My painful / long / humbling lesson!

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tank125

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 20, 2005
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I recently built a pond (liner/wood type). It is 1000 Gallons. I had/have a 300 gallon system running for the last year. It contained 50+ gallons of bio-balls located in bio-ball columns getting ample flow. The system (300) has not ever shown ammonia, it contained 6 rays and tigrinus cat... So, I built this pond, rinsed the liner, filled the pond and let it drip (2-3 gallons per hour) into the existing system. I waited five days to fully open the valves and let the pond flow freely into the 300 system. No additional bio-media was added, no fish were added, the only new bio-load is the surfaces of the pond and associated plumbing. Basically all I did was increase the total volume of a 300 gallon system by 1000 gallons.

The point ---- I have and still have 1-2 ppm of ammonia. 12 days now (since I transferred the fish to the pond). 2 days ago nitrite showed up.

I did not disturb my bio-filters in anyway that I know of, they were left on the entire time, with plumbing maintenance shut-offs for 1/2 hour tops. I have since added 14 hydro sponge 5's to the system (all pre-seeded). My theory is that my lids (homemade insulated lids too keep heat in the pond) are too blame. I think that the foam with fiberglass backing is leaching something into the air and consequently into the water. My most educated guess is that it is formaldehyde. The formaldehyde is killing the BB in the biofilters and causing the ammonia spike and subsequent nitrite spike.

I removed the lids last night and will now wrap them in 6mil plastic. They a non-airtight sheathing on them that is failing anyway.

The good, I have been using Amquel+ to detoxify the ammonia and nitrite. The rays are "fine" they are active and eating (I feed sparingly lately though) and the Tigrinus is fine. Currently the Nitrite is at .5ppm and the ammonia at 2ppm.

This calculator (*thanks Omogena: http://cobweb.ecn.purdue.edu/~piwc/w3-research/free-ammonia/nh3.html) puts me to ease about my ammonia, but now with the nitrite I am really getting scared! I have been doing daily water exchanges of 125 to 250 gallons.

Questions:
1. Anybody have any input on the foam issue? It is dense, yellow foam, 3" thick with a fiberglass paper backing
2. Could it be that the paint used to protect the wood of the pond is gassing off ammonia? It is not in contact with water direcly, only through condensation and subsequent dripping back in. It is an oil-based polyurethane.


side note, this is why I have not updated any pics of the pond
 
If you get formaldehyde into your system, your whole bio media could be dying/dead or recovering.

I used formaldehyde to cure some of my fish for ecto-parasites and the quarantine aquarium still smells "dead" after 1,5 months and 3 complete water cleanings (99% of the water removed out of the tank) and a few smaller ones as well.

I have no experience with the product you mentioned, but I only use or try to use aquarium silicone to glue stuff in my aquaria
 
get hold of some polyfilters . they are sold on ebay. i used them in my tank during a similar problem. they remove chemicals far better than carbon. plus they wont release them back into the tank. i know of a couple of raykeepers who swear by them. i guarantee they will remove any chemical residue, the foam they are made of is impregnated with a resin designed for kidney dialysis. hope that helps
 
the polyuretahne may be leaching into the pond, i was advised not to use it as it sometimes contains a and fungus and mildew chemical in it basically it is designed for roofing not fish tanks! try covering the polyurethane with a fish friendly epoxy resin
 
hmm not sure on the foam but i doubt it.... also same with the paint... are you sure your test kit is accurate? might be time to just throw it out the window... add some seachem stability or other good bio booster and wait it out...
 
Testing was redundant with 2 test kits.

I will have to address the paint next, easy fix. The water is not in contact with the paint though, only in the process of condensation.

I am also thinking that I may be underestimating the potential bio-load of the pond liner itself. It is porous and may have a much much bigger surface area than I thought --- thus it is acting like a giant new bio-filter and is seeding, causing a little cycle to occur.
 
hmm... i would just keep adding something like stability... if the paint and everything else is not touching the water directly i would write them off... keep adding a bio booster...
 
paint is cured and not in direct contact with water probably not it. foam top not sure but i probably not. i think you are in the right direction pond is not cycled. i had a power outage last year and 48 hr later got generator and ammonia spiked over 2ppm. with many water changes and about 2 weeks later water back to normal. keep up with water changes and feed very lite. i feel your stress good luck
 
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