Water Testing For Koi Ponds

The Most Important Parameters For Testing

The most important things to test for during the the 6 months to a 1 year of owning your new koi pond are Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, and Alkalinity (KH). Keeping your Ammonia and Nitrites levels equal to or below 2ppm, Nitrate levels at or below 20ppm, and Alkalinity levels above or equal to 110ppm.

Once your koi pond has fully established a nitrogen cycle, the most important parameters to test for are Nitrates, KH, and Ammonia. Keeping your Nitrate level below or equal to 10ppm (the lower the better), KH above or equal to 110ppm, and Ammonia at 0ppm.

When To Test Your Pond Water

NEW PONDS:

Within the first 4-6 months of koi being introduced it is important to do frequent water testing to keep your new koi safe, and to keep track of the progress of growing to correct type and amount of bacteria inside of your filter system. We recommend to test 1-2 times per week for most ponds and more often if you’re less experienced so that you can get comfortable performing accurate water tests. The smaller the pond the more frequent the testing should happen because of the fact that nutrients can accumulate a lot more quickly in a small amount of water compared to larger ponds.

NEWLY ESTABLISHED PONDS:

Within the first year of a pond being established it is recommended to test 1 time per month to get a feel for how feeding rates, and your decided upon maintenance routine are affecting Nitrate and KH levels in your pond. This will allow you to make adjustments to dial in your pond maintenance routine if needed.

ESTABLISHED PONDS:

Depending on how much experience you have we recommend testing every 2-3 months and more often if you decide to heavily stock your pond with koi. The more food you feed your koi and the more densely populated your koi pond is the more you should be testing.

RAIN:

Rain can dilute KH (alkalinity) it is important to check test for KH often during rainy season to ensure your pond has enough KH in it to support the all so important nitrifying bacteria inside of your biological filter.