High PH and high Ammonia cloudy green water

[lee4322]

Hi all ,, well pond was Fantastic until last summer ,, firstly we had a huge 2 day downpour in southern Spain and lots of sand went into pond ..
Secondly it's only my 3rd year and a complete novice ,,
Running a sun sun auto clean filter and 12000ltrs pump both complimentary also 11 watt uv and a stand alone 34 watt uv .. so sand and a explosion of fish ,, and I know it's not right but I must have 500 fish ,,
So green water steadily and tested with new kit and it awful ..
So catching fish and next week I want to ph lower and ammonia reduce pond maybe use a flocculent ,, it's had loads ( maybe too many plants ,,, is there such a thing ? ) take sand out later and clean all properly from scratch but for now it's keep fish alive ..
How to Start is my question ,,
Treat the water for ammonia and ph and Nitrite once better hit it with a flocculunt and hoover for now ,,, later perhaps in November when cooler ,, catch all fish and perhaps build a floating planting as well ,,,
I am just worried about the fish started to lose some and also have couple sturgeon and grass carp they have gotten quite big ,,,
Help please on order of treatment of water ,, in case I get it wrong for fish

 

[WaterGardener]

What are the actual numbers for your water tests?

If the pH is not over 10, it's not too high.

Ammonia is more toxic at a higher pH than at a lower pH, but you need to correct the source of the problem and not try to just lower the pH, if it's even too high. If you don't fix what is causing the problem, the pH will just jump up again and add more stress to your already stressed fish.

You have a crazy number of fish. How big is the pond? Do you have enough water and filtration for 500 fish? I suspect not.

 

[lee4322]

 

[lee4322]

View attachment 165149

 

[lee4322]

Got 3 large areators running and yes fish got away from me I only put 4 gold fish in 2 Ghost sturgeon and 3 grass carp ,, the goldfish just went crazy with a couple years I would say at least 500 I thinning them out or trying to give as many away as poss even delivering the beasties hahha I hate to cull anything

 

[WaterGardener]

Numbers for your water tests?

 

[lee4322]

Wide range ph was solid 9.0 ppm
Amonia solid 8.0 ppm nitrite didnt read and phos was 5.0ppm

 

[lee4322]

I suspect combination of too many fish and I have been working away and think they have been over feeding ,, my wife is a feeder ,,,, normally for me NOT A PROBLEM ,, but the double whammy for pond ,, I am currently doing a water change to give some relief and I do a 50 % water change by tomorrow as I think it's despate times ,,, and possibly get a responsible adult to come show me the best solution as I hate to see fish suffer

 

[WaterGardener]

A pH of 9 is fine, but 8 for ammonia is very toxic. But you should be using the high range pH testing kit, not the wide range one. The one you have is not accurate, especially at the extremes, and really is only good for letting you know what test to use.

Do you clean the filter? And how often?

I know that culling fish is hard, but your pond is so overstocked that the large number of fish are causing so much ammonia that they are trying to live in toxic water.

I don't know how large the pond is, but if it is 12,000 liters, just over 3100 gallons, you really need to seriously decrease the number of fish.

Goldfish need 50 gallons of water per fish. Koi need at least 250 gallons for each fish. Most people recommend more like 500 gallons. I don't know about sturgeon but I suspect they need a good many more gallons than koi do.

Your pond may have been fine for a while, but your fish have reproduced and have grown larger, creating more waste that the filtration can handle.

You could greatly, and I mean greatly, increase your filtration and that could help. But the main problem is that you have way too many fish.

 

[Mmathis]

What are the numbers for your water tests, and how big is your pond? I don’t know what advice to give, but I follow the rule of only making one change at a time, instead of doing several things at once.

 

[lee4322]

I have started a drain and I fill back up from well over night water conditions here are quite good as I test it regularly

 

[lee4322]

Ok yes I go get a other ph test kit and add it ,, I have to bite the bullet and get the fish out asap and clean all

 

[lee4322]

I pretty sure I added to problem with over feeding me and wife

 

[lee4322]

Pond is 9 metres long and 5 wide give or take deep end is 2 metres deep but full of sand that washed in so needs cleaning up soon I was waiting for cooler weather but I think maybe some actions need taking sooner

 

[WaterGardener]

If the entire pond were 2 meters deep, it would hold 90000 liters. By that, it seems you have much too little filtration.

Filters are usually rated about twice as high as they can actually handle with a normal fish load in the pond, so you would need at least twice the filtration rated for a 90000 liter pond. More is always better.

That's quite a good sized pond if the numbers are correct,