Cherry Blossoms Santa Clara Valley Koi & Water Garden Club & Spring April 16th, 2013 7:30 PM Visit our Web Site at www.sckoi.com Koi Club Meetings The Club meets on the third Tuesday of each month in the San Jose Public Library, Willow Glen Branch, 1157 Minnesota Ave., San Jose, 95125. Meetings usually consist of a Q&A session in which experts answer any pond-related question that comes up, a refreshment break and a presentation from an expert in koi ponds and/or water gardens. Subjects range from koi fish health to designing and building a pond, filtration systems, maintenance, selecting and buying fish, water plants and bonsai.
Attendees: Frank Mullaney, Cal Hansen, Dave Shelley, Julaine Mullaney, Don Chamberlain We discussed Pond Tour. We need to find some more candidates. Cal will visit dealers to solicit more candidates. Dave has one candidate we received from Marco at Liquid Gardens to check out. Don contacted Mel and learned he has one possible candidate. He will check with the owner to see if he is willing to be on the tour. Mel agreed to look for other candidates. We discussed sources of articles for the Splash. Don has an article on the benefits from AKCA he will forward to Frank for review. Don will also review archive of articles received from Larry for possible use. Cal indicated that he thought AKCA would allow use of articles from Koi USA. Don will check policy with AKCA. We discussed future speakers. We have two possible out of town speakers, Jerry Kyle and Anthony Quintero. Frank will contact Jerry and Cal will contact Anthony to determine cost and possible topics. Don will contact Noreen Rancourt to see if she can present a wet lab, scrap a fish, display images of various parasites, describe the symptoms of parasite infections and treatments Future speakers already lined up include Jack Christensen on Bonsai, Anthony Quintero or Keven Pham on Judging and Quality Koi, Unnamed speaker on the Santa Clara Valley Water Shed. Board Meeting- March 14, 2013 Board Meeting Minutes - April 1, 2013 Attendees: Frank Mullaney, Julaine Mullaney, Rita Hughes, Cal Hansen, Dave Shelley, James Barrett. The April Director s meeting was held Monday 4/1/2013 at 7:30 at the Willow Glen Public Library. Attendees were: Frank Mullaney, Julaine Mullaney, Rita Hughes, Cal Hansen, Dave Shelley, Nick Hocklin and Don Chamberlain. The most critical subject discussed was the 2013 pond tour. We currently have two good ponds lined up, but need four more and time is growing short. Nick offered to scout for more ponds. He feels he can line up several good ones. Dave still has a couple of leads to follow up. We agreed that we need to have all of the ponds lined up by the next meeting, April 16. If we cannot line up six good ponds, it is possible we not be able to hold a pond tour this year. We discussed the April general meeting. We have a koi photo contest planned for that date. A speaker is still to be determined. Our relationship with the Monterey Bay Koi and Pond Club was clarified. At one time they were a sub of our club, but are now completely on their own. Rita mentioned that they may be planning a pond tour and expressed her hope that if they do, some of our members volunteer to help since Mike and Dan from the Monterey Bay club have always helped us with our pond tour. Honorariums for speakers was discussed. Don asked if speakers were given a year s membership and learned that this is only done for owners that offer to have their pond on tour. Motions approved: Payment to Don Chamberlain of $59 for Askimet website spam service. Approval of payment of $96.81 to Les Inanchy for printer paper and toner. Approval of payment of $107.88 for website renewal when due on 5/15/13. Approval of expenditure of $60.00 for website calendar software to allow subscription by users to events. Authorization to loan ZNA our show tanks. Don will reply to email request and Cal will coordinate with ZNA. Approval to place 1/2 page ad in April Splash to promote their Koi Show. Approval of proposed slate of candidates for AKCA officers. Approval of Koi Person of the Year. Approval to pay AKCA insurance renewal when due. Don will contact Rita to remind her that this is approaching. Approval to hold a member s Koi Photo Contest. Don will announce by email and notice will be included in April Splash. Photos will be brought to April meeting for judging. Winner will be forwarded to Koi USA for publication. Approval to hold Pond Tour Celebration/Social on 8/24. Next meeting will be held in early April. Cal will confirm availability with Library. Corrections to the Splash were discussed. The meeting schedule, publishing schedule and ad rates are still listed incorrectly. Frank will request Les to make the necessary corrections. We discussed the possibility of hosting the 2014 AKCA Annual Banquet. We decided to discuss this later, perhaps for the 2015 banquet when we have a better idea of the club s direction. We discussed interacting with guests to make them feel more welcome. We agreed to reinstate a sign in book and welcome desk. When questions are raised we will ask for volunteers to help the guest and discuss their problem in detail at the refreshment break. Kudos to Alan & Linda Merrifield for the excellent job of providing refreshments at the last meeting. They assisted a lively discussion at the end of the meeting. A motion was made and passed to offer an honorarium to out of town speakers to be approved on a case by case basis by the board. A motion was made and passed to make new badges for all pond tour workers. The next meeting will be held May 2, 5, 7 or 14th depending on room availability.. Santa Clara Valley Koi and Water Garden Club Page 2
General Meeting Minutes -March 19, 2013 We had a good turn out with 21 attendees. Our President, Frank Mullaney, sprang a surprise and introduced the Koi Person of the Month Award retroactively back to Oct 2012. The award for that month went to Julaine Mullaney for her faithful service as our long time Treasurer. The award for Nov 2012 went to Cal Hansen for his outstanding service as Vice President. In Dec 2012 Rita Hughes was awarded for her service organizing the December celebration dinner. In January 2013 the award was given to Don Chamberlain for setting up the new web site. In February 2013 Dave Shelley was named for his work preparing for the July Pond Tour and bringing us up to date in March 2013 Alan & Linda Merrifield were named for taking over meeting refreshments. Two guests were introduced, Nick Hocklin and Mike Robinson. Dave Shelley then introduced our speaker Jack Christiansen. Jack has been deeply involved with bonsai for five years and is currently the Vice President of the Midori Bonsai Club in San Jose. During that time he has transformed his back yard into an oriental paradise with more than 50 bonsai, 25 ton of stone, a koi pond and stream forming a lovely, compact Japanese style garden. He explained how he got started with bonsai and pointed out the parallels with koi keeping. The trials and tribulations of a beginner, resulting in the death of your subjects. The importance of seeking out knowledge and support from the local club. The gradual realization of the important basic concepts of care, even the search for the unusual and desirable rare examples. Jack described how he got started with the hobby and explained a number of ways others could get started. He presented several of bonsai and described many of the bonsai varieties. He introduced us to the Bonsai Focus magazine and provided a list of Bonsai dealers on the West coast. The group asked a number of questions and appeared to be very interested in the topic. It is expected that Jack s pond and garden with be on the Pond Tour this year. It should be a hit. Jack and his club will be exhibiting at the Cupertino Cherry Blossom Festival next month very near our club s exhibit giving us another chance to see more beautiful bonsai. A description of the presentation and more photos and dealer information has been posted to our website Library. After the presentation we asked for volunteers for the final Cherry Blossom position we needed to fill. Dave Shelley volunteered so we now have that event completely covered. Dave reported that he now has 4 or 5 more ponds to consider for the annual Pond Tour so we are hopeful to have selected complete by next month. Frank announced a photo contest for next months meeting. Members are requested to bring an 8x10 photo of their best koi. The club will then select the best koi to enter in the Koi USA contest. A couple announced that they have a 6 tank for sale. More details will be forthcoming. Rita and John Hughes are looking for buyers of koi food. They have a source for fresh food and if they can find more buyers they can get a better deal. We suggested they post this on club s web site Koi Mart. Finally Frank reminded us that the Gem and Mineral Show will be held at the Fair Grounds on 4/20 & 21. We then adjourned for refreshments and general discussion. Happy Koi Keeping, Don Chamberlain SCVKWG Web Master April Meeting Program The speaker for the April Meeting has not yet been confirmed. Please watch your email message for information on the April program details. Santa Clara Valley Koi and Water Garden Club Page 3
Newsletter Advertising Rates Business Card $35.00 Quarter Page $95.00 Half Page $175.00 Full Page $325.00 ADVERTISING POLICY & RATES Rates are for 10 issues (one year). All ads appear in both the newsletter and on our web site! If you place an ad in mid-year, your cost for that year will be prorated based on the number of months remaining until July 1. To place an ad, please send ad copy (.pdf or.jpg file or high quality printed form) to the email or snail mail address below and we ll send you a bill. Koi USA Magazine There is a wealth of information in the KOI USA magazine. If you are serious and want to know more about KOI it is well worth the money to get the KOI USA magazine and the price is very reasonable. KOI USA Subscriptions $25 for members, $30 for non club members. For a two year subscription, $46 for club members and $53 to non club members. KOI USA is the primary financial support for AKCA, the support organization that provides things like insurance we need to have our Pond Tour and many other benefits we all enjoy. Your subscription will insure this supports continues in addition with providing you hours of reading pleasure Membership Dues Membership dues are $30.00 per year, payable on July 1. If you join in mid-year, your dues for the that year will be prorated at the rate of $2.50 per month to the next July 1 and $30.00 per year thereafter. To join, send your personal info(name, address, phone no. and email address) either by email or snail mail to one of the addresses shown below or, better yet, come to our next meeting and join on the spot. Contact Us For details on either ads or membership, please email: scvkwg@gmail.com or come to one of our meetings. The latter is certainly preferred as we d like to get to know you! To contact us by mail, our address is: SCVKWG P.O. Box 9006 San Jose, CA 95157 Treasurer s Report Checkbook: Beginning balance 03/01/13: $9,358.73 Deposits: None Outstanding checks: Expenses: March $258.09 Ending Balance 03-01-13: $9.100.64 C D Balance 02-05-13 12,901.22 Santa Clara Valley Koi and Water Garden Club Page 4
WHY WATER CHANGES HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH?...By Jerold Kyle, KHA Do it every month, do it weekly, do it when filter cleaning, do it this way, or do it that way is all I hear. Over and over. Use dechlor or else and I never use dechlor and have no problems is heard. It depends on your water source is heard. Koi farms use flow through but I don t live on a creek is another one. I think water changes are over rated is one. What to do? What to believe? If one rarely make water changes and feels the subject is overdone, they are hard to convince until, one day, sooner or later, they finely have a major problem. It can be delayed but not avoided. The nitrification cycle takes waste and converts it to nitrates which are a good plant food that algae just love. Lab studies have proved that sufficient nitrates suppress the immune system of Koi. It takes a lot to totally shut the systems down but a little less simply means the immune is a little less suppressed. Why accept having suppressed immune systems even if only a little suppressed? Any suppression of the immune system is bad. Why wait to find out the death level nitrate reading for your pond? Critters like Koi and people need trace mineral elements for good health. Copper, magnesium, and lots of stuff in trace amounts are absorbed from the water and then it is gone. It needs to be replaced. We all need those trace elements. I learned that in high school Biology. Buying expensive dirt in a bag, as some do, to throw in the pond might take care of the problem but, there is an easier and cheaper way. Less than 10% change at any one time usually has small enough chlorine that dechlor is not needed. We are told that more is a big stressor. Even 10% is a stressor. If one does half that much they would have to do it twice a week just to get about 40% change a month. That is way too much work for most of us. On the other hand, large changes are a stressor and costs money buying dechlor. Chemicals to fix chemicals is overdone. Some mud ponds have flow through water to keep the pollutants diluted and many advanced Koi keepers use a simplified version of this method at home because it works and it is easy. It works well and it is especially good for the average ponder if it can be added easily with little cost, effort, or major pond system rebuilding. At the hardware store there is a drip irrigation products isle. For minimal cost one can get some ¼ vinyl tubing and little dripper emitters like we use to water flowerpots with our sprinkler system. A couple of little emitters, each dripping only 1 gph for 24 hrs = 48 gallons. Drip, drip, drip, all day times 30 day in a month = 1440 gallons a month. For under $5 one is forced to buy a bag of 10. The whole bag will do a measured 7200 gallons a month drip by drip. Buy the 2 gph emitters and use only half as many. Larger ponds might get one little adjustable spray head (used for flower beds) for under $5 that at 20 gph will spray out 14,400 a month. The spray head gasses off much of the chlorine before it even hits the pond. I bought a cute little frog spitter and timed how long it took to fill a 5 gal bucket. It took the spitter 10 min which worked out to 36,000 gal a month. Wow! I turned the water down as I only have a 5,000 gal pond. Water can go out the overflow to the garden or down the sewer. For many of us this is more than a 100% water change with no abrupt water parameters changes, undetectable chlorine, and less stress for ourselves and the Koi. We used to be taught a 40% water change is absolutely minimal and 100% is better. Why do a minimal job? For those on a water meter an overflow can be made to take the excess water to a garden hose to the roses. It is not much at a time so will not create a flooding situation. Just move the hose around. With this system we can easily not do minimal. I do 100% every two weeks with no detectable chlorine, 2 ppm nitrates (yep, nitrates barely register), don t worry about trace minerals, absolutely no phosphate foam under falls (no foam fractionators needed on this pond), low dissolved organic carbons (DOCs), and out in the sun with no algae problem and no UV light bill. ( Koi of the Year Photo Contest Come on Guys and Gals, get out that snazzy new digital camera you got for Christmas and get out to the pond and get some shots of your best koi. Bring your 8x10 glossy photo to the April meeting, Tuesday April 16th. Each photo should be of a single koi. You can enter as many as you like. The entire club will judge and vote on the best looking koi and the winner will be entered in the AKCA Koi of the Year Photo Contest. Who knows, your fish may be on the cover next November. So get those competitive juices flowing. National fame awaits. Let s have a little fun and make the April meeting one to remember. Show us your best stuff!!! Hope to see your there, and... Happy Koi Keeping, Don Chamberlain SCVKWG Web Master scvkwg@gmail.com Santa Clara Valley Koi and Water Garden Club Page 5
Think Outside Your Backyard You can get a lot of enjoyment from your pond just sitting with a cool drink and watching your koi play in the sun. I ve done it for years, but a couple of years ago I decided to attend the AKCA Annual Banquet and KHA (Koi Health Advisors) Seminar in Orange County. Up to this time I thought the AKCA was some large organization based back east somewhere so I thought this would be a good opportunity to learn more about them while they were meeting in my neck of the woods. I learned that they were a small organization, not that much larger than our koi club, that had originated in Southern California, but of course now had officers and member clubs all over the US. It also became apparent that they had many of the same problems our club faces. Falling enrollment and lack of engagement from members that makes each event more of a challenge to pull off. Just ask Rita. And yet there were encouraging signs. A lady from Northern Iowa was there to claim her KHA certificate. Her koi club members were scattered over half the state and koi stores were almost non existent in her area. She was there to learn more about taking care of koi so she could help her fellow enthusiasts. It was great to see her enthusiasm. Three members of the Fresno club were there to get their KHA certification. It was wonderful to see a group banding together to help their fellows. Cap n Jack and his crew from San Diego was there and contributed a great deal to the KHA seminar. Cap n Jack was a Pharmacists Mate in the Navy for donkey s ages and was obviously an avid koi enthusiast. You couldn t help but admire the camaraderie that these guys enjoyed. This time there was a couple from Canada that made the lady from Iowa s problems look like a walk in the park. They had to drive something like three hours to get to a koi store and of course there are those Canadian winters to deal with. A koi club was only a dream, so they were there to become more self reliant. Of course the KHAs from Fresno were there. They were the hosts, but there was also Cap n Jack and his crew, having as much fun as ever. So what is my point you ask. Well, the weekend of 4/27-28 is going to be very busy in our area. The ZNANorcal Koi Show will be going on. Our club, SCVKWG, will be showing a tank of koi at the Cupertino Cherry Blossom Festival. Nine or ten members from the Fresno club will be coming down for the koi show and to visit area koi dealers. Rosimeri Tran, their President, will be showing her koi at the show. Dan Rutledge, a former member of our club, is now president of the Monterey Bay Koi and Pond Club. He will be hosting his Pondlife booth at the show and at least one other member (Rick Blazo) is maintaining the show tanks water quality. The club vice president (Mike Perret) is also busy representing Koiphen.com. Lastly, their club will be offering the Monterey Bay Koi and Pond Club Friendship Award and will be selecting their choice Saturday afternoon. So that weekend will be a great time to get out of your back yard and enjoy some koi activities and meet new people. Swing by the Cherry Blossom Festival and say hello to the members manning the koi pond. And so a year passes and now the Fresno club is hosting the banquet and seminar in Fresno. This is even closer so I couldn t pass up the chance to attend. Santa Clara Valley Koi and Water Garden Club Mel Bretzke and I will be there Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. Not sure who Rita has lined up for the other shifts, but there will be some nice Page6
Think Outside Your Backyard...Continued From Page 6 folks there at all times. Then take the short trip over to the Airport Garden Hotel, 1740 N 1st St, San Jose, CA to take in the ZNANorcal Koi Show. You will see some amazing koi, have an opportunity to take advantage of special show deals from a number of vendors, and most important meet other koi enthusiasts from around the area. Hopefully, you ll see that koi are cool, but koi AND koi people are even better. In the short time I ve been working the club s email, I ve seen how powerful and enjoyable networking with other koi people can be. didn t make that meeting and then one of their koi started jumping, so they contacted me again. Fortunately, they were able to get Dan s number and I m guessing he has the situation well in hand by now, but the point is to get out there and meet some koi people. Collect some business cards against that fateful day when you need help, desperately. Or, just have an interesting conversation. Maybe you ll learn something new. Maybe you can teach somebody something new, offer or receive a helping hand. As a wise man once said, No man is an island. Enjoy your lovely April days, and Maybe you d like to visit Fresno for one of their upcoming Saturday meetings, on May 18th at 2pm, and a joint meeting with their sister club the Bakersfield Koi and Watergarden Society on Saturday, June 15th @11:00 a.m. Rosimeri would be glad to give you more information if you see her at the show. Happy Koi Keeping Or how bout the AKCA Banquet and KHA Seminar held in Oahu, Hawaii this year on June 29-30. You can get more details on our Club Calendar. Yeah, but I m not really that much of a koi person, you say. I m so comfortable here in my backyard. The waterfall is splashing softly, it s a beautiful day. I just don t want to move. Believe me I know the feeling, but even the most casual koi keeper will probably experience the feeling of panic if one of their pets becomes sick, starts jumping or just acting funny. I got an email from a couple in Watsonville last week that had lost a koi and was looking for veterinarian to come and give their koi antibiotics. I assured them that they probably didn t need to do that and pointed out that Dan Rutledge was giving a talk on Antibiotics and Koi at the Monterey Bay club meeting that following Friday. Well, they Santa Clara Valley Koi and Water Garden Club Page 7
The Newsletter of the Santa Clara Valley Koi and Water Garden Club Santa Clara Valley Koi & Water Garden Club P.O. Box 9006 San Jose, CA 95157 Postage Here Support Your Koi Club Come to Meetings!