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salmonbo

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Oct 31, 2007
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I am new at this pond stuff. I did not do my homework, now I need help. Long story short. I got 3 koi for my fountain pond which is about 150 Gal. It was totally alge filled about a month after I put them in. They are only 4" I removed the Koi and put them in a 10 Gallon tank with my fancy, they get along well. I have recently turned my old unused hottub into a above ground pond, well I am in the process. I guess it is about 700 gallons or so. I have a small pump with a home made filter and it seems to work well. Here is my question. I live in the high desert in So. Cal. It is getting in the 40's ouside at night, and 60-80 during the day. Will it hurt my Koi to take them from their 72 deg tank and put them in the colder water? I know the 10 gal tank is too small. I just do not want to kill them in the process. I put 8 "feeder" comets in the tub to make sure they would live. I can find 7 of them, that was about 1.5 mo. ago. Bottom line Will it kill my koi if i put them outside this late in the year? My little 150 gal pond only froze over twice last year and the hottub is insulated.

Thanks in advance
 
any idea how cold your water outside is then right now? normally a pond will just slowly get colder and colder, it wont shift with the temperatures during the day and night. Koi are hardy fish and i've had mine live out in the chicago winters in my backyard pond. I would suggest though getting a heater for the pond, or if thats too expensive, get one that will float on top so at least the surface wont freeze over and you can allow some oxygen through. If the hot tub is working out for you right now, then you could wait it out too and just make sure to do good water changes and keep up the filtration (and make sure nobody turns it on and jumps in :))
 
Thanks for the quick respnce

The water is in the 50 to 65 degree range. I keep a theromiter (mispelled I know) in the hot tub. I have running water to keep it going and open, my spitter kept my 150 gal open last winter.
 
they should do fine in the pond, especially if you add some kind of surface heater to keep ice from freezing solid over the top. as far as moving them out to the hot tub/pond, remove 10% of the water from the small tank, and add water from the tub. repeat every 30 minutes or so until the temp is within 3-5 degrees, then put the koi into the tub. that will give them plenty of time to adjust to the lower temperature.
 
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