Hi Geoffrey...it sounds like lack of air to me. The pond probably needs some form of aeration, and usually during really hot weather people will lose fish, sometimes in large numbers just because the dissolved oxygen in the water get's so low. I believe I emailed you directly on this as well so be sure to check that out and visit our main site for more information on aeration and why it's so useful.
Hi...pH being high or at least around 9.0 is tolerable for most fish. They can handle wide ranges of pH but not rapid changes so much. Some of what your describing in the pond could be coming from hot weather. You might do some partial water changes, maybe 15 to 20 percent per day, every few days to see if this helps. If your source water's pH is more neutral this may help adjust this too.
I have a new pond, was up and running three days ago. It is an 1800 gallon pond, has a waterfall, and the pump moves 4100 gallons per hour. We filled it with water from our outside faucet, which is not softened water. I have not been able to bring the pH down and it is testing out at 9.5. The pond was Installed by pros and the pond start-up was added to the water as directed. The water also is testing out as "very hard" at almost 1000 ppm. I have fish that are being kept for me until my water is safe for them but I am getting no where. I have added several doses of pH down but it only comes down a little and then goes back up. All the levels are testing consistent, just high on the pH and alkalinity and water is hard. I was told that the hard water is the problem because it affects the buffering. My question is, should I add the chemical that lessens the water hardness? I am at my worst end and at this rate I'll never get my fish into the pond! Hope you can offer a solution. Thanks in advance
+Gretchen Geer - I think trying to adjust the pH is fine for a bit and if it works and holds thats all well and good, but if it continues to return upward you may have to live with it (at least in considering adding acid based adjusters to bring it down). It's hard to keep putting hard source water in and then trying to bring the pH down afterwards...you'll fight a losing battle. About the only other solution, other than just letting it go and doing the best you can with it, is to soften the water before it goes into the pond. That would, I suspect, need to be done mechanically, just as it would for a home setting. Have you followed up with the folks who built the pond to get their help on this? This can't be the only setting they've run into this I suspect.
Thanks for the video, I have a 3/4 acre koi and bream mud pond which is rain filled. Is a PH of 5.7 okay for the koi or would you chase the PH to get it higher? I've seen the pond get as low as 1/8 acre as well as fill over 2' in one day from heavy rains.
Thanks for the question. So that pH would be pretty low if it's accurate. You may want to retest...and depending on how you do it, make sure the test kit or test strips are fairly fresh (no expired) just to be sure you are getting an accurate reading. Test a couple times during the day...morning, afternoon, and evening, over a couple days and see what the numbers are...this will tell you how stable the pH is, or not, and what the range is during a 24 hour cycle. Good to know this overall. I'm including a couple links below. The first is for koi and is really meant for smaller ponds but the premise is the same and useful for you I think. The second will talk about liming which is a way to raise the pH in a larger pond like you have. For small ponds baking soda could be used. For large ponds lime is more practical. www.koihealth.info/understanding-ph.html fw.ky.gov/Fish/Pages/Farm-Pond-Management-Water-Quality.aspx There are other sites that might provide a bit more information on liming so be sure to do a search on that and I think you'll find a lot of information come up that could be helpful. Thanks again for the question and hope this is helpful for you! Mark
what about duckweed? I went to my local southern States and got weed trine and mixed with cutrene plus with surfactant- sprayed around the banks and as far in as i could- in a few days it started turning brown and then it rained and of course is all sunk to the bottom but some didn't get totally gone now it looks to be continuing to work but i have cattails and lilies on the bank. it is a small pond in our front about 100'x100' we used to have fish catfish, bass, brim and even tried grass eating carp and coy- the fish all died ;( i want to get it back to health and add the grass eating carp and other fish- possible coy to eat any new floating plants not put there by me- What are your suggestion? currently is a frog pond lol
Hi Lorri...you've got a few different things going on there. Sounds like you were able to knock down the duckweed. Cattails are best managed with a product called Shore Klear and a surfactant mixed together. It would probably take out the lilies too. amzn.to/3e15kPI I would probably consider some aeration in there if you are putting more fish back in. They died for some reason...usually it's due to low oxygen...either with or apart form any treatments...but as the plants die off, they will pull oxygen from the water and many folks will lose fish at that point...if they kill too much of the plant off at once, and second, if they don't have aeration as a protection. Along with the aeration you might consider using a beneficial microbial product to help clean the pond up of some of the dead plant material that has accumulated over time. Our biosphere pro would be an example of that. www.pondalgaesolutions.com/biosphere-pro-1/4-acre.html Hope this helps for you!
Hi i have two ponds at min, old one is a raised wooden pond and new one is in ground. Old pond ph is between 7.0 and 7.5 new pond is between 8.0 and 8.5 for the life of me i can't get the ph same so i can move fish to new pond. Can you help? Old pond is 6×10×2 new pond is 17×11×3
Thanks for the question. I'm not sure I would stress too much about it...pH doesn't have to be perfect to be alright...and I don't get too concerned unless I'm pushing over 9.0 or such. There are commercial pH reducers and stabilizers which may be helpful. And while I might try them, if the pH doesn't hold near neutral I"m not prone to fighting with it too much. By the way if a small pond has any kind of concrete involved and its unsealed, it can leach lime out and raise the pH that way. I just wanted to mention that for people to check.
Can anyone help me? I have a 1/4 acre pond in my back yard. Swampy land that was dug out to control and keep runoff water from flooding my house. The pond was dug into a u shape. I should also mention that I live in a rural area. The pond used to be surouded on 3 sides by farm field and was lotted off for houses in 2006. No fish, but have natural turtles and frogs in the pond. Last year I had bad overgrowth of weeds on the bottom I sprayed herbicide to kill the weeds. And started adding pond bacteria and pond coloring. Now I'm getting algae growth. I have not yet taken ph test yet. I suspect it is acidic. What are my treatment options. Thanks for any advice. I forget to mention that I installed an aeration windmill about 6 years ago.
Hi Christopher...while I'm totally in favor of adding beneficial bacteria, I would normally try to support this with aeration in some form for the best results. If you don't have that in place, I might consider it. I don't know that I would worry too much about pH...maybe get a reading on it and see where it's at...mostly to know if you could potentially apply an algaecide now and again to deal with the algae. Weeds and algae compete with one another and I suspect when the weeds came out, the algae had all the nutrients to itself...and it bloomed. So I would still target those nutrients with microbes, but the question remains, are you using enough (dosage or frequency) and is the oxygen in the pond enough to support the microbes to work well.
Hi We just bought 150 L fish tank The alkaline was a bit high we need to get it back to 7 which we have put in the right solution how long should we leave it to test it again thank you
Hi Justin...keeping in mind that I don't work with aquariums or smaller tanks like this to speak of...I would say check it in a few hours and see if you get any kind of shift. In something this small it should happen fairly quickly I would think.
I have a pond with high vegetation and high pH. I am adding the beneficial bacteria to help eliminate some of the nutrients in the water. I would like to stock the pond with fish, as there are none currently, but I am concerned that my high pH has high water hardness may kill them. Should I try to adjust the pH, or would it not be worth the money and effort? Also, if I were to try and bring the pH down, what would you recommend I do? Thanks very much.
It kind of depends on how high of a pH we're talking about. I'm not a fan of constantly trying to adjust this down through...at some point I just live with it. But if the pH is higher than 9.0 bacteria might not work as well...it's best range is lower than that...fish, normally can adjust however.
Hi Andrea...here's a good list of floating plants that are often used. I tend to focus on floaters because they can help block some sun exposure that may help stimulate green water and other algae. But there are many plants that could be used as well.. Water Hyacinth. Water Lettuce. Water Lily. Lotus. Water Poppy. Umbrella Plant. Water Iris. Horsetail.
Thanks so much. I have some waterlilies which hopefully again survived winter under the water. I used to get water lettuce ... no longer available and water hyacinth may not be either as folks are saying they are invasive. However, I doubt they'd survive in the wild in NH! I'll see if I can find both and water poppy, etc. BTW I am happy to have found your tutorials. They are clear, comprehensive and informative! Appreciate your help.
When testing the backyard pond water, I find KH to be reading very low and GH to be high. I'm not sure if that makes sense or if it matters. The ph is at 7.5. Will adding more beneficial bacteria raise the kh... should I even be concerned about that?
i have a 1 acer farm pond with many panfish and bass and a minor algie problem and I have tried adding grass carp to to keep it under control but after 2 or 3 days every grass carp will die ive baught some 12 inch grass carp from a fish farm in the past and they all died over night and recently relocated two larg carp from a near by farm pond into mine and they lived almost a weak then both died the same night the water is clear but a slight brown tint to it ,please help, thanks
OK, did more tests. Nitrate level was 200+ I'm guessing this was a major problem. Didn't do any water changes this year, never did many in the past bc I always had to add water bc the old concrete would lose water all the time. Not losing any water with the rubber liner...
Nitrates are nutrients so they'd likely be coming from a high fish load for the pond size and filter size or capability. Don't know if that's the case here but those numbers would point to that as it's part of the nitrogen cycle in a pond. It's good though that it's converted into nitrates at this point and not ammonia or nitrites, both of which would be toxic to fish. You might try doing some partial water changes, as those usually never hurts to get some fresh water in there.
If I have koi and the water is at a 7.0 and I know they need it a bit higher, could I add pH up to it to get it to let's say an 8.0 or should it be more gradual? Will the fish die? What's lowering my pH is rain. How can I fix that problem?
7.0 is virtually perfect so I wouldn't change anything regarding this pH. You might check it throughout the day or at various times of the day to see if it's swinging around, but I don't worry unless I"m into the 6.5-6.8 range or lower...then it might be worth tinkering with. It's generally not has hard on fish going up as it is downward.
MrLaughingLeopard you can increase your ph with baking soda but don’t add a lot at one time if your pond is big over 4000 do a few cap fulls at a time . I do almost a cup over a 24 hour time test it if it’s still not good put a little more in over another 24 hour time if if u have a small pond just put cap fulls in start off with 2 in 24 hour time
Hi my fish pond is 25 x 10 the deepest depth is 3 feet. I noticed the other day my PH levels were running from 6.2 to 6.8. The water temperature is 66 degrees. I have mostly Goldfish and 2 Koi. I have a lot of plants on the far end of the pond. I had this pond for 25 years. I tested for ammonia which is normal meaning none. The last 3 1/2 weeks my Goldfish have been hiding. I noticed on my security camera a Raccoon has been coming to the pond 4 times a week trying to get my fish. My fish are down deep and he did not get any as of now. I just put a net over the whole pond to see if this helps in keeping him away. My question is since my fish keep hiding is the PH of the water the problem or is it the Raccoon or both? I am trying to solve the problem but so far the fish are still at the bottom for the last 3 1/2 weeks. Will a PH of 6.2 to 6.8 be harmful to the fish? Thanks
There are some products on the market you could try to bring the pH up. I don't have any specific suggestions but this should be easy to find. Normally I would say fish hiding is more an issue with predation or some disturbance like that...provide as much reasonable cover or sunken structures as you can, as this helps and gives them some places to hide.
@@klmponds Hi I tested the PH today it was better 6.8. What I wanted to tell you I purchased 4 more goldfish and put them into the pond. The fish that were hiding for the past 3 1/2 weeks because of the raccoon came out to investigate it seems. Today they started swimming again. That is strange.
OK, spring is almost here! Just did a water test. KH is zero and GH is 30. PH is 7.0 and nitrate and nitrate are also zero. What's the best action to raise the KH and GH? I have one fish currently in the pond (can't believe he survived the winter). I want to add fish as soon as possible so they can start growing. Over the winter algae actually grew on the rocks and walls. It is very "hairy". Is this normal? Thanks in advance.
Hi John...Happy Spring! So to raise the KH you could try Baking Soda. Use 2 to 3lbs per 1000 gallons and it will raise and stabilize Kh levels and keep the Ph at a reasonable level as well (mid 8's is OK). Raise your Ph/Kh slowly over several days. Use maintenance doses of baking soda to keep them at a desired level. It's desirable to keep the KH above 100ppm. 200ppm is great. General hardness is best from around 75 to 150ppm.
John LaSpisa Oyster shells will also do this but I don't know if they will be as precise as the baking soda and getting and maintaining the numbers where you want them to be. Either is certainly worth trying to see which you find better or easier to work with.
John LaSpisa Get you biological system back up and running (it basically stops in cold weather) and add some desirable plants when you can. You can outcompete the algae for the nutrients using these two things and it will often go away. You might remove what you can by hand if you'd like, no harm in that but it's not unheard of for algae to grow even in cold weather, before your biofilter can really get primed up and running.
Hi Steve...I don't know that I would worry with anything above 6.5. If you get much lower than that, then you might want to raise it. You could raise the pH with things like calcium carbonate, limestone or eggshells. There are products out there that contain these things so you could use that or if you eat eggs, just collect the shells over time, put them in a mesh bag, and submerge them in the pond....they'll time release calcium into the water and that can bring the pH up and add a little buffering to, to stabilize it.
Yes, you can try it and it's usually safe to use. Some information is kind of contradictory but as a general rule start with 1 tsp for every 10 gallons of pond water. And be sure to fill a bucket with your pond’s water and dissolve the baking soda in the bucket. Then add the bucket of baking soda/pond water mix to your pond spreading it evenly throughout. Check the pH as you go along and see if you get a response that is satisfactory.
Hi Woody...how large is your pond? For a small backyard pond I might use baking soda...for a larger pond I might use lime. I can provide more info based on the pond size.
I don't have any specific amount to suggest. Normally you would take maybe half a dozen shells..maybe more...and crush them up and put them in a mesh bag and just place them in the pond. They'll dissolve over time. What you want to do though is to test the water hardness...this measures calcium carbonate. Adequate calcium is just good for fish and the pond in general. You can use simple 5 and 1 test strips you can pick up at walmart to measure this and other things...but shoot for 75 to 150ppm with hardness. Alkalinity from say 120 to 180ppm will help with buffering the pH too, and if this is low, you can add calcium carbonate...baking soda. I don't have any specific amount to suggest here either but you can probably find some info online if you do need to use it. Just keep testing and adding to get up to where you need to be.
Hi ive just started testing my 2500 gallon pond with tetra test strips and found the PH is at 6.5.. would you surgest i try and raise it with bicarbonate of soda or shall i just leave it alone.. my fish seem fine and ive just stopped feeding them for winter as the water is now around 10 degrees..? Cheers
+Danny Byrne - 6.5 is alright. If you don't have any other issues with fish or condition, I probably wouldn't worry about it. That said, raising pH is a lot easier on fish than lowering it, and baking soda is cheap and easy to get so if you wanted to tinker with it to get it closer to 7.0, no worries, but I don't know that you'd have to do it to have a healthy pond. One other thing to note, you may want to check pH a couple times through the day and even the seasons...see where it's at on average rather than just a single spot check. It normally will fluctuate throughout the day and that will give you a better picture of things.
For a small pond I would use baking soda. I'd suggest digging around a bit onlline to see how much you may need to use...much will depend on your gallon volume and where the pH is currently. For a large pond, look at ag lime, or calcium carbonate. Again, you'll want to investigate some dosing rates based on your ponds gallon volume and where your pH is currently.
I HAVE 2700 GALLONS OF WATER AND MODERATE FISH LOAD. MY PH IS ALWAYS AROUND 6-2 TO 6.5. I CAN RAISE IT TO AROUND 7 BY CHANGING 10% WATER, BUT IT GOES BACK DOWN. HOW DO I DEAL WITH THIS. THE POND IS NOT EXPOSED TO SUN. I NEED A PH OF AROUND 7.5. THANKS.
I would look for a pH adjuster for small ponds online...something that will raise up in the 7.5 range lets say and then also look for some kind of buffering agent...calcium carbonate or something like that to stabilize it. That may help a bit for you.
Why after 30 years of having my pond would it suddenly develop high PH? it is killing my fish, i have lost Koi and goldeeen orfes and goldfish. 2 golden orfes had died but were hidden under the ivy and had started to disintegrate, would this cause harm to other fish? I dont understand why it has happened after all these years. I have no plants in the pond and look after it every day and have a waterfall. any ideas?
Hi Sandra...tough situation and sorry for the loss of your fish. I'm not sure how to answer this. It depends some on the substrate of the pond...is it concrete? If so, perhaps the seal coat might have worn down and is now releasing lime into the water. If it's not the pond lining itself, then it would have to be source water or some kind of additive. I can't think of any other reason pH would be really high. Do some reading as well on the use of calcium for buffering the pH. Sometimes without that buffer it can swing around a lot and that's not good for fish either....they can often handle a reasonably high pH, but if it's all over the place, that's stressful, then you'd want to research buffering agents to help with this. This kind of info is widely available online by koi pond owners and suppliers so it should be easy to find a solution if this is part of the problem.
Hi MarkThank you very much Mark. will do some reading on internet and think we need to do the treatment like the fish/garden centre told us, we put some in slowly like they said and touch wood have seen a few fish this morning that look fine. We will check the PH level again and then have to keep an eye on it if it is working properly from this point. it is awful to lose the fish especially the ones we have had over 25 years. thank you for your prompt reply and help and advice.Best wishesSandra
OK I have a problem that hopefully you can help me with. I've had a pond for 15 years with no real issues. It was a concrete walled pond, eventually it started to fail and I put in a rubber liner. I live in NY and after the first winter with the rubber liner 90% of the fish died. I didnt know why, I bought more fish. Then after a couple of months the fish were ''hiding'' at the bottom, I checked the PH and it was low. I added the chemical from the pond store and it helped. A few moths later it happened again. I'm starting to think that it's the rubber liner. Is that possible? The pond is about 1600 gallons and I use a UV light. No algae problems at all this year.
Hi John...man that's a tough one. I mean a liner shouldn't do this. With the concrete your pH was problem not very low, especially if it was coming apart. Probably released some lime in the water that way. But if the pH was really low, that could be a problem, worse yet would be the buffering capacity. You don't want wide swings as that can be a problem too. The only thing I could suggest is do a full sampling and testing of the water, looking at more than just pH. Alkalinity and hardness are important too, and check for ammonia. Make sure as well that you have some good aeration going and just cover all the bases you can. Remember though that while pH doesn't need to be perfect, it needs to be buffered against rapid changes. If this had anything to do with pH, to me that would be the place to look. Hope this helps!
Guy, I'm not sure on the difference as we don't work with pools. But most of them should be acidic if you're trying to bring the pH down. Depends on what it is, but I wouldn't fight it too much or stress over it. Work with what you have if it won't comply.
That pH would be far too low. Microbes would not work well, fish would not do well...if at all. Ideally you'd want to raise that up to around 6.8 to 7.5. You could investigate lime for your pond, or various products to raise the pH if it's fairly small.
Well the first thing might be to figure out why it's high...if it's the source water you're using, that might be something you can control, or it might not. The substrate of the pond may be part of it...limestone...ie concrete could leech lime and raise pH. One simple thing to try is adjusting the pH down...very slowly if you have fish. You can use a commercial pH adjuster that would add a bit of acid, or try standard, white household vinegar. Use 1/4 cup of vinegar for every 500 gallons of water in your pond. The acid in the vinegar helps neutralize the alkalinity and lower the pond water's pH levels. Before doing anything I would suggest just searching a bit on google to get the parameters down, particularly if you have fish. You must go slowly going down so as not to shock them. They can handle a wide range but not always rapid changes. Finally, no matter the reading, And it depends on if you're having problems other than the pH, but it doesn't have to be perfect. I'll try to adjust it some...but if it returns quickly to the high reading, I don't usually keep fighting it. But read up on buffering and adjusting pH before trying something and I think you'll be able to make some progress.
You might have shifted the pH too fast. Best to do some research to be sure it's done right if you need to use it again. www.dunnsfishfarm.com/ph_levels.htm
Hi Geoffrey...it sounds like lack of air to me. The pond probably needs some form of aeration, and usually during really hot weather people will lose fish, sometimes in large numbers just because the dissolved oxygen in the water get's so low. I believe I emailed you directly on this as well so be sure to check that out and visit our main site for more information on aeration and why it's so useful.
Hey thanks very much for the kind words! I really appreciate you taking the time to post and for the feedback. Glad you're enjoying your pond!
Hi...pH being high or at least around 9.0 is tolerable for most fish. They can handle wide ranges of pH but not rapid changes so much. Some of what your describing in the pond could be coming from hot weather. You might do some partial water changes, maybe 15 to 20 percent per day, every few days to see if this helps. If your source water's pH is more neutral this may help adjust this too.
I have a new pond, was up and running three days ago. It is an 1800 gallon pond, has a waterfall, and the pump moves 4100 gallons per hour. We filled it with water from our outside faucet, which is not softened water. I have not been able to bring the pH down and it is testing out at 9.5. The pond was Installed by pros and the pond start-up was added to the water as directed. The water also is testing out as "very hard" at almost 1000 ppm. I have fish that are being kept for me until my water is safe for them but I am getting no where. I have added several doses of pH down but it only comes down a little and then goes back up. All the levels are testing consistent, just high on the pH and alkalinity and water is hard. I was told that the hard water is the problem because it affects the buffering. My question is, should I add the chemical that lessens the water hardness? I am at my worst end and at this rate I'll never get my fish into the pond! Hope you can offer a solution. Thanks in advance
+Gretchen Geer - I think trying to adjust the pH is fine for a bit and if it works and holds thats all well and good, but if it continues to return upward you may have to live with it (at least in considering adding acid based adjusters to bring it down). It's hard to keep putting hard source water in and then trying to bring the pH down afterwards...you'll fight a losing battle. About the only other solution, other than just letting it go and doing the best you can with it, is to soften the water before it goes into the pond. That would, I suspect, need to be done mechanically, just as it would for a home setting. Have you followed up with the folks who built the pond to get their help on this? This can't be the only setting they've run into this I suspect.
Thanks for the video, I have a 3/4 acre koi and bream mud pond which is rain filled. Is a PH of 5.7 okay for the koi or would you chase the PH to get it higher? I've seen the pond get as low as 1/8 acre as well as fill over 2' in one day from heavy rains.
Thanks for the question. So that pH would be pretty low if it's accurate. You may want to retest...and depending on how you do it, make sure the test kit or test strips are fairly fresh (no expired) just to be sure you are getting an accurate reading. Test a couple times during the day...morning, afternoon, and evening, over a couple days and see what the numbers are...this will tell you how stable the pH is, or not, and what the range is during a 24 hour cycle. Good to know this overall.
I'm including a couple links below. The first is for koi and is really meant for smaller ponds but the premise is the same and useful for you I think. The second will talk about liming which is a way to raise the pH in a larger pond like you have. For small ponds baking soda could be used. For large ponds lime is more practical.
www.koihealth.info/understanding-ph.html
fw.ky.gov/Fish/Pages/Farm-Pond-Management-Water-Quality.aspx
There are other sites that might provide a bit more information on liming so be sure to do a search on that and I think you'll find a lot of information come up that could be helpful.
Thanks again for the question and hope this is helpful for you!
Mark
Solid. Thank you for your sensible guidance.
what about duckweed? I went to my local southern States and got weed trine and mixed with cutrene plus with surfactant- sprayed around the banks and as far in as i could- in a few days it started turning brown and then it rained and of course is all sunk to the bottom but some didn't get totally gone now it looks to be continuing to work but i have cattails and lilies on the bank. it is a small pond in our front about 100'x100' we used to have fish catfish, bass, brim and even tried grass eating carp and coy- the fish all died ;( i want to get it back to health and add the grass eating carp and other fish- possible coy to eat any new floating plants not put there by me- What are your suggestion? currently is a frog pond lol
Hi Lorri...you've got a few different things going on there. Sounds like you were able to knock down the duckweed. Cattails are best managed with a product called Shore Klear and a surfactant mixed together. It would probably take out the lilies too. amzn.to/3e15kPI
I would probably consider some aeration in there if you are putting more fish back in. They died for some reason...usually it's due to low oxygen...either with or apart form any treatments...but as the plants die off, they will pull oxygen from the water and many folks will lose fish at that point...if they kill too much of the plant off at once, and second, if they don't have aeration as a protection.
Along with the aeration you might consider using a beneficial microbial product to help clean the pond up of some of the dead plant material that has accumulated over time. Our biosphere pro would be an example of that.
www.pondalgaesolutions.com/biosphere-pro-1/4-acre.html
Hope this helps for you!
Hi i have two ponds at min, old one is a raised wooden pond and new one is in ground. Old pond ph is between 7.0 and 7.5 new pond is between 8.0 and 8.5 for the life of me i can't get the ph same so i can move fish to new pond. Can you help? Old pond is 6×10×2 new pond is 17×11×3
Thanks for the question. I'm not sure I would stress too much about it...pH doesn't have to be perfect to be alright...and I don't get too concerned unless I'm pushing over 9.0 or such. There are commercial pH reducers and stabilizers which may be helpful. And while I might try them, if the pH doesn't hold near neutral I"m not prone to fighting with it too much. By the way if a small pond has any kind of concrete involved and its unsealed, it can leach lime out and raise the pH that way. I just wanted to mention that for people to check.
Can anyone help me? I have a 1/4 acre pond in my back yard. Swampy land that was dug out to control and keep runoff water from flooding my house. The pond was dug into a u shape. I should also mention that I live in a rural area. The pond used to be surouded on 3 sides by farm field and was lotted off for houses in 2006. No fish, but have natural turtles and frogs in the pond. Last year I had bad overgrowth of weeds on the bottom
I sprayed herbicide to kill the weeds. And started adding pond bacteria and pond coloring. Now I'm getting algae growth. I have not yet taken ph test yet. I suspect it is acidic. What are my treatment options. Thanks for any advice. I forget to mention that I installed an aeration windmill about 6 years ago.
Hi Christopher...while I'm totally in favor of adding beneficial bacteria, I would normally try to support this with aeration in some form for the best results. If you don't have that in place, I might consider it. I don't know that I would worry too much about pH...maybe get a reading on it and see where it's at...mostly to know if you could potentially apply an algaecide now and again to deal with the algae. Weeds and algae compete with one another and I suspect when the weeds came out, the algae had all the nutrients to itself...and it bloomed. So I would still target those nutrients with microbes, but the question remains, are you using enough (dosage or frequency) and is the oxygen in the pond enough to support the microbes to work well.
Hi We just bought 150 L fish tank The alkaline was a bit high we need to get it back to 7 which we have put in the right solution how long should we leave it to test it again thank you
Hi Justin...keeping in mind that I don't work with aquariums or smaller tanks like this to speak of...I would say check it in a few hours and see if you get any kind of shift. In something this small it should happen fairly quickly I would think.
I have a pond with high vegetation and high pH. I am adding the beneficial bacteria to help eliminate some of the nutrients in the water. I would like to stock the pond with fish, as there are none currently, but I am concerned that my high pH has high water hardness may kill them. Should I try to adjust the pH, or would it not be worth the money and effort? Also, if I were to try and bring the pH down, what would you recommend I do? Thanks very much.
It kind of depends on how high of a pH we're talking about. I'm not a fan of constantly trying to adjust this down through...at some point I just live with it. But if the pH is higher than 9.0 bacteria might not work as well...it's best range is lower than that...fish, normally can adjust however.
What are some beneficial plants you'd suggest adding to a small (8' X 10" X 4' deep) fish pond.
Hi Andrea...here's a good list of floating plants that are often used. I tend to focus on floaters because they can help block some sun exposure that may help stimulate green water and other algae. But there are many plants that could be used as well..
Water Hyacinth.
Water Lettuce.
Water Lily.
Lotus.
Water Poppy.
Umbrella Plant.
Water Iris.
Horsetail.
Thanks so much.
I have some waterlilies which hopefully again survived winter under the water. I used to get water lettuce ... no longer available and water hyacinth may not be either as folks are saying they are invasive. However, I doubt they'd survive in the wild in NH! I'll see if I can find both and water poppy, etc.
BTW I am happy to have found your tutorials. They are clear, comprehensive and informative! Appreciate your help.
When testing the backyard pond water, I find KH to be reading very low and GH to be high. I'm not sure if that makes sense or if it matters. The ph is at 7.5.
Will adding more beneficial bacteria raise the kh... should I even be concerned about that?
i have a 1 acer farm pond with many panfish and bass and a minor algie problem and I have tried adding grass carp to to keep it under control but after 2 or 3 days every grass carp will die ive baught some 12 inch grass carp from a fish farm in the past and they all died over night and recently relocated two larg carp from a near by farm pond into mine and they lived almost a weak then both died the same night the water is clear but a slight brown tint to it ,please help, thanks
OK, did more tests. Nitrate level was 200+ I'm guessing this was a major problem. Didn't do any water changes this year, never did many in the past bc I always had to add water bc the old concrete would lose water all the time. Not losing any water with the rubber liner...
Nitrates are nutrients so they'd likely be coming from a high fish load for the pond size and filter size or capability. Don't know if that's the case here but those numbers would point to that as it's part of the nitrogen cycle in a pond. It's good though that it's converted into nitrates at this point and not ammonia or nitrites, both of which would be toxic to fish. You might try doing some partial water changes, as those usually never hurts to get some fresh water in there.
If I have koi and the water is at a 7.0 and I know they need it a bit higher, could I add pH up to it to get it to let's say an 8.0 or should it be more gradual? Will the fish die? What's lowering my pH is rain. How can I fix that problem?
7.0 is virtually perfect so I wouldn't change anything regarding this pH. You might check it throughout the day or at various times of the day to see if it's swinging around, but I don't worry unless I"m into the 6.5-6.8 range or lower...then it might be worth tinkering with. It's generally not has hard on fish going up as it is downward.
Which ways could I raise my pH? Is it safe to increase it quickly?
MrLaughingLeopard you can increase your ph with baking soda but don’t add a lot at one time if your pond is big over 4000 do a few cap fulls at a time . I do almost a cup over a 24 hour time test it if it’s still not good put a little more in over another 24 hour time if if u have a small pond just put cap fulls in start off with 2 in 24 hour time
Hi my fish pond is 25 x 10 the deepest depth is 3 feet. I noticed the other day my PH levels were running from 6.2 to 6.8. The water temperature is 66 degrees. I have mostly Goldfish and 2 Koi. I have a lot of plants on the far end of the pond. I had this pond for 25 years. I tested for ammonia which is normal meaning none. The last 3 1/2 weeks my Goldfish have been hiding. I noticed on my security camera a Raccoon has been coming to the pond 4 times a week trying to get my fish. My fish are down deep and he did not get any as of now. I just put a net over the whole pond to see if this helps in keeping him away. My question is since my fish keep hiding is the PH of the water the problem or is it the Raccoon or both? I am trying to solve the problem but so far the fish are still at the bottom for the last 3 1/2 weeks. Will a PH of 6.2 to 6.8 be harmful to the fish? Thanks
There are some products on the market you could try to bring the pH up. I don't have any specific suggestions but this should be easy to find. Normally I would say fish hiding is more an issue with predation or some disturbance like that...provide as much reasonable cover or sunken structures as you can, as this helps and gives them some places to hide.
@@klmponds Thank you.
@@klmponds Hi I tested the PH today it was better 6.8. What I wanted to tell you I purchased 4 more goldfish and put them into the pond. The fish that were hiding for the past 3 1/2 weeks because of the raccoon came out to investigate it seems. Today they started swimming again. That is strange.
@@mikearmando pH sounds fine then. Hopefully the fish will continue to do fine and act normal from here on out!
OK, spring is almost here! Just did a water test. KH is zero and GH is 30. PH is 7.0 and nitrate and nitrate are also zero. What's the best action to raise the KH and GH? I have one fish currently in the pond (can't believe he survived the winter). I want to add fish as soon as possible so they can start growing. Over the winter algae actually grew on the rocks and walls. It is very "hairy". Is this normal? Thanks in advance.
Hi John...Happy Spring! So to raise the KH you could try Baking Soda. Use 2 to 3lbs per 1000 gallons and it will raise and stabilize Kh levels and keep the Ph at a reasonable level as well (mid 8's is OK). Raise your Ph/Kh slowly over several days. Use maintenance doses of baking soda to keep them at a desired level. It's desirable to keep the KH above 100ppm. 200ppm is great. General hardness is best from around 75 to 150ppm.
***** OK Thanks. What about oyster shells?
John LaSpisa Oyster shells will also do this but I don't know if they will be as precise as the baking soda and getting and maintaining the numbers where you want them to be. Either is certainly worth trying to see which you find better or easier to work with.
***** hmmmm. What about the string algae that grew during the winter?
John LaSpisa Get you biological system back up and running (it basically stops in cold weather) and add some desirable plants when you can. You can outcompete the algae for the nutrients using these two things and it will often go away. You might remove what you can by hand if you'd like, no harm in that but it's not unheard of for algae to grow even in cold weather, before your biofilter can really get primed up and running.
I have a koi pond and my ph fluctuates between 6.5 to 6.8 is this OK as have read should be around 7.5, what can I do to raise it up?
Hi Steve...I don't know that I would worry with anything above 6.5. If you get much lower than that, then you might want to raise it. You could raise the pH with things like calcium carbonate, limestone or eggshells. There are products out there that contain these things so you could use that or if you eat eggs, just collect the shells over time, put them in a mesh bag, and submerge them in the pond....they'll time release calcium into the water and that can bring the pH up and add a little buffering to, to stabilize it.
can u use baking soda to raise ph levels
Yes, you can try it and it's usually safe to use. Some information is kind of contradictory but as a general rule start with 1 tsp for every 10 gallons of pond water. And be sure to fill a bucket with your pond’s water and dissolve the baking soda in the bucket. Then add the bucket of baking soda/pond water mix to your pond spreading it evenly throughout. Check the pH as you go along and see if you get a response that is satisfactory.
What is a safe way to raise my PH?
Hi Woody...how large is your pond? For a small backyard pond I might use baking soda...for a larger pond I might use lime. I can provide more info based on the pond size.
I was told that if you add oyster shells in your filtration would stabilize ph...is this true?
My pond is 3,500g how much shells should I be putting.thanks
I don't have any specific amount to suggest. Normally you would take maybe half a dozen shells..maybe more...and crush them up and put them in a mesh bag and just place them in the pond. They'll dissolve over time. What you want to do though is to test the water hardness...this measures calcium carbonate. Adequate calcium is just good for fish and the pond in general. You can use simple 5 and 1 test strips you can pick up at walmart to measure this and other things...but shoot for 75 to 150ppm with hardness. Alkalinity from say 120 to 180ppm will help with buffering the pH too, and if this is low, you can add calcium carbonate...baking soda. I don't have any specific amount to suggest here either but you can probably find some info online if you do need to use it. Just keep testing and adding to get up to where you need to be.
I appreciate you're tutorials it help me a lot thank you
Hi ive just started testing my 2500 gallon pond with tetra test strips and found the PH is at 6.5.. would you surgest i try and raise it with bicarbonate of soda or shall i just leave it alone.. my fish seem fine and ive just stopped feeding them for winter as the water is now around 10 degrees..?
Cheers
+Danny Byrne - 6.5 is alright. If you don't have any other issues with fish or condition, I probably wouldn't worry about it. That said, raising pH is a lot easier on fish than lowering it, and baking soda is cheap and easy to get so if you wanted to tinker with it to get it closer to 7.0, no worries, but I don't know that you'd have to do it to have a healthy pond. One other thing to note, you may want to check pH a couple times through the day and even the seasons...see where it's at on average rather than just a single spot check. It normally will fluctuate throughout the day and that will give you a better picture of things.
+klmgroupia thanks for the reply..
Merry Xmas
+Danny Byrne - Happy Holidays to you as well Danny.
How do I increase the PH of my pond?
For a small pond I would use baking soda. I'd suggest digging around a bit onlline to see how much you may need to use...much will depend on your gallon volume and where the pH is currently. For a large pond, look at ag lime, or calcium carbonate. Again, you'll want to investigate some dosing rates based on your ponds gallon volume and where your pH is currently.
this cleared a lot of things up for me. thanks so much for posting.
I HAVE 2700 GALLONS OF WATER AND MODERATE FISH LOAD. MY PH IS ALWAYS AROUND 6-2 TO 6.5. I CAN RAISE IT TO AROUND 7 BY CHANGING 10% WATER, BUT IT GOES BACK DOWN. HOW DO I DEAL WITH THIS. THE POND IS NOT EXPOSED TO SUN. I NEED A PH OF AROUND 7.5. THANKS.
I would look for a pH adjuster for small ponds online...something that will raise up in the 7.5 range lets say and then also look for some kind of buffering agent...calcium carbonate or something like that to stabilize it. That may help a bit for you.
Why after 30 years of having my pond would it suddenly develop high PH? it is killing my fish, i have lost Koi and goldeeen orfes and goldfish. 2 golden orfes had died but were hidden under the ivy and had started to disintegrate, would this cause harm to other fish? I dont understand why it has happened after all these years. I have no plants in the pond and look after it every day and have a waterfall. any ideas?
Hi Sandra...tough situation and sorry for the loss of your fish. I'm not sure how to answer this. It depends some on the substrate of the pond...is it concrete? If so, perhaps the seal coat might have worn down and is now releasing lime into the water. If it's not the pond lining itself, then it would have to be source water or some kind of additive. I can't think of any other reason pH would be really high. Do some reading as well on the use of calcium for buffering the pH. Sometimes without that buffer it can swing around a lot and that's not good for fish either....they can often handle a reasonably high pH, but if it's all over the place, that's stressful, then you'd want to research buffering agents to help with this. This kind of info is widely available online by koi pond owners and suppliers so it should be easy to find a solution if this is part of the problem.
Hi MarkThank you very much Mark. will do some reading on internet and think we need to do the treatment like the fish/garden centre told us, we put some in slowly like they said and touch wood have seen a few fish this morning that look fine. We will check the PH level again and then have to keep an eye on it if it is working properly from this point. it is awful to lose the fish especially the ones we have had over 25 years. thank you for your prompt reply and help and advice.Best wishesSandra
Thank you so much for this tips wanna start fish farming soon in our province... Godless!
OK I have a problem that hopefully you can help me with. I've had a pond for 15 years with no real issues. It was a concrete walled pond, eventually it started to fail and I put in a rubber liner. I live in NY and after the first winter with the rubber liner 90% of the fish died. I didnt know why, I bought more fish. Then after a couple of months the fish were ''hiding'' at the bottom, I checked the PH and it was low. I added the chemical from the pond store and it helped. A few moths later it happened again. I'm starting to think that it's the rubber liner. Is that possible? The pond is about 1600 gallons and I use a UV light. No algae problems at all this year.
Hi John...man that's a tough one. I mean a liner shouldn't do this. With the concrete your pH was problem not very low, especially if it was coming apart. Probably released some lime in the water that way. But if the pH was really low, that could be a problem, worse yet would be the buffering capacity. You don't want wide swings as that can be a problem too. The only thing I could suggest is do a full sampling and testing of the water, looking at more than just pH. Alkalinity and hardness are important too, and check for ammonia. Make sure as well that you have some good aeration going and just cover all the bases you can. Remember though that while pH doesn't need to be perfect, it needs to be buffered against rapid changes. If this had anything to do with pH, to me that would be the place to look. Hope this helps!
Guy, I'm not sure on the difference as we don't work with pools. But most of them should be acidic if you're trying to bring the pH down. Depends on what it is, but I wouldn't fight it too much or stress over it. Work with what you have if it won't comply.
What about under small acid conditions? Like 5.5 ph values? What this might involves? Thanks.
That pH would be far too low. Microbes would not work well, fish would not do well...if at all. Ideally you'd want to raise that up to around 6.8 to 7.5. You could investigate lime for your pond, or various products to raise the pH if it's fairly small.
Ermenegildo Ros lime raises ph. Not sure how much in water but it would take about 4000 lbs an acre on land
My pond ph has risen upto to ph 10 what should i do
Well the first thing might be to figure out why it's high...if it's the source water you're using, that might be something you can control, or it might not. The substrate of the pond may be part of it...limestone...ie concrete could leech lime and raise pH.
One simple thing to try is adjusting the pH down...very slowly if you have fish. You can use a commercial pH adjuster that would add a bit of acid, or try standard, white household vinegar. Use 1/4 cup of vinegar for every 500 gallons of water in your pond. The acid in the vinegar helps neutralize the alkalinity and lower the pond water's pH levels.
Before doing anything I would suggest just searching a bit on google to get the parameters down, particularly if you have fish. You must go slowly going down so as not to shock them. They can handle a wide range but not always rapid changes.
Finally, no matter the reading, And it depends on if you're having problems other than the pH, but it doesn't have to be perfect. I'll try to adjust it some...but if it returns quickly to the high reading, I don't usually keep fighting it. But read up on buffering and adjusting pH before trying something and I think you'll be able to make some progress.
Thank you so much
Adding lime to a pond seems to kill algae but also fish.
You might have shifted the pH too fast. Best to do some research to be sure it's done right if you need to use it again. www.dunnsfishfarm.com/ph_levels.htm
One point... Carbon dioxide in water will lower the pH, not raise it.