Koi Pond pH: Ideal Range and How to Stabilize
By KoiQuanta Editorial Team|
pH is a parameter that can change dramatically in a koi pond within 24 hours - and most keepers don't know this is happening because they test once a week, if that.
I had a pond with algae mats that I thought was fine. pH reading on Tuesday afternoon: 8.4. pH reading the following Tuesday afternoon: 8.2. "Stable," I thought. Then I tested at 6 a.m. one morning because a fish was acting strangely: 6.8. The pond was swinging between 6.8 and 8.4 every 24 hours.
That kind of daily swing stresses fish physiologically even when the fish look "fine." And the low end of that swing - 6.8 - was making my ammonia readings significantly more toxic than the same reading at stable pH 7.5 would have been.
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