18:31 question
18:56 answer
You've been googling...haven't you. Yer dirty bastid
No, I keep koi carp and use a TDS meter to monitor water quality
along with ph meter and many chemical tests because Koi are very fussy about the quality of water they drink ,
then they pee n sh*t in it ,so water is recirculated via self-cleaning drum filter, biological filter aqueduct, to purify it
My dishwasher is not allowed to leave the kitchen till all the pots are clean , that's how mine works
Maybe you can tell me how to stop the water in my pond (big goldfish looking things in it - we inherited them with the house) turning green and growing (depending on how it's feeling that day) green stringy algae or green cloudy algae...
A very common problem with ponds because you can't use chlorine like you would in a swimming pool,
your pond probably has high levels of nitrate in the water,
fish eat food and produce ammonia, with a good filtration system, ammonia gets converted into nitrite and then nitrate, nitrate is plant food, most ponds are in direct sunlight all the time (except night obviously)
So , water, plant food and lots of sunlight are ideal growing conditions for algae, turning water green or forming string algae.
you can buy treatments that are formulated to stop the algae, some more effective than others
OR , you can do what I and most serious koi keepers do .
1: provide shade, pergola, sun sail, etc, not always practical
2: reduce nitrate
3: use UV c light to kill algae (you can buy UVc pond filters to pump water through, splitting the algae cells , which clump together and are caught by mechanical filters )
4: try and reduce the amount of food and fish waste, the most common problem,overfeeding fish .overstocking of fish.
I have built my own, self-cleaning rotary drum filter, which removes
most of the fish poop, waste food, decaying plant matter.(some filters use sponges but they clog and need constant cleaning)
after the RDF, water goes through a biological filter which contains media that is home to good bacteria, they convert ammonia to nitrate, which converts to nitrite (plant food)
I have plants (lilies and very fast growing mint plants) that use up nitrates.
i also do a regular 10% water change with fresh water (which is run through an activated carbon water filter to remove impurities and treated with dechlorinator (chlorine is harmful and burns fish)
I monitor water quality very closely for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, chlorine, carbon hardness, ph, parasites etc and TOTAL DISSOLVED SOLIDS with a TDS meter. uses a light source and measures particles in water (dishwasher sensor technology)
so, having a few fish in a pond is more complicated than people think
If you just have a few small fish in a pond, an off the shelf pond filter with built in uv lamp ,a decent pump etc and reduced feeding,
should cope to keep water clear.
If you have big fat 2' long plus Koi that eat prawns, chicken strips, peas, rice, muscles etc on top of vast quantities of food pellets, you will probably need serious filtration equipment