Best Kh And Gh Level?

[mark4785]

As it is much colder outside I am doing less and less water changes on the Koi pond as its well known that disturbing hibernating fish can stress them out. Due to this, I am no longer able to replenish the pond water KH and GH levels by doing water changes.

Thankfully, I have two products from NTLabs which enable me to increase the GH and KH respectively.

My question is what is the most suitable KH and GH level?

My KH was reaching 4dH and as a result I noticed the pond PH level was starting to fluctuate more excessively; I responded by increasing the KH to 6dH using what I think is calcium carbonate within the NTLabs product I mentioned.

As for the GH, this is currently at the 7dH level which I think is quite normal.


I would appreciate any opinions of the readings or actions I've described above as I want my fish to get through the winter in positively optimised water.


Mark.

 

[lloyd]

Im not to sure to be honest with you. iv always understood that when you stop doing water changes it isnt the end of the world because all the decomposition process that go on in your pond slow down drastically with the weather. im not really a fan of activelly hireing water parameters but if you say the kh is dropping maybe you'll have to, im not sure.

It hasnt been to cold yet maybe thats why your pond is producing waste still if you have stopped water changes, so it might be a thing to think did you stop water changes to early in the year as its been quite mild.

im not 100% sure what you should do but if it was me id judge how active my fish are and think about doing a water change maybe one last time as its startinng to freeze up now, although this next week isnt supposed to be to cold round our area.

Koi and most other fancy pond fish are quite hardy as im sure you know so i wouldnt worry to much unless it keeps crashing all through winter which i dont think it will. i just think its this crazy weather to be honest although im no great expert.

 

[lloyd]

one last thing you should consider the depth of your pond. if it has some decent depth i would probably do another water change. they probably arent to worried about the cold if its quite a deep pond. just try to make to water change very gradually and i think they'll be fine

 

[mark4785]

Thanks for your response.

I'm continuing to monitor the KH and GH weekly as the incredible temperature changes that are occurring in the UK are upsetting some of the plants causing them to decompose; the decomposition process uses up the KH concentration.

I know doing a water change ought to replenish the KH but my tap water KH is 4dH so adding tap water actually lowers it further in my case.

I think the safest thing for me to do is to continue to artificially higher the KH when it falls to 4dH and do this gradually over several days. No fish so far have responded adversely to the KH increase.