If you have water supplied by a water company then by EPA standards you must have a minimum of .2ppm of free chlorine at your tap. If you have Chloramine, not required in words but other standards are almost forcing water companies to use it, then when the chlorine gases out you are left with ammonia. Yes your biofiltration will eventually take care of it, but it's like adding nitrate to your water. This is one thing you are trying to eliminate during water changes. If you have plants however they will enjoy feasting on the ammonia. Plants use nitrogen faster in the ammonia form then the nitrate. The thing is, dechlorinator is about $40 from an online store like fostersmithaquatics.com . It treats 40,000 gallons of water. Based on a 1000 gallon pond, doing a 25% water change every week, year round, the product will last you 3 years+. If you live in a cooler climate when your pond is basically dormant for winter (2-4 months) you add that much more to the investment. No, you may not see a reaction from the fish and yes they do love the current and flow from a hose. The fact is if your fish are getting the chlorine and ammonia in there gills it is poisoning them without a doubt. Koi clubs , the US EPA, The CDC ( Center for Disease Control, Water Companies, National Science Foundation ( NSF)and micro-biologists all reccomend using a dechlorinator if you use water company supplied water. I really don't care what anybody does with their own pond, but if you make a statement that it wont harm fish by doing it, that statement is wrong. Th chlorine and maybe ammonia is toxic to fish. From what microbiology studies I have come across with the study of chlorine affects on fish, there has to be less then .003ppm of chlorine to have no effect. Anything over that will start to cause stress to their body chemistry.

I wish this website offered a way to go into a post I'd made (after I've submitted it) to correct some of my usual stupid errors!!! In my last post I said "...significant nitrate.." and it should have been "...significant nitrite...". Oh well. Amazing how you can overlook something even after you've proof read it a few times!! Mazela, first let's clarify some of the definitions you've got. Total hardness is the measure of all divalent and trivalent cations. In most waters - both surface & groundwater - calcium and magnesium account for 95-98% of all the divalent and trivalent cations so many folks assume that's all there is. But things such as lead, strontium, aluminum, etc. will also contribute to total hardness - we just hope to not have much of those things in our water! Carbonate hardness - this is not hardness; it is a measure of the alkalinity. Many, many decades ago when they developed the lime-soda ash method for treating hard waters (total hardness>>60-80 mg/L) this terminology - carbonate hardness - was developed (as was expressing thing in mg/L as CaCO3 - which REALLY messed things up!). It was meant to simplify calculations but unfortunately it also confused the underlying concepts. So here's an easy test: take some of your water - measure the "carbonate hardness". Then add a bit of gypsum (calcium sulfate) to it or add calcium chloride - since these compounds will release calcium you would increase the hardness. You will see that the "carbonate hardness" doesn't change. Take a new sample of water; add some sodium bicarbonate - your "carbonate hardness" will increase and yet you added no divalent or trivalent cation in this latter case. I desperately try to make sure I never use that term because of the subsequent confusion it creates. Increasing your total hardness, i.e., calcium & magnesium - I agree. But I tend not to worry about it too much since you'll probably find that in addition to the Ca & Mg in your water supply there should be an adequate amount in the food you feed them. If you search on this site you'll find a recipe for making your own fish food - it includes the shells from the shrimp. Excellent source of calcium for the fish. So using your limestone rocks...it doesn't hurt. Which water quality parameters to measure? Everyone has their favorites. I only bother with alkalinity and then only about once a month or so but especially right before the cold weather sets in and we "go under ice" - the pond freezes over. I'll probably measure pH about 1-2 times per year. Why so little? Because I know if I've got the alkalinity where it needs to be then pH is going to be fine. I used to measure ammonia/nitrite/nitrate but the only time I now do it is to take a sample in February or March to make sure my aerator is stripping the ammonia out sufficiently. I feel I can get away with this rather lazy approach to an important facet of "tending the garden" because I have rather large biofilters relative to the size of the pond/fish load/feeding amounts. If I thought my biofilters were more marginal I would then be forced to monitor the ammonia and certainly nitrate more often. So if you are measuring your alkalinity (aka, carbonate hardness, KH) at 30 mg/L that is indeed quite low. I would start adding sodium bicarbonate (good old Arm & Hammer!!) until you got it in that 80-120 mg/L range. The limestone rock won't hurt but it is a relatively slow response to an important water quality parameter. Hope all this helps. ---David

Marshallz10 - I drive 10 - 40 miles daily in large metro area. Callers pulled over to cell-talk? Yes, indeed - starting August 1, 2004, Washington DC began to fine drivers who were on cell phone while driving. Amazingly, within a couple months even local Virginians were pulling over to yak! Wish I knew if the number of accidents occurring while on c-phone has decreased in the area. I've watched so many vehicles weaving (sometimes completely out of their lane), speed up/down with no relation to surrounding traffic speeds, slam on brakes to avoid rear-ending, and nearly side-swipe numerous other cars... used to be I thought 'drunk or doped-up?', then I decided to keep count: of the last 500 vehicles I've seen being driven in such a way as to imply driver impairment: 2= who knows? (ah, before you ask: one aged about 30, and one about 70); 3= reading maps (kid you not, open and propped over the steering wheel); 1= applying something to face while looking in rearview mirror (dunno what, male driver) and 490+ = cell phone held to ear! BTW, those were observed during my usual 6a/4p commute, September, October, and November '04. I've quit counting - and try to leave *lots* of space between my car and those cell phone yakkers. However, last Friday I was victim of rear-ender - male in mid-twenties was on phone and didn't stop for red light quite in time. No damage, but that's no thanks to his stupidity. And, guess what? we agreed there were no damages and then he drove off - with phone to ear!

I wish I could try Summer Song here. A lot of roses that are doing well in my yard are ones others said wouldn't, when I was initially going to get them. All the many Austins I have are doing well so far with the exception of A Shropshire Lad. He is actually looking great so green and healthy and growing huge...however no flowers yet lol. I had Carding Mill die as a tiny band but I don't think it was because it was an Austin. I've had a few small bands die that weren't Austins as well lol. I think its dumb that Austin would pull Summer Song based on 'someone's' US climate because the US has sooo many different growing conditions. I have lived and gardened in several different US States and I had to practically relearn how to grow a lot of stuff. Soil was different, temperatures were different, wind was different, humidity or lack thereof was different, elevation makes a huge difference in terms of sun exposure and leaf burn. The whole seasons are 'backwards' in places like south Florida and Arizona, parts of California, and other places, because people plant their vegetable gardens in the winter rather than the summer. I could go on all day lol. On another note, I just ordered William Shakespeare 2000. I hope it likes it here :) I heard it is not going to be sold in the US from the Austin website next year. I had to get it before it was gone lol. Supposed to be here Thursday so I'm excited!