Spring Pond Treatment

My Spring Treatment for 2021 by Neville Boardman

Over the years of involvement in treating Koi and Koi ponds I have advised on different spring treatments, mostly quite elaborate and some treatments not really relative to spring.
I now feel that one only needs to do two meds but the timing of it is a bit important.

What do we want to achieve with a spring treatment?

We want to kill all hidden issues that develops before our fishes immune system is up to scratch to cope with it; this includes parasites as well as bad bacteria.
Our treatment has to be such that our bio-filter does not suffer from it.
So let’s see what I will be doping to my pond this year.

1. I will start by cleaning my filters (all of them, all champers, Sediment, Bog and Bio) thoroughly, some people have added on and on to their systems, so now you have to clean every corner of all those filters. To me this is the most important part of your ponds spring treatment.
   It is no use adding meds into a dirty filter where the bugs you want to kill have space to hide. After this clean up fill your pond to its top full mark and make sure there is no chlorine or DE chlorinator left in your water. In a well circulated pond it will take minimum of three days to clear.
   Make sure your KH and pH readings are correct. (I like a KH of 120 to 150 DB. You can correct this with bicarbonate of soda. This is quite important as your meds are affected if this reading is not correct.)
2. Now, I do know my pond volume 100% so no guessing for me. Make sure you know your pond volume!
   I will start with Malachite Green and Formalin at the dosage recommended by the supplier. Hopefully he knows what he added to that bottle. I mix my own and I do a fairly strong, but still safe mix.
3. 7 days after the first dose I will do a 10% water change, (allow the water to spray hard into your pond, this breaks down most of the Chlorine). At this time I will add another dose of MGF.
4. 3 days after this dose I will add any good fluke killer, I like Praziquantel as it is very safe and effective. You are only going to need to do one dose of Praziquantel at 4 grams per 1000 litre; reason being, the MGF treatments would have knocked the flukes back quite a bit and your fluke treatment will deal the final blow.
5. No more water changes are needed, just resume your normal protocol. I have a drum filter so my max water change is around 5% per week.
6. You now have done it all IMO. And can enjoy your healthy Koi.