Aquarium test kits are indeed the same.katebet said:
By 0.25 ppm ammonia I'm guessing maybe the level might be closer to 0 than 0.25 ppm? Or would you say maybe a bit higher than 0.25 ppm? I'm just playing the odds. I find the colors very hard to tell apart. The reason I ask is because your nitrates are 0 which is what I expect from a pond this green. But I also expect 0 ammonia. So if you do have 0.25 ppm, and as water temps rise over the next few months, there could be an issue. If it just happens you caught the algae in a down turn, even though it appears healthy to me, it would start consuming less ammonia, so you'd start to see ammonia rise...followed by nitrite and then nitrate later (assuming bacteria take over). So it's something you might want to watch. Everything is always changing.
Because of the coming warm weather you can check this type of chart to find out what part of the 0.25 ppm Total Ammonia is toxic to fish and get an idea whether you think it's a problem or not.
8.4 pH is fine. Many high end Koi keepers try to keep that exact value. Some people prefer lower pH for various reasons, but fish can survive a range of pH and 8.4 is well within that range. I like to know KH more than pH, and to a lesser degree GH. KH tells me what pH is going to be tomorrow, next week. If you only have a pH test you can take a test as close to sun up and sun down as you can manage to get an idea of the pond's pH range. That can give you a clue to KH level if you don't have that test.
A pump moves water and that is a huge boost to bio function compared to no movement. Quicker ammonia can bump into algae or bacteria and be consumed, and also moves water from bottom to the surface for gas exchange (O2 up, CO2 and other gasses down). Higher 02 is good for growing good bacteria and algae.katebet said:
Growing healthy algae is the best bio filter known. Literally grows to consumes all available waste. A green pond is almost always 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate (exception being part of its life cycle). The down side is when it dies back. You lose your best bio filter and the decaying algae releases the consumed stuff back into the water. Double whammy. The pictures you posted look perfect to me for algae being your bio filter today.
If you want the green gone you can get a UV filter. Given your algae has been around for awhile a fabric filter could work but hard to tell and they must be setup just so. UV is more reliable.
If you're concerned about future ammonia and nitrite it's testing that tells you if you need to install a bio filter. When levels are 0 adding a bio filter of course doesn't do anything. Or you can add one for other reasons, just feel better, want to build one (they are fun to build), head off an expected future problem and some can even promote string algae growing on them which can clear a pond. But, even with an installed bio filter you still would have to check ammonia, nitrite to know if the filter was enough. Kind of no way around testing to tell what's actually going on. It would be a false sense of security to just add a bio filter and think you're 100% safe which I think seems to be common.
However lots (most) pond keepers never test water and their ponds do fine for years.
