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Mid Atlantic Pond Life
Issue No. 1, April 2016
MID ATLANTIC POND LIFE The MAKC Newsletter Published by The Hudson Valley Koi and Water Garden Club
Welcome to Our First Issue A Message from MAKC President Jo Mead (kdreyfack@gmail.com) or Paul Tomasko (paultom96@gmail.com). I’d like to personally thank Ken, Paul and the members of the Hudson Valley chapter for spearheading the newsletter. Election Season is Upon Us How quickly the year has passed. The election for the new 2016/2017 Executive Committee is just around the Welcome to the inaugural corner! This means issue of the new MAKC nominations are open for: newsletter. Written by and President, Vice President, for MAKC members, this Treasurer, Secretary and publication is designed to keep everyone up-to-date on Chapter Vice Presidents. club programs, events and I strongly encourage everyone future plans. It also aims to to sincerely consider running. provide useful information MAKC is a great club thanks on how to design, build and to its members, who are maintain ponds and water committed to contributing gardens – with a special their skills, experience and focus on keeping koi and wisdom to the organization. other fish. It’s up to us all to carry Mid Atlantic Pond Life needs readers like you to keep it fresh and lively. Please contribute anything that you think might be of interest to fellow pond and water garden aficionados. Send your stories, ideas or photos to Ken Dreyfack
forward this heritage. Please contact the Nominating Committee at kgwgclub@earthlink.net with questions about the open positions or the nominating process. The deadline for nominations is Sunday May 1, 2016.
In This Issue Hudson Valley chapter springs into action at Adams Fairacre Farms garden and pond event Opening your pond – one member’s account + pond opening tips from Bruce Levine
Reminder: Spring is here, which means it is time for everyone to renew their membership for the upcoming year. Family/individual membership annual dues are only $30. You can pay with PayPal to: Kgwgclub@earthlink.net. Or send your check or money order, made out to Mid Atlantic Koi Club, to: Mid Atlantic Koi Club, c/o Jo Mead PO Box 91 Ulster Park, NY 12487
Mid Atlantic Pond Life
Issue No. 1, April 2016
Hudson Valley Chapter Development Program Members of the Hudson Valley chapter have not been asleep all winter. Rather, they’ve been hard at work figuring out how to bring new members into what is already a thriving group. Last autumn, a half dozen members volunteered to create the chapter’s Outreach Committee, which has been meeting regularly ever since. Outreach Committee members took advantage of the annual garden show at Adams Fairacre Farms, a local food and garden emporium, to launch their efforts (see article below). Building on the interest expressed by visitors, the committee is planning a new
membership drive event around one member’s koi pond in mid-June. Invitations are being drawn up for distribution to about 30 interested people and membership packets are being prepared. Club Question naire At the same time, to better gauge existing members’ opinions on the club’s future programs and development, the Outreach Committee is drawing up a questionnaire. While many of the committee’s initiatives remain in the planning stage, it’s clear that the Hudson Valley chapter is on the move, notes Committee Chair John Remington.
Hudson Valley Opens Season with Adams Fairacre Farms In mid March, members of the Hudson V alley Chapter participated in a garden show at the Kingston location of Adams Fairacre Farms. Over two weekends, Adams offers an annual spring display of plants, trees and water gardens, all forced into bloom for the event. A dozen MAKC members manned a table for the event, answering questions and distributing information. We were happy to find that many people had an interest in water gardens and fish. Some had established ponds, but needed information. Others were planning to break ground this year on their dream. Armed with printed info on water gardens, goldfish and koi, we collected about 25 names of people to be invited to an open house at a member’s pond in June. A membership package will be sent out to them in hopes of acquiring more members. by Paul Tomasko
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We hope to expand to at least one additional Adams location in 2017
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Mid Atlantic Pond Life
Issue No. 1, April 2016
Reopening Your Koi Pond?
Here are some tips From Bruce Levine Monitoring your pond water temperature is very important. Do not feed the koi until the water temperature is consistently above 50 degrees. Hold off feeding if you have green water or a lot of string algae. Begin feeding with a wheat germbased koi food or Cheerios and feed in very small amounts only once per day. Spring is a good time to do a large water change. Do a 20% water change two weekends in a row. When you add the water back make sure to use a water dechlorinator. Clean the bottom of the pond and try to get out all the pockets of leaves. Clean and repot any plants in the pond; they can carry harmful bacteria. Move your aerator down to the bottom of the pond. Turn on your filter system and add bacteria to jump start it. If possible, turn on your waterfall only during the
day at first. Once your water temperature is above 60 degrees, leave it on all the time. If you have green water that will not clear up bring up your salinity level to .3%. That is 3 pounds of salt per 100 gallons of pond volume. Buy a bag of oyster shells in a mesh bag and leave it in the waterfall box, stream or filter. This will keep up water hardness and alkalinity. Koi clay works well also. Add it to the pond in small amounts. It can raise water alkalinity, so check your water parameters as you add it. Check pond water basics: PH should be 7.0-to8.4; ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, and phosphorous should be zero. If they are elevated stop feeding and do a 20-30% water change. Contact Bruce Levine (Long Island chapter), at kuba1953@aol.com or (516) 477-1823.
Classified Ads Buying? Selling? Offering? Asking? Send your free classified ad for the newsletter to editors Ken Dreyfack (kdreyfack@gmail.com) or Paul Tomasko (paultom96@gmail.com).
600 gallon indoor pond, 58" by 112" by 30" 3" bottom drain, 3" knife valve, 2 55 gallon drums for filtration, Oase stainless steel pump model 20, 5 gallon bucket kaldnes for biological filtration, 2" x 4" frame construction with 1/2" osb board, Lined with 45 mil EPDM liner, Raised on 8" x 16" block, Used indoors as quarantine tank and to house fish over winter $75.00 Contact Barry Hixson: koimanbarry@gmail.com
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Mid Atlantic Pond Life
Issue No. 1, April 2016
Opening My Pond in Saugerties Upcoming Events
Paul Tomasko relates his pre-Spring pond awakening After the unusually warm and strange winter we just had, I was able to open my pond on March 8, 2016. The 17th had been the earliest in the past.
The process is pretty straight forward, but it takes energy and about four hours. I first use a sump pump to drain all the water from my three upper pools. I remove as much as I can with the pump then I hand clean and wet vac out all of the remaining debris (leaves, bird seed and dead frogs). I then power wash the stones and liner. I add pond water and then repeat the process. After the second vacuuming, I can fill the pools and start the falls and stream. Long Island One of the advantages is that you can use pond water to do the refilling and cleaning. This allows you to do a decent water change while you are cleaning the pools. If you have pools of water that have sat stagnant all winter I highly recommend you do a thorough cleaning of them or they will only bring disease down to your fish. The real advantage of this, besides the sound of running water, is the thermal factor. My stream bed is a solar heater. The water in the pond was 46 degrees; after contact with the solar heated hot stones and warm air it rose six degrees to 52 in two days. The fish are up and swimming around. The only caution in this is that you have to keep an eye on the weather. You can loose most of that heat if it gets cold again. The next few days were a little cooler and wetter so I just used my direct returns in the pond and turned off the stream. The main purpose is to avoid large temperature swings and to take advantage of the heat when you can get it. I also used my long pool net to sweep up leaves and debris from the pond bottom. I always throw a flag plant to the bottom in the winter and the fish gather around in its roots. But it was time to clear the bottom and bring the plant up to trim and put on a higher shelf for the summer. This also removes any obstruction to my bottom drain. When all this is done and I have flushed out my filters, I add Microbe lift PL and start to seed my filters with good bacteria. I won't start to feed until the temperature is over 55 degrees, and I will start with Cheerios.
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Mid Atlantic Pond Life
Issue No. 1, April 2016
Upcoming Events
Treasury Report Statement date: March 31, 2016
Mid Hudson Valley
Previous balance: $ 18,457.52
Sunday, Apr. 17, 3to-5 pm – Season’s first chapter meeting. Location to be decided.
Deposits: $60.00 Withdrawals: $ (16.05) New balance: $ 18,501.47
Meeting schedule (tentative) May 22 June 26 July 17 August 21 Sept .18 Oct. 16 Nov. 20 Dec. 18
Current MAKC Officers President: Joann Mead
Vice-President: Herb Ehrich
Secretary: open
Treasurer: Anthony Vitale
Long Island Chapter VP: Bruce Levine
Hudson Valley Chapter VP: Herb Ehrich
South Chapter VP: Alan Mickelson
Central Chapter VP: Bruce Damme
Coming in our next issue Our stealthy reporter managed to penetrate the tight security for an unprecedented glimpse into Herb’s secret solar universe.
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