My well water. No surprise, it’s on the acidic side. Maybe that helps digestion occasionally, but my body needs alkaline (since way before moving into the P~Pad).
Goldfish, like me, need more alkaline water. I did a little research, whacked the pond with some baking soda, it’s possible too drastically.
The fish weren’t swimming around doing backflips, the water is on the cold side. The well water was acidic, around 6.4. The (single!) source I read mentioned a teaspoon per 5 gallons. I did some math, halved the amount for 1200g (it’s an estimate from GrowingSpaces) and the pH lurched up to 8.2!
Yah, that’s on the extreme side, so flipped in a handful (cup or so) of peat moss to counteract it. The peat is very dry so will take some time to moisten and counter the lurch. The goldfish thrive in the 7.5 range. (Right, listen to me, I’m an expert, I read/learned this tonight!?!)
There is zero ammonia, nitrate and nitrite in the water, good news. Those begin to fluctuate as the fish begin doing their thing (like “doing their business”) but it’ll happen slowly as I have a huge amount of water, and low fish population. (It could be zero in the morning…)
Perhaps you can see why I didn’t drop $150 on a fancy koi…. Yes, I’d like to have a few, but the goldfish are an affordable experiment, my “Guinea pigs” if you will.
On the learning curve, may I avoid the learning lurch…
DeedleDoodleDaily 