Crystal

I have seen this in a couple of stores over the years. I am not sure what it is, or if the stores managed to clear it up. About 4 years, one manager gave me the 3 last koi to see if I could save them - I placed them in a cycled quarantine tank and slowly added 1 teaspoon of salt per 5G, 1/2 recommended dose of Coppersafe (it is my favorite medication for parasites), and some melafix (about 1/4 to 1/6 recommended dose). I threw 2 airpumps on high and ensured that there was a quiet corner in the tank where they could rest without being buffeted by the currents (I also threw in a bunch of plants). I did 30-40% water changes every day, always ensuring salt and medication levels were as close as possible to what I was removing from the tank, the water came from a heavily planted tank with a ph of 7.4 and no ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates. It took a couple of weeks, but they pulled through. Keep in mind that koi are pretty sensitive to ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates and do not tolerate a cycling tank/pond well. Which is why it is often recommended to have 1000G per adult koi. Many medications can and will mess with the bacteria responsible for keeping the tank cycled. It seems to me that they do not like "tank water", they prefer, and thrived in, "pond water". Once I started using water from my heavily planted tank instead of tap water, they did much better.

Agitation will cool the entire pond by quite a bit. At -50C I am pretty sure it would freeze over, no matter what agitation is available. It has been quite a few years since I have seen it hit -60C, but I have seen it happen. Some years the ice on the lakes and rivers gets almost 4 feet thick, our ice auger almost wasn't long enough. I would make some plans for a greenhouse dome-like cover to help keep the air above the pond warmer. I thought I read somewhere that supercooled water (from extreme agitation in cold weather) could cause ice crystals in the fishes blood or flesh... I have no idea if it is true or not. My fish get to overwinter in a 6' round UFA poly tank in the basement (a cattle trough).

Auto top-up of RODI water for the sump. That was my biggest headache when my 90g was saltwater - having to carry a 3g bucket every couple of days. Also wished I had room for a big garbage can to store extra water in. I was always running out.

Interesting, but the only time I really want to see fish guts is when I am cleaning a fish I hooked out of the lake... Did you know that the heart of a Northern pike can beat for over an hour after it is cut out? Although most stopped after about 20min. I didn't think it was possible for a cutout heart to beat for so long......

Welcome!

Every member contributes to the whole. If it is about the Frankenfish post - I only considered it a debate and a way to see and understand other people's views. I didn't mean any offense. Come to think of it, most of my family can't agree on most issues. But I would never get rid of them.

This is just for summer use. The fish will be overwintered inside. I shudder to think of winter heating costs in a pond... The thermometer is correct, I checked with three of them - Athabasca is an average of 5C cooler than Edmonton. I tried guppies one summer, they were still sluggish on the much hotter south-west facing deck - they didn't even reproduce :shock: . I wouldn't do it again, the guppies weren't happy and I put them back inside when I could catch them. A pool on the ground will lose lots of heat to the soil. I had a smaller 300G pool before - it hit a max peak temp of 21C for 3 days one summer. Other than that, the hottest 2-3 weeks of summer saw the pool at 18-19C. The rest of the time it was cooler. There are quite a few trees in our yard, although the pond plants grew well. I am more interested in running it in the spring and fall, rather than on the hottest summer days.

The temp usually hovers around 14-16C, a bit cool for the fish and plants. I am looking into if I can install a "switch" that is triggered by temp range, When cooler, it would go to the heater and then to the waterfall. When the max temp is hit, the water would bypass the heater and go straight to the waterfall. The pond will also be 1000G+, which I don't' think will be the easiest to heat. Does anyone know of such a switch? I haven't even really looked into it. Maybe it would just be easier to use two pumps.

I finally got permission to build a large in-ground pond, and I figured the easiest way to heat it a couple of degrees would be the "solar black tube" method. The pump will pump the water in pvc pipe onto the roof and then flow down a pvc switchback along the roof and back down into the pond. The pvc is all enclosed, like a water changing python. My question is, if I pump the water up to 13 feet (max head height of pump is 14 feet), will the siphon effect cause the water to hit a faster flow rate? At 13' the pump is rated for about 150 gph, which fine by me, but since there is a siphon after the peak height, will the flow increase? Once the water reaches the peak, it is all downhill from there, and there is far more downhill tubing than previously passed uphill tubing. edit: uploaded a picture.

The filter route will work, but I found it too noisy from my perspective, as my tank was in my room. I use a diffuser like this but bigger: Diffuser. Most airstones produce too large of bubbles, unless you find one of those wooden ones meant for very fine bubbles in a saltwater skimmer, but the diffuser still works better.

You probably have already done this, but look at pictures - as many pictures of as many different ponds and styles as possible. Find which style you prefer, and how it may fit into the layout of your yard. Draw pictures and diagrams to get a good idea. I find the equipment varies according to need: fish stock levels, waterfalls, etc. I love a complex waterfall that divides and merges, while leaving spots for plants in pots, and several shallow areas for birds to bathe. When I finally build my pond, I am going to cheat and use one of those plastic watering troughs from UFA - I don't trust the liner to hold up to the local wildlife (a neighbor's liner was shredded by a black bear that was passing through and decided to go fishing...). There used to be a farmer with a pond in his yard not far from me - it was originally a water storage tank of some kind, 20 feet across and 12 feet deep... Looked great in his 2 acre front yard, but I don't think it would even fit in mine. The edge was raised about 3 feet above the ground level. He went swimming with his koi... His 3yr old daughter would hang onto the biggest koi (about 3.5' long), and it would calmly and slowly drag her around the tank. He had some sort of beams criss-crossed inside the tank, some he could stand on at about 5' deep; and others higher at about 2', which he put plant pots on. Unfortunately, they moved and the new owners didn't want the pond so they tore it up. :cry:

I just used plain black sand - most ferts go into the water, or perhaps the addition of tablets for the heavy feeders like swords. I just added 1 tab for the sword every 2 months, Flourish excel every 3 days, and a tank of CO2 set at 2 bubbles per 3 seconds. This is the setup:

I dump the filter gunk and snails (live and dead ones) into the flower bed and garden. It makes excellent fertilizer. The bed that gets fish gunk has one type of flower that grows 8 feet tall; in another bed with the exact same conditions (minus the fish stuff) the same flower only grows 4-5 feet tall. It also keeps the neighborhood kids from stealing the garden produce once you tell them what you put in the dirt. (You would be amazed how green some of the kids turned when I told them!) I have also seen sparrows stealing the ramshorn shells for calcium.

Glad you enjoy it! Saltwater is fascinating with all of the corals and fish. I did saltwater for a couple of years, but lacked the time necessary for it and switched back to fresh just this year. I do miss my corals and clownfish though... Looking forward to the pictures. (Come on, who doesn't like gawking at some else's tank?)

A heart-felt thank you to SuperGuppyGirl! It is really appreciated!

I left some fish with my relatives for people to pick up, but two of the people who were going to pick them up haven't shown up yet. I live two hours away, so I can't do much, and my relatives know nothing about fish except how to fry them. Can anyone pick them up and hold them? (I can offer plants and cuttings, or even some of the multies, next time I am in Edmonton) They are N. Multifasciatus, and they can all go in a bare 5g tank easily (or even a couple of fry nets). My relatives are in the west end, near mayfield common. My cell is 780-213-1449, I will probably not be near a computer. I just don't want the fish to die...

They look like average adult fancy female guppies to me. The albino one looks a bit swollen to me (maybe add some salt to the tank). They don't even look that pregnant - the gravid spot gets really dark a couple of days before birth. I just float a breeding trap with lots of circulation vents in the tank and drop the female in there a day or do before I think she is ready. (http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3814565) Then I just move the babies to a hanging net and release the mother. Put lots of plants in the tank - live or plastic will work, it will give them somewhere to hide if they get really stressed and a place for fry to hide until larger.

I have a Milwaukee dual gauge with needle valve and selenoid and I love it (I also have a ph detector attached to it). I use the biggest diffuser I can find; or you can just have it bubble into your canister filter/pump if you don't mind the noise (I couldn't stand the noise as it was 4 feet from my bed). I find the healthyist plants from hobbyists, or from speciality stores who know what their doing. Hobbyists often give cuttings away for free (or for a Tim Hortons coffee).

Picture doesn't show, and the link gets blocked by my firewall as untrustworthy.

You wish to have a planted tank to help keep the water quality up, connected to several other tanks. There are ways to accomplish this, some easier, some harder. I will admit that you lost me at: 1. Is the plumbing U-tubes going to be above the tank glass lip? (I am afraid the answer is yes...) 2. Are the tanks going to be the same height? Or will they be waterfall-staggered like the overflow plant displays you see in stores? 3. Or are you connecting drilled holes in tanks? 4. Is the water flow from side to side or top to bottom? In theory, with no unexpected problems, yes. In reality, it really depends on exactly what you are doing; it can be complicated and full of potential problems. It may work it may not, I am not entirely sure what you are trying to do. If you plan to have the U-tube above the tank glass, you could be in for trouble trying to match water flow rates. I know one person who used plumbing to connect 3 of his tanks together - and could never get the pump to pump at the right rate. If his tanks all had the same "max" water height on the same level it probably would have worked as he had drilled holes in the tanks - but his "sump" was lower by a foot or so and he always had overflows until he fixed it. I had a planted above my main tank, the pump pushed water into the planted tank, which overflowed through a drilled hole back into the main tank. Worked well, but i had a small pump and a large drain (as well as a backup drain in case the one got plugged).

I think my pleco actually managed to get stuck in one of the many aquarium decorations - although I thought I had checked every single one carefully after I hadn't seen him for a day or two. I had originally thought that the cat had managed to get him - either fished him out, or if he jumped. But he disappeared close to 10 years ago and I found the bone 2 years later. Any sign of your third fish?

I managed to lose an 8" common pleco in a 65g once - I found the bone from the pectoral fin 2 years later.

Welcome! There are a few shrimp breeders in Edmonton. If no one offers directly, when you are ready, just post in the buy/sell section. I know a few stores in Edmonton carry shrimp; Big Al's for sure, and I believe Aquarium Central might also. But I prefer to buy from other hobbists, you never know who you will meet!

When I still had my 55g neon tetra & guppy tank I always had a male betta in it. Never any issues, and the betta usually lived for 5-8 years. He also helped eat my shirmp pellets with no ill effects.

I quarentine all of my fish just because I fear an outbreak of disease. I primarily use salt unless something (like ich) shows up. Then I treat according to what shows up. About 5 years ago I found a strain of ich that was immune to most medications. I then tried Coppersafe and it worked beautifully.