You don’t want to mess with it a lot. Some people try to move it around, up and down, but pH is logarithmic so any change, sudden change, that’s even a half of a point up or down could be really dangerous to your fish. What you do is boost the alkalinity in your water, and a lot of times people confuse alkalinity with a high pH, but actually a high pH is a basic — above 7 is basic, below 7 is acidic.  When you boost the alkalinity, you’re actually buffering the changes in the pH, so you use products like water conditioners and stress coats which boost alkalinity. A simple thing like sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) buffers by boosting alkalinity. So you want to avoid drastic changes in pH.

What pH levels do fish thrive in?

They thrive in 6 to 8. The ideal pH is 7.5. The most stable pH Koi can thrive at consistently is between 6.8 and 8.2.  PH below 7 is acidic which burns their skin, and a high pH will chaff their skin. A variation more than .5 in a 24 hour period is very dangerous and that would be considered a pH swing.

Are there any other symptoms that fish will display that tell you there is a pH problem or a water problem?

No, not so much. If pH is higher than 7.5 and you have any ammonia readings in your pond — you know you can get ammonia from over-stocking your fish or having too many fish in a pond — so if there’s any ammonia,  they can tolerate a little bit, but the higher the pH, the more dangerous the ammonia is, so it becomes more deadly to them.

See water treatment products available in our online store

Check out the Barley Straw Pellets and water treatment products at our store

Did you know?

Barley is a natural way to control algae and there are different forms of barley:

• barley bales
• barley pellets

What they do: once in the water they start to release barley extract which is the key ingredient that prevents algae growth. It’s not an algaecide, it’s an all-natural way without any chemicals to help control algae. It’s not the fix-all though, and sometimes it’s not enough. In these cases we use barley extract in conjunction with an algaecide like AlgaeFix to get a good grip on it – most of the time.

Factors that contribute to algae growth:

• lack of plants because having other plants in the water will steal nutrients that algae needs to grow
• any type of phosphates that get into your water can contribute to algae growth
• fluctuations in PH can also contribute to algae growth

So there are a lot of things that contribute to it, but if you stick to the plan of using bacteria, barley extract, and an algaecide like AlgaeFix you can keep it under control instead of trying to figure out the problem, asking, where am I getting this algae growth? It’s coming from the sun mainly.

Our rule of thumb is 1 inch of fish per every 10 gallons of water. So in 2,000 gallons you can have 200 inches of fish–not 200 fish, but 200 inches worth of fish. Keep in mind that your fish will grow and you do not want to overload your pond. Overloading can cause excessive stress on your filter, create more bacteria and will create more work for you when it comes to cleaning and feeding.

Pondovac 4 made by Oase

• Get a kit to test the water chemistry (pH, Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, etc.) Also check that the water temperature has reached 55 degrees before feeding.
• Fertilize the plants with Aqua Tabs monthly. Most pots require 1 tab where lilies require 2 per pot.
• Vacuum the pond (if you don’t already own a pond vac, we recommend the Pondovac 4)
• Treat the water with a chlorine/metal neutralizer and a stress coat. Also maintain the dosage of Beneficial Bacteria. We recommend Ultimate conditioner and Microbelift PL bacteria.
• Feed the fish… but careful there! These special creatures are vulnerable coming out of the dormant period and need deworming and medicated foods. We recommend wheatgerm with probiotics that is easy for them to digest, especially the Saki Hikari brand. Call us now while fish food is 20% off!