Scottish koi club

Hi All,
Yes this is the question, I am sure most of us will have tried Clays over the years, and no doubt for all sorts of reasons , so with that in mind what are your experiances ?.
In the past I have used clay on the understanding that it inhances skin quality, adds minerals to the pond and aids the digestive system of the koi we keep, I have also heard that adding clay to the pond helps to reduce the fine suspended particals which can blight our ponds especialy during periods of heavy feeding, and to be honest I have been quite happy to do this beleaving that I am doing the best for my koi, however I have spoken to a number of very sucessful hobiests who dont use clay and have quite amazing show winning koi, so that begs the question... do we need it..???

Cheers,
Garry.

Quick answer is NO !

Can't say I've noticed any difference in quality etc.. Our water contains minerals and so does most quality foods.

Dave

Afternoon Garry/Dave,
Must admit to having tried clay myself, if being honest I noticed little difference, last year I treated the pond for 10 days before the Scottish show, if it made any changes to my koi I would be hard pressed to see it, if you have quality koi and good water maintenance I personally see no advantage in the use of clay.

Regards,

Andy.

I Bang some in most week's.I just hoped with no real knowledge that it would do some good.With such soft water i hoped it would replenish some healthy minerals to the water.They dont let me out on my own much so take every thing i say with no credit what so ever.

Hi guys have any of you tried replenish there a lot of people swear by it


kevin

Kevin,
I have used something called koi masters advantage, think it was called that, as I said earlier I saw no real difference, added this on a daily basis but with cleaning the filters each day all I did was filter it all out again, waist of time and money,I don't go for all these water tests td ,kh,etc.I do the usual tests ph , nitrite ect., put the fish in let them swim about never had any problem in 10 years, I work on the principal of ain't broke why fix it, sometimes I think people mess about with water far to much, I always say if the koi are fine then so is your water.
So for me no clay is my answer.

Andy.

Hi Kevin,
I tried Replenish but i noticed that the koi didnt seem to like it, there was alot of flicking going on so I stoped using it, Andy I think you are right about all the aditives out there, I think that alot of them are designed to catch the koi keeper rather than benifit the koi, I would say though that with so many people that show there koi using clay that there must be some benifit, however givin that most of us dont show our koi, why bother wasting our money.
That said I did use super c , to control the protine in the pond and that did work.

Cheers,
Garry.

Garry,
I think you are correct about additives,, koi dealers will always find a way to get your money, on a personal note I do use Mudmucher once a week just to keep the pipes clean and virkon aquatic once a month or so and that is it as far as additives go, for me anyway,
I am aware of what you say about showing and the use of clay, I guess you sometimes see what you want to see, whether it makes any difference I will leave to the individual.

Andy

Chaps started using clay two years ago i find that a day or two after using the clay the water has a shine to it and the fish are more active and eating more vigorously. i have also started using Super c and i can see a big difference with not having a bottom drain in this pond.

Alex,
Having no bottom drain would make a difference, as soon as I put clay in my pond next day all filtered out again, so for me its a non starter,I guess I will stick to what works for me.

Andy.