I received a call yesterday from the owner of an Aquadyne 2.2 with Dynamax. He reported that he is now backwashing his filter every three days and algae appears to be winning the war for pond clarity.  When asked what he thinks might have caused this, he said that he has had good performance over the three years that his system has been installed, nothing has changed, but conditions have become progressively worse over the past year and he has no real clue as to the cause.

Further discussion revealed that when he bought his filter, he had forty small koi, but unknown to him his pond volume was already marginally in excess of the maximum capacity of his new filter.  His filter is rated at 4,000 gallons and he has over 5,000 gallons in pond volume.  At that time he had a youthful fish population, but large amounts of decaying fish excrement and habitual overfeeding had not yet become issues.  His pond was always clear and did not need frequent backwashing.

Three years of fish growth (with virtually no losses through attrition) has now brought his fish population to a point where his ammonia and other waste levels are beginning to far exceed the reasonable capabilities of any midsize filter.  Similarly,  the UV that has always served him well in previous years can no longer begin to keep up with the growing algae bloom.

Nobody likes to cull out and give away their ‘wet pets’ but if  they are left to grow and multiply beyond our capabilities to nurture them,  the whole dynamic of our pond environment can, and will, change.

Professional breeders are constantly culling out the more common fish and keeping the better-marked specimens for sale, and future breeding.  As residential koi keepers, we are not as aware of growth, and we are naturally reluctant to weed out and dipose of our excess populations, but if we fail to do so, Mother Nature will relieve us of the choice, and do it for us.

The koi keeper mentioned in this blog realizes that he must make one of two choices here;  one, cull out and give away some of his more common fish, thus bringing his fish population back to more manageable levels;  or two, upgrade his filtration system to the size he should have originally chosen, and continue to support his current population.  He is now considering marketing his Aquadyne 2.2 on Ebay to facilitate his upgrade to a 4.4.  Any takers?

Don’t be afraid to ‘inventory’ your pond annually, while you still have choices.

One of my old customers called and asked me if the gasoline crisis is affecting Aquadynamite.com.  The answer is two-fold.  Yes, the trucking companies have raised their rates for the shipping of our filtration systems (sometimes over 400 pounds) and we are now offering a reasonable, low cost ‘flat rate’ shipping fee instead of our free shipping for the larger filters.

And yes, but business is booming!  Lots of folks out there have decided not to fire up the family automobile and head out on vacation.  Instead they are investing in their back yards, ponds and patios and they are enjoying and enhancing the homes that they have been making payments on for the last umpteen years.  Not only are we seeing new pond installations, but we are also participating in major upgrades to the size and volumes of existing ponds, with the purchase of more energy-efficient pumps and UV’s leading the way.  And we don’t pay sales taxes on our internet purchases!

It kind of makes sense…  Why burn off high-cost fuel in our automobiles at a time when energy costs have ’spiked,’   when we can INVEST in our home and make it a more enjoyable place to linger over the warmer months ?  Watch Home Depot and Lowes stocks once the Economic Stimulus checks begin arriving in your neighborhood and mine. It’s happening right now… An investment in your home is just that…an investment, not an expense. 

I received a note from a prospective customer asking why I accept calls from 9:00 am until 9:00 pm (EST) weekdays and on weekends.  Being retired, I know that most of my customers must work to support their koi habit, and the only time they have to install and maintain their new equipment is after work on weekdays, on weekends, or over holidays. 

Most businesses (including internet businesses)  seem to be closed when their customers are at home and coming up with problems and/or questions regarding their ponds.  I wanted Aquadynamite.com to be a readily available resource at those times.  

On the average, I am providing phone support for at least two customer installations EVERY weekend…sometimes three.  No customer wants to wait until Monday to get a simple question answered.

Welcome to Aquadynes……My name is Dave Johnson, and I now own and operate Aqudynamite.com  I am a  retiree and I run this website because I enjoy helping koi hobbyists with their ponds and favorite wet-pets.  I am available to my customers and prospects (by phone) twelve hours a day, 365 days a year, and although I sometimes complain about the call volume, I really enjoy doing it…..so here I am.

When I retired, this site was owned and operated by my son, Dr. Erik Johnson, who, at the time was bogged down with several koi-health related sites, lecturing, and conducting fish labs while still running his busy Marietta, GA vet practice.  When he asked me to take over-and run- Aquadynamite.com,  I told him that I would rather give him one of my kidneys than to run a website…but he prevailed and I have been here at Aquadynamite.com ever since.

This blog has been designed to encourage customers and would-be customers of Aquadynamite.com to leave comments relative to our products and services as well as to allow me to offer suggestions for the use, care and preventive maintenance of these products. I am also available to answer your questions…if I can.

Many of our customers are repeat customers, while many more have come to us for the first time as a result of referrals from satisfied, existing customers.   When we offer special pricing or closeouts, or even used equipment,  we will post these important notices here.  We will also  offer information and perhaps most importantly, EDUCATION on Aquadynes.

I believe that the Aquadyne bead filtration systems are among the very best in the world today, and I know you might, too, if you knew what I know about them.  I also know how to best configure them to your particular pond environment and how to equip them so they will work for you at their optimum efficiency.  These are things YOU should know, too.

Stay tuned.  I will update this blog at least once a week.  And, best of all, it’s searchable. So if I blog or upload an article on “Backwashing your Aquadyne” you can search for it, even if you didn’t see it the day it posted.

I receive a large number of calls from our customers asking how they can leave testimonials on our site, and frankly, i’m not too proud accept compliments.   Just go easy on the criticisms <grin>  On this blog you are welcome to leave positive (or negative) feedback and I will try hard to make sure that appropriate improvements are made.

Thanks

Dave Johnson   aquadynamite@tds.net   (706) 455-4095