Filtration upgrade one - Addition of a 15k air source heat pump

As a the first part of my phase two updates to the pond, last Monday (12th May) I purchased a single phase 15k air source heat pump (ASHP). It draws 2.8kw of power when heating and has a maximum output of 15k. It will be an interesting one when the electric bills come in but given the health issues I have experienced this year so far that really should not be even considered.

It arrived on the Friday (16th). On a sunny Sunday Craig and I set it up in its temporary home by the side of the pond with an 8k pump. It was surprising easy to connect in, with two 1.5" pipes (one inlet and one outlet), connecting a heavy duty power lead and then attaching an 8k pump to the inlet pipe. In short that was it. The next thing to do was to turn it on and programme it. This took about 5mins to set it to 23c and away it went with an initial thud as the fan kicked in for the first time. When running makes a similar noise to that of a household fridge when running so it isn't silent but will be fine when it's behind the filter house.

Given my year of problems this upgrade his all seemed to go so simply.

It will be wired and plumbed in properly into the filter house in a few weeks time but I just wanted to get it running on the pond as soon as possible to help the koi heal.

 

The initial temperature was 17c when we turned it on on Sunday mid afternoon. By 7am on Monday morning it was upto 20c and by the time I arrived home at 9pm it had reached temperature (23c).

My current aim is to keep the pond at 23c all summer and then allow it to drop down to 12-14c (TBC) in the winter. This ensures the KPIs immune systems are strong enough and also gives then great conditions to grow.

 

Nemo and Craig will be visiting tomorrow (Wednesday) evening for another koi health check and I am hoping for further positive news.

Here is to a successful 2014 from May onwards.

 

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Very very tough start to 2014

So the pond has been running now for almost twelve months. To be perfectly honest this past year has not been without any issues or regrets.

 

The worst and most upsetting has been the koi health issues. I went into winter with the koi not in perfect health and came out of it with huge problems. I beleive the combination of a few factors has contributed to this,

1. During last years pond build they were in unheated holding vats during the extremely harsh cold temperatures (down to minus 16c) and snow between February to May 2013. This knocked their underlying health back significantly.
2. I'm unheated.
3. The pond depth at 7.5 a 8ft is great if everything was fine. The pond takes a long time to heat up because of the reduced surface area considering the water volume.
4. Pond clarity is not great.
5. The mild 2013 into 2014 winter caused me to have a lot of blanket weed. Following two monthly 35% dose treatments of CBA the clarity was even worse. At its worst clear to a foot, hazy down to 4ft and then nothing below that.

People may have their opinions regarding the reasons but I feel the above summarise it well.

Throughout the winter I performed weekly filter cleans with about 10% water changes.

At the start of March I did four day Chlorimine-T treatment. No slowing in the decline of the koi health. At this point I have lost five koi. Two weeks later another course of Chlorimine-T.

Unbeknown to me at the time was that my lack of water clarity was hiding the real issues. I had ok visibility to about one foot, hazy to four foot and nothing below that.

To resolve the clarity issues I started using filter wool over the Easter bank holiday weekend. I placed it in the sieves and also just under the shower on the roto concept gravity showers.

I was changing the filter wool three to four times a day over the three day weekend and water clarity improved significantly so I could see the bottom of the pond but still a long long way away from the 'gin clear' everyone talks about.

 

This was when my real issue became apparent and very obvious to see. I had a large number of koi sat sulking on the bottom that I had been unable to see before.

At this point I decided that drastic and fast action was necessary. I added an additional aquosis hospital vat with an Eazypod and 300w heater. I added acriflavine and salt to the main pond and also to the hospital vat which turned the water a bright luminous green colour for four days before easing back to normal colour.

Unfortunately it was too late for a number of koi and over the next week and a half I lost another seven koi. A couple had dropsy which is awful to see because there is so little you can do.

 

Three weeks ago, on a Wednesday night a lovely Showa started to get a 0.5cm roughness in the edge of the previously healed wound. At this point I spoke to Craig Emery and invited him round to have a look. When he arrived on the Thursday night the wound on the koi was now about 2cm. He immediately called Nemo at KoiKare and said he need to come round to check the koi. When he visited on that Friday evening the wound was now 6-7cm. It was truly shocking how quickly it had deteriorated. After one look, the koi it was euthanised along with the only two left in the hospital tank.

In Nemo's first visit he treated about 8 koi that I identified as not well. In his second visit he and Craig netted every koi in the pond (25) and treated about 15. He also tested the water and saw a few costia under the microscope. To remove the costia, three full dose PP treatments followed. In his third visit there was the same netting of koi and treating. Thankfully they were now showing clear and significant signs of improvement. Last Friday was Nemo's and Craig's fourth visit and this time they only netted the ones they treated before. The good news is they are all improving well and also looking so much more active.

I can now say that the koi are showing significant big signs of improvement!

Thankfully in between all this hell I won the Kangei Grow and Show completion at Avenue Fisheries so being perfectly honest this was a huge plus for me.

The painful truth here is i didn't react soon enough to koi having health issues because I simply couldn't see them. It was was a utterly awful time that really did upset me because in simple terms it was my fault.

I will keep the updates coming regarding the health of my koi and also with the planned updates.

 

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