Add some aquatic plants to the pond (duckweed, water hyacinth, water lettuce work well) to speed up the cycling time. The plants will use up the ammonia.
Cycling Advice
- Thread starter bgwoods4
- Start date
So at what level ammonia should I be doing water changes and at what percentage? Also, I've already added parrots feather and planned on picking up some water hyacinth. The local shop here sells hyacinth for a couple bucks a piece so I guess I'll pick up a half dozen or so. Just need to find a way to put them in where the turtle won't destroy them. I'd like to get some water lilies too, but I've read that they can actually be poisonous to turtles and on top of that, hard to keep koi and turtles from eating them as well. Thanks for all the feedback, everyone. I REALLY APPRECIATE IT.
Well, I just got done testing my water this morning. Ammonia is still high, but for the first time it would appear I'm registering some nitrites! Not quite .25 PPM where the scale on my tester starts, but clearly not 0 PPM either. So it looks like things are starting to pick up thankfully. Going to get the hyacinth in a few ours and maybe some lilies as well. Thanks again for all the advice, everyone!
With nitrites up, and ammonia down, you are only 1/3 to 1/2 the way to being cycled.
You will still need to do water changes to dilute the nitrite, which is almost as toxic as ammonia.
Because cycling is the biologic process of developing large colonies of bacteria, it doesn't happen quickly unless you transport already viable colonies to your enclosure.
You will still need to do water changes to dilute the nitrite, which is almost as toxic as ammonia.
Because cycling is the biologic process of developing large colonies of bacteria, it doesn't happen quickly unless you transport already viable colonies to your enclosure.
How often would you recommend doing water changes at this point? Are there specific levels I should identify as markers for needing to change the water?
Yikes! Probably wasn't my greatest idea building a 500 gallon plus pond in the middle of a drought with all these water changes! So Prime is the product of choice. Good to know!
Alright, added some water lettuce and water hyacinth to the pond yesterday. Parrots feather is starting to take off. Hopefully that will help a bit. Ammonia seems to be staying the same while the nitrites are slowly creeping up. Looks like water changes and patience are what the doctor ordered.
Thanks everyone for the help! It would appear that after 5 weeks I'm fully cycled. Ammonia near 0, nitrites near 0, and nitrates near 0 as well. I never really had any nitrate growth, but I'm going to assume that's a result of having added parrots feather, water lettuce, and water hyacinth a couple weeks ago. Now the fun part...time to shop for a couple turtles and a couple more koi!
