I have a 540 gallon outdoor pond that I've had running for a little over 2 weeks now. I put my 6" Red Ear Slider in to help get the cycle going, but last week I came home and my wife had bought a 4" koi, a 3" Shubunkin, and a 3" Sarasa Comet for the pond. Over the last 4 days my ammonia has climbed from .25 PPM up to 1 PPM as of yesterday. I performed a 25% water change yesterday and retested this morning and it came in at .5 PPM. When I got home today from work, I tested again and it was already back up to 1 PPM. I've cut down the amount of food that we're feeding to the fish and turtle, but is it common for the ammonia to spike back up that quickly? My filtration should be adequate. I have a TetraPond DHP4200 pump with a TetraPond BP1500 w/UV filter so that should be more than enough (in my rookie opinion) for my 540 gallons. Is my only option to keep doing water changes every other day until I start registering nitrites? I hope this is just the normal progression of cycling a pond, but I was looking for some assurances from all you pond veterans. Thanks!
Cycling Advice
- Thread starter bgwoods4
- Start date
I'm no expert but from what I've read turtles are extremely messy and make water quality poor very quickly. I can't see those small fish creating that much ammonia in a 540 gallon pond.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well. That's why I had only wanted to have just the turtle while it cycled. Now, I have to juggle all these levels trying to keep the fish in a good place.
Alright, so I did another 25% water change, treated the water and added the recommended amount of API QuickStart to help get the filter going, but this time the ammonia didn't drop at all. I went to the local fish/pond shop by my office and the guy who was working there said I had a couple problems. First, he said that I should only be feeding the fish and turtle once a day at the most, but preferably once every other day. Is this correct? Also, he said that I need to add carbon to my BP1500 because the bio balls and UV aren't enough. Other than that he said the filter and pump size were more than enough for my pond. He also tried to push a carbon product called Chemi-pure which he said only needed to be swapped out every 4-6 months. Down side...I need 2-3 of these for the size of my pond. In all my research regarding my filter, I've never seen anyone talk about adding carbon to it. Is this information correct or is this guy just taking me for a ride and trying to get a sale?
You need to stop doing stuff. Changing it daily is not good.
Ideally you cycle without fish. If you want to cycle without fish and have it go faster you add liquid ammonia.
Since you have fish just feed them very lightly for a few weeks. They are better off hungry than in toxic water. Don't do massive meals either, do really really small meals to spread out the water generation.
You do not need carbon. Only reason to use carbon is if you have medicate the carbon will soak it up once you are done medicating. For a healthy stable system carbon is a waste of money and does nothing (though some use it with new driftwood to suck up tannins ).
Cycling takes a few weeks. Just leave it alone and let nature take its course.
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Ideally you cycle without fish. If you want to cycle without fish and have it go faster you add liquid ammonia.
Since you have fish just feed them very lightly for a few weeks. They are better off hungry than in toxic water. Don't do massive meals either, do really really small meals to spread out the water generation.
You do not need carbon. Only reason to use carbon is if you have medicate the carbon will soak it up once you are done medicating. For a healthy stable system carbon is a waste of money and does nothing (though some use it with new driftwood to suck up tannins ).
Cycling takes a few weeks. Just leave it alone and let nature take its course.
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Yeah, I was hoping to have cycled without fish, but plans change I guess! So, I'll start feeding every other day very lightly until the cycle kicks in. As far as partial water changes you're saying not to do them? Quite a bit of the reading I've done has said that if ammonia goes over .50 ppm that I should do a PWC. I don't have a problem with this, I just want to make sure my wife's fish don't die in the process. Also, is API QuickStart a legit product? I would have expected it to have some sort of impact on the levels in my pond.
Alright, sounds good to me. So just sit back and relax while I let nature take its course. No water changes and less feeding...this is seeming like a win/win for me!
I agree with Pops, you "will" need to do partial water changes to dilute the ammonia.
Unless......
If you can find some potted water lilies, or other semi submerged, or submerged plants that have been in an established pond, these would contain colonies of beneficial bacteria already.
I over winter pots of water lilies in a pool in my basement, and even though I drain my ponds in winter (because they freeze solid), there is no need to cycle because the plants and substrate in pots hold enough bacteria to take up the slack.
shot from over wintering
pond last week
Unless......
If you can find some potted water lilies, or other semi submerged, or submerged plants that have been in an established pond, these would contain colonies of beneficial bacteria already.
I over winter pots of water lilies in a pool in my basement, and even though I drain my ponds in winter (because they freeze solid), there is no need to cycle because the plants and substrate in pots hold enough bacteria to take up the slack.
shot from over wintering
pond last week
