Best chemistry
Since posting my pond recovery story, I’ve been trying to get a hold on the proper chemistry for the pond. It has been a week since I got control of the PH and I’ve been using Cloram-X to keep the ammonia down. It is obviously still not fully cycled since after a day without Cloram-X, the ammonia creeps up again to .25mg/L. From what I understand, increasing the PH makes the ammonia more toxic - is this still a problem if I am using the Cloram-X? The reason I ask, is that I’m considering raising the GH and KH futher which will raise the PH to 8.4 (it is running between 7.5 and 8.0 in the mornings now).
More generally, what should be the water parameters for healthiest KOI pond? I have really soft water (GH and KH = 1.5) and must raise them. My LFS said to get the pond up to GH and KH = 5dH (~90ppm). Is this OK? I read an old article (addressed to me 
in which Sue said it should be 200ppm, or 11dH.
What’s the current convention?
Thanks, George, Aloha, Oregon
Category: Ponds-Koi
