K.H & G.H. and the effects on koi

[DaveB]

I/ we are well aware what effects of G.H. has on the colouration on our koi. Too much G.H. will bring out shimies on the He. Too little and the loss of sumi? or will the sumi just develope later ? Now I was not aware that K.H had any effect on colouration and it was brought to my attention that some people are say this is the reason why we need a k.H of no more than 2dh. After racking my brains and thinking of the early days I remember the advice being bandied about was Don,t use bicarb as this will strip the he from the koi.Perhaps this would be true if too much were used. I have for a few years now run my pond with a k.h of only 1dh as that is what comes out of the tap.More recenttly my thinking has been that it is only G.H. which is detrimentle to koi skin quality and not K.H. Perhaps you guys can add some explanaiton what effects different levels of K.H & G.H. have on skin quality

[Kanundra]

With a KH of only 1 aren't you risking high ph swings?

My kh dropped from 6 to 2 from my supply water and I had my ph swing from 7 to 10!!!!! my fish were trying to jump out and I don't blame them.

Interested in answers here

[DaveB]

With a KH of only 1 aren't you risking high ph swings?

My kh dropped from 6 to 2 from my supply water and I had my ph swing from 7 to 10!!!!! my fish were trying to jump out and I don't blame them.

Interested in answers here

If I raise the k.H with bicarb the p.H goes up but the swing of 0.3 is still there, Pobably 0.5 at the moment with the blanketweed I have. I would need to raise the p.H to 8.3 to lock it steady with quite a high k.H, which I don,t really want to do. To reduce the swing I will need to kill off all the blanketweed which I intend to do shortly. I have run my pond during the winter with a k.H of 1 d.h with a swing of no more than 0.2 with the covers on ie very little light. I wish there were an easy solution without dramatically raising the p.H. I used to have liquatha in the system which did reduce the swing however this also raised the g.H too and brought out a few shimmies on my kohakus, hence the origonal question. I now have oystershell in my shower which acts as a mechanical filter more than anything but hopfully if the p.H were to drop to below 7, this would prevent my filter from crashing. Best REgards Dave

[Brek]

I have run RO for a couple of years now and sumi development on one fish has come on great, and on another it has faded so I think fish quality is the main dictator in terms of loss or gain of anything.