knows more about sick fish and the chemicals that treat them, stop and rethink what you are doing for the sake of your animals’. You’re not doing yourself or the animals’ in your care any justice. I personally have not seen a chemical in my pond in 20-years because of sick Koi. Yes, all Koi get sick and will need our attention at sometime because of unforeseen insults, but not continuously year after year. If you are using Sodium Chloride as a prophylactic, why? What are you so scared of that compels you to do so? Or are you so scared that, that expensive filtration system you’re using will fall short so therefore you’re compelled to use some sort of Mothers little helper to get you through the year?

 

The hobbyist I’m talking about has all the techno gadgets and very expensive filters for their pond and still has troubles with his Koi’s heath. He refuses to admit that maybe the filtration he’s using is at fault because it cost a whopping $27,000 USD and blames it on everything and anything that could hold some merit to his arguments. Like he will blame frogs or ducks for his misfortune; I’ve had frogs and ducks in my pond too and yet no problems with my Koi.

 

If we took  this same scenario and applied it to dogs or cats that lived in an unclean environment and they became sick, those same people would have the Humane Society or Animal Cruelty Society called on them and fines or imprisonment would be their outcome. However, nobody cares about the Koi and/or fish (salt or tropical) hobbyists’ that is constantly adding fish to their ponds with a less than a favorable environment. I’m I missing something here? Why are these inexcusable behaviors acceptable by their peers? This is the same hobbyist that three years ago when I visited his pond had poor water quality then and they shrugged it off like “That’s the way it is with this hobby.” I have news for you, it is not!

 

You see there are ions in our ponds that are just not accounted for by the hobbyists and understanding Aquatic Microbiology will go a long way in understanding these ions and the Koi’s resistance to these insults is something that is not written in hobbyist books. There has to be a balance between the electrical charges of the waters mass (water is electrically charged) and the animals we’re trying to keep healthy. This is complex water chemistry but it is something that all can accomplish if you just open your minds to new ideas, and there are many success stories to confirm it.

 

We can probably argue the point over and over again, but the bottom line is filtration systems do have their limits and it’s not the manufactures of such that are at fault, it’s the hobbyist that insist on not being mature enough to just say NO, or absolutely refuses to concede that there are better ways of doing things. Are you guilty of these sins?

 

I’ve had hobbyist on the internet complaining about my pond being so overcrowded with such large Koi. I always tell hobbyist that visit, that this is to show just how powerful the Anoxic Filtration System really is and I do not advocate that hobbyist parrot my actions. Even had a professional Koi judge tell people visiting my pond not to try this with a conventional filtration system because you will be unsuccessful. Conventional filtration systems are great for sewerage treatment facility but are not really intended to sustain aquatic life, but they do. Sewerage treatment plants use a lot of chemicals to aid the Nitrification process along. The chemicals they use are not for sale to hobbyists because of their dangerous nature. Sixty years ago that’s all we had going for us but thing have change and you either lead, follow, are get left behind.

 The Anoxic Filtration System was specifically design for pond and aquatic life not a knockoff of a sewerage treatment filtration system made over for pond use but that of a natural system used for millions of years by good old Mother Nature herself. Remember, conventional filtration systems are only designed to deal with a very limited number on ions that plague our ponds and that number is very limited to Ammonium/Ammonia, Nitrites and is some circumstance even Nitrates but not much more beyond that. The Anoxic Filtration System looks at positively charges ions all the same and does not discriminate and uses all cations and anions as a food supply.  Aquatic plants are the same way using cations and anions in equal amounts in order not to have a fatal pH swing.