Monday 10th
So, we’ve more recently found out about a Charity called Birdline. Which helps to look after any birds whose owners have gotten sick or just can’t look after them any more. I was quite shocked at some of the sad stories about these poor birds.
Anyway, the house is spotless. Bobby looks all cute. Can’t wait to meet and talk more about the charity 🙂
———————-
Update. It was cancelled last minute, there was an emergency in Lincoln. So we’ve got to wait and see when she can come back.
Tues – 11th
Oh dear. So the inevitable happened. With all the ‘spawning’ one of my younger fish has now gone red raw. It’s male, approx 4 years old. And white. (Now red) problem is, I can’t catch it till the water starts to clear.
WE finally got the bulbs working last night, so I have my fingers crossed for that.
Problem is the PH has been slowly creeping up as well and after the problems last year with it yuk…. it’s stable but at the very high end. 9
I’ve started to add a little bicarb in to help. But what can I do with this poor fishy 
Uggggghhhhh bar drain the whole pond to try and catch it, I don’t know.
———————————————-
PH at present is 9.
GH is 7
KH is 6
Tap water at present is 6.5, but used to settle at 8 – 8.4 over 48 hours. I always, always have problems with it. The water is like ‘grass’ you really can’t see anything. And that is why I think the ph is so high because of all the green stuff.
It was exactly the same last year, even after changing the bulbs and after new quartz sleeves it cleared but took 2 weeks.
I will try and be patient with this fish and hopefully I’ll nab him. Yes, they come up for food. But it’s not easy still to try and pick him out from all the others. But I can’t let him stay like that if he’s so bad. I will have to catch him soon. The other half is home in a few hours. Might be better with two of us on the job.
In the mean time. I’ve added some algae stop, (its like pure citric acid to try and bring the ph down, last year using it once a month kept the PH really stable, but this was in august when the water was clear.
Everything was great, till the weekend and lots of spawning action… Just hope no one else is damaged.
——————————
The bulbs have only been on for 3 months the end of last year, and off all winter. So really they shouldn’t need changing. However, if it’s not started to clear towards the end of the week. We might buy them.
Last year with new bulbs (one broken one) and new quartz sleeves and some stuff I tried to get to clear it, cost us £200 which I can’t do this year. Hopefully with some water changes and the bulbs on now and cleaned we should see some light at the end of the tunnel.
No suck luck on spotting the koi though.
Have my fingers crossed, if not might hit the whole pond with a small dose of CT and ease off on the feeding for a week.
We got to meet Kirstin on Wed, she came with a friend. 🙂 it was lovely to meet them both and talk all about the birds. Hopefully we’re well on our way to helping out a needy bird.
———————————–
The tap kh is 2 Dave… so might need to bump it a little tomorrow. But will see where the PH lies tomorrow.
At least it will drastically lower the bacteria and green water overnight. And if I need too, I can drain some more and leave it dripping all day. As the other half is back home at 9am. Through till 2… and I’m home just after three.
I do need an overflow. We were going to put one in, but the garden has a natural one running into the grass, so when it really rains in winter it just floods there, goes in our bunker and is pumped out by the sump.
Will keep you posted tomorrow and see how things are. I’ll try and grab anyone tomorrow just to take a few scrapes. And see if there is anything else lurking. We’ve got frogs also spawning in next doors pond even though we told them they were dangerous for us. Sucks to be near kids….
Anyway, hope there is nothing else lurking but will know after tomorrow.
Big day for us, got a home visit for safe housing an African Grey too, along with my lil parrot Bobby, so we’ve really tried to make everything safe for all.
We replaced the bulbs and sleeves in Aug last year. They were on from then till Dec and then turned off.
We’ve cleaned the sleeves and both are now working as of last night.
But this is too similar to last years issues that I can’t ignore the treatment I’ve used to kill Blanketweed. As soon as that is dead, we end up with green water instead.
At present the PH has dropped .3 from 9 to 8.7 in 5 hours. So if it continues we should have another .2 or .3 drop by morning… I will post before I go to work.
Not too sure where we could put a barrel, but something to consider for next year. As we can’t continue like this.
Had a little rain overnight too.
PH is now at 7.5, so I’m going to make sure it’s not on the up for this afternoon and take it from there for a while. Looks a bit clearer. All other koi are mooching about and came over for food so they’re not that bothered.
Just need to see the smaller ones now and make sure they’re okay.
Will let you know how we get on later.
PH is still 7.5 so that’s good. Seneye says 8.2 but does show the drastic drop from yesterdays high 9…
Ammonia is 0.004 nitrite is nil.
Still can’t see a damned thing though and that fish, not a chance till I feed. House inspection in 40 mins, eek… Will test PH later too.
Gaz – Pond is 5000 gallons, mis-shaped. The nexus is cleaned every other day, and dropped 3 if not 4 times. Takes around 4-5 hours to refill on a slow trickle. And because of the green water, I’ve been draining a bit each day to keep the pollutants down.
Will retest later and see how things are.
Viv, Bobby is great. munching on his veggies at the mo. Well should I say chucking them out his bowl onto the floor routing for the things he likes the most first. lol
————————
Home visit went well. Lets just keep our fingers crossed.
Kanundra's Blog 