All my goldfish died suddenly

[MitchM]

Ok, 4 weeks sounds better.

It's your pond so you can certainly do what you like.

A few things I would have done differently, no salt, no added bacteria, use straight ammonia instead of "sacrificial" fish in order to complete initial cycling of the pond. Using ammonia is more humane than using fish.
The anacharis will help with nitrates, but I don't see a reading for nitrates. It won't help so much with the phosphate as it doesn't have much of a root system and is not a blooming plant.
The plants are not going to like that much salt, they can usually tolerate about half that amount.

The phosphate is an issue. You could try using a phosphate binder for that.

 

[Uncas2010]

I probably misused the term "sacrificial." I don't expect these fish to die. When I said "sacrificial" I only meant that I'm not going to put any more expensive fish in there until these cheap fish survive. pond is probably most of the way through the water cycle. If I put all 8 of these 1.5 inch fish in the pond at once, I suspect it wouldn't advance the water cycle. There's plenty of bacteria in there now. When the ammonia starts to drop, I will begin adding the new goldfish and hopefully they will survive. The pond salinity is about .16% I am hoping that will be tolerable to the lilies and anacharis. We shall see. I am certainly way left on the learning curve.

By the way, Addy, we are not far apart. I'm in Arlington, VA.

 

[MitchM]

You say there are plenty of bacteria in there, but apparently not because you are still having positive ammonia readings.. If you bought a bottle of bacteria that you add, chances are that it was dead bacteria.
Pure ammonia is pretty cheap, maybe 1 dollar for a quart from the grocery store.
There is a link for how much ammonia to add located below in my signature.

Cycling your pond via fishless cycling will ensure that any fish you add will not die from ammonia poisoning.

 

[Uncas2010]

Hmmm. Not surprisingly, I clearly do not understand the water cycle. I thought it would advance on its own with adequate bacteria and that the ammonia level would swing up and down a couple times during the process. Guess I need to do a lot more research.

 

[addy1]

By the way, Addy, we are not far apart. I'm in Arlington, VA.

I moved here in 08 from arizona.

 

[CometKeith]

Hi Uncas2010. Sorry about your fish. Cycling a pond is pretty easy.You don't need to add chemicals, bacteria, or salt. Just let the pond sit for a month or so and it should cycle. I recommend to add plants and keep good water movement. You can either add one or two small fish, or like what Mitch is suggesting to do a fishless cycle by adding ammonia. You can tell the pond is cycled when the algae clears up. Every year I get a ton of string algae and it goes away within a day or two of the pond being cycled. You want ammonia readings at 0 for a healthy pond. If you have a pond with higher readings I suggest to do 10-20% water changes every day until your ammonia goes down. You should also monitor nitrite, nitrate, and ph until you feel you have a good handle on things. A lot of us started this hobby by learning from mistakes and then over time you learn what to do and not to do for proper maintenaince. Good luck!