hi everyone just want to share and possibly get some feed back from the more experienced keepers regarding a previous post i put up in trying to find out what was causing me so many problems in the koi especially in the dorsal fin area
over the past 12 months iv been quite confident in conducting scrapes and treatments however same problems would surface yet again
back to basics AGIAN water/scrapes ect then thinking am i scraping regular enough but surly i should only be doing this if the koi's behaviour is not normal so back track again then it dawned on me about the Bio chips iv added last year in the outer chamber of nexus {14ltrs} of the stuff along with 150ltrs of k1 SO today scooped out all the k1 whilst chamber was still full of water to separate k1 for chips then dumped the chamber and low & behold Bottom of the nexus was the bio chips FULL of crap/shite ect
so this is my thinking that because the chips have just been sat there that this has been my problem all along causing bacterial issues
am i heading down the right track ???
water test 5hrs after filter clean are
Ammonia 0.18 ppm was 0.35 other day
nitrite 8 ppb
ph 7.8 and kh 3.5 [soft water area]

sorry bit long winded but would just like to hear bk from ppl to see if im doing the right things

You could well be right Mick,the bio chips are probably not designed for use in your nexus.
Hope that you can put your problems behind you.
Do use virkon, virasure or similar when you carry out any pond maintenance.

Tony PLEASE STAY SAFE, KEEP YOUR DISTANCE

yes tony iv had a tub of them treated 7-10 days ago and i think this has what shifted a lot of stuff so defiantly on the tick list with the virkon its been a long road and a BIG learning lesson i feel just hope iv turned the corner AND thanks to this koi society otherwise id probably be still up against it

Which biochips are they bud.I know the EA black ones sank,but werent aware others did.I use Oase pond pads and they are bouyant

Hi Mick, i had exactly the same problem with bio chips when they first came out, they all sank to the bottom & your right they will have been full of anaerobic sludge, which could very well be causing your koi big problems, i threw all mine away & yes it was the black stuff.

if you forget your history, you will repeat your mistakes, RoyH

This was the stuff I imagine you need a large bio chamber with decent air-stones to make this stuff effective they recon the 14ltrs equals to 100ltrs of K1 how true that is I don’t know but it’s gone in the bin now lol £70 down swany 🥴😂
Live & learn 😁😁

When I had a nexus I found we got a build up of crap in the bottom of the outer chamber quite often.
Ended up doing regular empties and clean outs. There were even worms living in it. I didn’t have bio chips in it was all K1.

Another method you could use to clean it out without removing the media is to have a long glass or Perspex vase, a torch and a pond vac. You push the case through the media, use the torch to light the bottom up and use a pond vac to suck all the muck out.

Laura

Hi Mick... I noticed some time ago that the K1 chamber had a small amount of crud in the mold Wells.. So every week or so I put some extra air through some air stones.. Leave it a day and then turn it off.

I’m adopting more frequent drainage of the bio chamber now there’s x5 4” air stones in there which are controlled on a manifold I can still run the original air ring to if I wish so I turn off the pump and use the ring along with stones for 5-10 mins then switch air off completely allowing K1 to fully float then drain down the outer chamber hopefully this will work out to be quite effective 👍🏻😅

Last yearI had bio chips in my moving bed. They started off well but then I noticed I saw less and less of them so after a couple of months I decided to empty the bio chamber and found all the bio chips on the bottom of the chamber covered in crap.
Personally I think bio chips are piss poor and will never go down that route again. .

Thankfully I’ve never used them. Looks like I’ve had a lucky escape judging by everyone’s comments