Ugh. Yesterday I decided to stack some rocks under the waterfall to cut down on the splashing... But I guess I made it worse because now I'm losing about 3" a day, which is about 180 gallons! That's 7.5 gallons per hour lost. Tomorrow I'll turn the filter/waterfall off to see if that's the problem. The thing is is that there is no water pooling anywhere. There is significant wetness on the rocks surrounding the waterfall from the splashing, but no puddles or muddy areas. Does that amount of water loss seem like too much for water splashing from a waterfall?
It seems like too much water loss to me... But after messing with the waterfall, the water loss increased dramatically... So it only makes sense that this would be the culprit...
Your biofilter won't get established until it gets ammonia. Some people establish their filter without fish by pouring ammonia into the pond, or they put feeder fish in it first. Can you feed your fish less for now?
I haven't added any ammonia reducer in two days now and the ammonia level is still reading zero. Nitrate is between 0 and 20 and nitrite is between 0 and 0.5. I've been feeding normally. Of course, with doing daily 10% water changes, what do I expect? lol. Once I get the water loss problem under control, I'll figure out the ammonia nd biofilter.
I agree with Dave keep some air going to the bio. As for pouring non sudsing ammonia into the pond that's a no no.
How I start my bio is adding small amounts of non sudsing ammonia to the bio but it doesn't circulate to the pond till the
Bio is established. I have air going to my bio 24/7/365
I'm definitely not going to pour ammonia in there! I've already got little ammonia-producing things in there already!
