New Pond Problems

[ChagoiLover]

Just to give an update. I just checked my pond parameters.
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: .50 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm
pH: 8

The pond looks like it is clearing up a little bit from its brown water, but I did have the UV on for about two days. I did turn it off to see the difference. As for the nitrite levels, is it weird that the nitrite is going down that rapidly? I may have the done the testing wrong yesterday that's why it resulted in higher nitrite readings. But today I tested two parts of my pond and got the same reading of .50 ppm. I guess what I am asking is, does the nitrite levels decrease that rapidly? Thank you

[SimonW]

I agree totally with Richard about salt.

I have used salt to remedy nitrite for >1 year now and my koi are just fine.

My bigger koi have actually lived in 0.8% (in the beginning) to 0.4% salt for this whole summer (3 months), as I used salt to kill parasites, and my smaller koi lived in constant 0.6% salt as long because the new biofilter just refused to pass the nitrite stage (last fall the biofilter of one of my wintering tank took some good 3 months before it got through it), while I was also afraid that they still carried parasites after formalin/malachite and fluke-M treatment. In both cases the nitrite readings were far higher than my nitrite kit could show (2 ppm).

By the way, 100-fold higher chloride ion is good enough to remedy nitrite according to a paper. So if you have 1 ppm nitrite 100 ppm chloride is good enough, which is only about 0.02% salt.

What I have learned is that koi is highly tolerant against salt up to 0.8%. Of course, never go higher than 0.9% unless you are doing short-time dip-treatment.

My own practice is now constant 0.05-0.1% salt, as I have never succeeded in getting nitrite to zero. Always 0.1-0.4 ppm.

[icu2]

Just to give an update. I just checked my pond parameters.
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: .50 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm
pH: 8

The pond looks like it is clearing up a little bit from its brown water, but I did have the UV on for about two days. I did turn it off to see the difference. As for the nitrite levels, is it weird that the nitrite is going down that rapidly? I may have the done the testing wrong yesterday that's why it resulted in higher nitrite readings. But today I tested two parts of my pond and got the same reading of .50 ppm. I guess what I am asking is, does the nitrite levels decrease that rapidly? Thank you

My initial thought would be a mistake when doing the test, but I don't know what effect Prime has on nitrite tests.
Here's a chart of a "typical" nitrification cycle and anticipated time frames:

[RichToyBox]

Just to give an update. I just checked my pond parameters.
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: .50 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm
pH: 8

The pond looks like it is clearing up a little bit from its brown water, but I did have the UV on for about two days. I did turn it off to see the difference. As for the nitrite levels, is it weird that the nitrite is going down that rapidly? I may have the done the testing wrong yesterday that's why it resulted in higher nitrite readings. But today I tested two parts of my pond and got the same reading of .50 ppm. I guess what I am asking is, does the nitrite levels decrease that rapidly? Thank you

The fact that the nitrite is going down and there is nitrate, you may be getting close to the end of the cycle. Your salt level is more than plenty to protect the fish from the nitrites. Continue to test and see if the nitrite continues to fall, showing near completion of the cycle.

[ChagoiLover]

Thank you so much to everyone that has helped me with this problem! I am going to continue what I am doing as it seems correct. I will keep you guys posted!

[ChagoiLover]

Hello Koiphen!
I bring to you an update of my pond. So a couple days ago the nitrite reading was finally 0 ppm! However, a new problem has occurred. My water temperature currently is sitting at around 58 degrees for most of the day and I am currently feeding one time a day right now. I tested my water not more than 10 minutes ago and I had an ammonia reading .
This is my current water parameter:
Ammonia: 0.25 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
KH: 190
Nitrate: 40-80 (I can't really tell)
Water Temp: 58 F
I was hoping someone can give me some insight on why my pond is starting to have an ammonia reading once again even after my pond is fully cycled. Any information or thoughts will be greatly appreciated!! Thank you

[RichToyBox]

First, a pond is never completely cycled. The population of good bacteria is determined by the amount of food (ammonia and nitrite) available, and as feeding increases, or activity increases, the amount of food increases so the population must increase to accommodate that level, and as these go down the population will decline due to starvation. This occurs hourly, but the population cannot keep up that fast. Our drop type test kits and dip strips cannot measure with sufficient readability to see these minor changes, but with electronic digital equipment, you will find that there is almost always a non-zero value. At a level of 0.25ppm the ammonia is most likely not serious, but to assure yourself of the toxicity, I like to use SeaChem's Ammonia Alert Card, which shows safe, marginal, and toxic. If it is showing above the lowest of levels, add Safe, Prime, Cloram-X, or similar to convert the ammonia to non-toxic ammonium.

[ChagoiLover]

Hello everyone!
So just as an update, I figured out why I had ammonia readings even though my pond finished cycling. It was due to the API Ammonia test being off! I bought a new kit and my ammonia reading as well as my nitrite reading are at 0 ppm. However, I did notice my pond water was turning a slight tint of brown. I did add bacteria and started an old fish food for the colder temperatures and was wondering if the bacteria or fish food could turn the water a slight tint of brown?
Thank you!

[RichToyBox]

Generally brown water is caused by tannins in the water, which come from decay of plant matter. I would not think it was from food, and the bacteria blooms that I have seen make the water cloudy but don't really give it color.