# koi clay



## squeekee35 (Feb 9, 2010)

Has anyone here heard of koi clay and/or used it. my mom was telling me about it and supposedly it is supposed to get rid of algae....i am just wondering if that claim is true. i am reading about it on line and it says it helps detoxify and clear the water but nothing specific if it kills algae.

--Angel


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

i have heard of it..i know absolutely nothing about it........but.............
as i always say...the more you mess with your tank/pond , the more problems you create for yourself..
the use of this product may have it's trade offs...


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## DarwinAhoy (Mar 13, 2013)

Install a gravel bog and be done with it.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Hmm. Looks to me that it's made to provide minerals and nutrients more than anything else. Algae food.


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## squeekee35 (Feb 9, 2010)

well my mom got some koi clay a few weeks ago for her pond...she said it has killed off most of her algae except for the carpet algae....i am not sure what could be in it that would kill off algae though...maybe the silica...i read there is silica in it anyway.

--Angel


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## squeekee35 (Feb 9, 2010)

well here is an update on koi clay. i have been using it a while now...it is not killing my algae but i am not getting new algae anyway. my mom said it killed her algae alright but i think she usues more than i do. i don't want to clog up my filter with the stuff. it is a super very fine powder like volcano ash.

but anyway i decided to take a nirtrate reading and it came back with the highest number you could get on my digital reader and my regular chemical reader too....i read the directions on the chemical reader and it said if there is particles in the water you will get a high reading. so there are clay particles in the water....duhhhh....so i decided to use a coffee filter to filter out the clay and try again. i used my digital reader this time and got a reading of zero nitrates. so either this stuff absorbs nitrates or the coffee filter filtered them out.....however.....

i did some research and coffee filters filter out stuff the size of micrometers or bigger and nitrate molecules are on the order of nanometers which is many many times smaller than a micrometer. so i emailed the the company about it and the answer they gave me was lame...... they said......the minerals in Thrive Koi Clay do help with the health and color of your fish.....that doesn't tell me if it absorbs nitrates or not....so i guess they don't understand what their own product can and can't do i guess.

anyway so now i am wondering if i want to keep using it or do something like switch to seachem's matrix to get out nitrates....but then there is the issue of phosphates too...i haven't taken a phosphate reading yet but i might do that tonite maybe...but fiter first then take the reading i guess.

--Angel


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