Mary!oklisten...lmao...this..is..for..real...i..dropped..water..on..my..keyboard..and..my..spacebar..key..doesnt..work..any..more..lmaoooooroflol you..will..hate..me..by..the..time..i..finish..typing..but..hopefully..i..can..get..thru..it...lol!!!! first.i.have.to.comment.on.the.clean.seeding.water.theory.....i.just.don't.see.how.that.would.work...there.is.already.TONS.of.biojunk.in.your.pond.and.bacteria.is.bacteria.....there.is.no."clean.water".bacteria....am.i.making.sense?...i.am.about.to.lose.my.mind....rofl!! ok..short.and.sweet.now....we.lost.a.lot.of.bluegill.in.the.cleaning....but.no.koi.....the.bluegill.ended.up.in.the.very.bottom.of.the.pond.in.the.muck.and.scraping.on.the.rocks.when.the.(stupid).pond.people.were.trying.to.catch.them.....b/c.of.that,i,think,it,hurt,them,and,caused,major,bacteria,issues...they,weould,show,up,w/,fin,rot,and,hairy,patches...sosad...then.dead. since,cleaning,the,pond,it,is,clear,again,for,the,first,time,in,two,years!!yay!!!.... issues,or,what,i,would,do,differently,next,time: i,would,do,it,myself-for,sure..not,hire,it,out(we,did,almost,all,of,the,work,anyway..they,were,unimpressive!!!!!!) um....i,really,cant,think,of,any,major,issues,other,than,not,having,those,idiots,catching,my,fish....!!! here,was,the,sequence,we,followed: 1)drain,almost,all,water 2)while,draining: clear,junk,out,of,marginal,areas,as,pond,gets,lower if,you,have,water,lilies,in,pots...pull,them,out,and,trim,or,do,whatever,you,need,to..(dont,fertilize,them...fish,poop,does,that)...i,recommend,replanting,in,bottom,of,pond,in,gravel,if,your,pond,bottom,is,such...otherwise,in,pots,w/gravel. 3)clean,pads,biofalls,bags,etc,while,draining 4)when,level,is,low...catch,fish,and,put,in,holding,pool,or,whatever...cover,so,they,dont,jump!!!mind,the,sun,tho,and,dont,cook,them 5)when,all,are,caught...drain,rest,of,water,and,spray,down,sides 6)refill 7)reacclimate,fish...obviously,put,plants,back i'm,tired..the..end..lol

Fish produce ammonia. Ammonia is toxic to fish. It is also uncomfortable so that might cause them to jump. Fish poop, excess food and organic waste rotting on the bottom produce nitrites and toxic gases as well as being a home and nutrient source for anaerobic bacteria. That may not cause them to jump but it is unhealthy for the fish and for humans. (You might like the link below.) Ph is affected by many things including rain, organic matter etc. Koi do not tolerate water that is too acidic. They do much better in alkaline water. Nitrites and nitrates in the water will cause water problems and feed algae. KH is a measure of buffering capacity or resistance to change in PH. Knowing the levels of these is important to avoid a crash that can and will kill fish.That is where a test kit comes in. There are 3 types. The first is a research grade kit and while extremely accurate it is expensive and you don't need that level of results. The second type are strips that come in packs of fifty, are easy to use and can be frustratingly inaccurate unless fresh, properly stored and kept absolutely dry until you use them. Most of the ponders on this forum don't use them although a few do. I tried them, didn't like them. Half of what I bought were not accurate. The third while not as accurate as the first is totally adequate for your purposes. It contains liquid chemicals, test tubes color charts and instructions for the tests you need to do regularly. They run around $25 to $30. It is recommended that they be replaced each year but I have cheated and had good results when the kit was carefully stored. I don't push it though. It is not worth it to me if I lose a koi because of it. The next part is from a web site but is correct. "When to test. An established pond with healthy Koi fish should be checked every month. It is only when you notice something out of the ordinary, and possibly during seasonal changes, that an additional test or two might be prudent. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. A simple test, at the right time, can prevent a minor problem from becoming a catastrophe. When starting up a new pond system, daily tests may be required then weekly for a couple of months until the system has stabilized." Right now your main concern should be ammonia. You have a lot of fish. Limits on the number of fish is usually figured by gallons of water to inches of fish. Since some of your fish are rather large you may very well be approaching the edge of disaster. The test kit will tell you. To reduce ammonia, you can aerate with a bubbler, agitate the water as with a waterfall or fountain or use a product to remove it chemically (I use a combination of Ammoblock and Activated carbon in a bag in the Skippy filter. It does a good job for my little pond) In any case, you need to test the water. Here is a link that might be useful: Ron's Pond Scum

Jenny, We stop up the line going into the first tub.(we use a nerf football :) Then we let the pump run to take as much water as possible out of all the tubs. Then either using a scoop or shop vac we scoop out all the muck. Cliff usually mucks it out will a jug -- emptying the muck into a 5 gallon bucket, then he walks around watering all the flowers and plants with the fish muck...The flowers and plants love it. Keep in mind we built our pond in 1997, that was the dark ages as far as the internet was concerned. We took books out of the library and then went shopping for a liner (nowhere was a bottom drain ever mentioned) Fortunately for us we shopped in a large pet store that sold pond supplies and liners. The owner had a large pond in his backyard and explained to us the necessity of the bottom drain and the dome top on the bottom drain. The pond floor is all slightly tilted toward the bottom drain to enable all the muck that settles on the bottom to naturally gravitate towards the drain. The water swirles around the drain with the dome top and flows through the drain into the tubs. The first and second tubs have the filter material. We cut sides of milk crates and wrap them in various materials like cotton batting and force them standing straigt up into the tubs. Most of the waste is trapped into the first tub. The last tubs hold our pumps, we have about 5 or 6 pumps ranging from 1200 gph to 500 gph. We usually have 2 going all the time one for the main pond and one for the biological pond, which we added the next year... (more about that another time) We like to have several small waterfalls all over the place, that's why we have several pumps. Another reason for the different sizes of pumps is we have more control over the flow. When the filters are in need of a cleaning the flow of water slows down and we have to slow down the pumps. If you want koi, forget about goldfish. The goldfish multiply like crazy and soon you'll be trying to catch them to give them away. We only have two goldfish (our original goldfish that are 12 years old) We also have 3 orfs they are the population control in our pond... One more recommendation, think about using a 4" drain. We have a 3" but if we were doing a pond today we would use a 4" drain. The shelf, be sure to build a shelf all around, ours is deep and wide -- we then built up to ground level with rocks. The only place we don't have a shelf is in the beach area. We also replaced all our small beach pebbles the next year with bigger round stones. It's easier to keep it clean, we hose it out about every two week, and when the rocks start to get an alge build up, we just turn them over to show a nice clean and shiny side. Our beach is about 5 foot x 4 foot, maybe a little bigger... Joann More beach... Here is a link that might be useful: Our website

It sounds to me that your husband's comment was less about YOU and more about how to get the most out of your exercising. I say that because he suggested P90x, which is the dvd set that is often thought to be the "gold" standard that gets excellent results (or in your husband's words, whistle inducing results). You responded that you were too old for the whistles, and your husband basically said that age doesn't matter if the body is "perfect." Maybe it was his use of perfect that offended, but I would take his comments more just to mean that if you are serious about exercising, why waste your time on the lesser exercise systems--and instead just go for the gold.