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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