Bronze statues in koi ponds

I received a very interesting question from Ray Dellacroce on the Quikonnex system. Here it is ...

Tony, can I use a bronze statue as a fountain in a koi pond? Someone told me that the copper will leach out of the bronze and create water quality problems. Ray

This was my response ... Bronze is an alloy of copper. Copper in solution in small concentrations is an algaecide and bacteriacide and is acceptable in potable water to a limited degree. Theoretically therefore a bronze fountain could be used in a pond ... however koi are highly sensitive to small concentrations of copper.

If you have a valuable collection of koi do not even take a chance with your statue since you do not know the impact of the other ingredients that get added to a koi pond over time .... chemicals, salt, and even koi food since its composition is unknown to a large extent. As such the forecasted impact upon copper becoming dissolved is unknown so you could well create a problem.

On the other hand if you have just a nice garden pond and are not too serious about the koi and would want the fountain almost in preference then you may well have no problem at all.

We have talked about copper here but there are many other potential metal impurities in water including lead, and arsenic. If you are an investor i koi then you may consider installing tap water filters on the water feed to your pond. You can learn more on this home water filter site